THE MYSTERY OF SCENT. By Hugh B.C. Pollard.

(1937) undated J.A. Allen re-issue. 8vo (141 x 222mm). Ppxx,139. B/w photograph plates. Red cloth, spine titled in gilt.

"A practical contribution to its solution, for all hunting people." * The first edition of this book was issued by Eyre and Spottiswode in 1937. This issue has a new title-page (on glazed paper, unlike the rest of the book, including the stub) tipped to the stub of the original, with J.A. Allen and Co. given as the publishers and "(c) Eyre and Spottiswode, London". The dust-wrapper spine states "Eyre and Spottiswode 10s. 6d. net". The rear panel of the d/w has an advertisement for Budgett's Hunting by Scent, "Revised Cheap Edition", at 8s. 6d. The first edition of Hunting by Scent came out in 1933 and the Revised Cheap Edition of this advert was issued in 1937. The presumption must be that this copy of The Mystery of Scent is the 1937 1st edition reissued later on by J.A. Allen with a new title-page. "The object of this book is to suggest a clearer line of thought about the age-old problem of scent. It is in the main a discussion of the relatively complex conditions which control the diffusion of scent, for we only discern scent by its diffusion. The line I have taken is to try to work out a perfectly simple instrument which will tell the hunting man exactly the percentage of chances of scent on any day at any time. It does. ...Despite the accuracy of this method of instrumental calculation there are plenty of points in this book which are open to the widest possible range of argument. It is almost impossible to 'prove' anything connected with the physiological side of scent, and the observer will always find an embarassing range of alternative possiblities. ...Anyway, this little book is an attempt to bring the scientific side of it rather closer to some modern scientific theories of our own time. Chapters include: The secretion of the scent; The diffusion of scent; The Scentometer; Adverse factors; The secret of scent; Scent and local conditions; How we smell; How hounds smell; Scent in other animals. Appendices are: Relative humidity in air; Simple hygroscopes. Uncommon in a dust-wrapper.