Soakage into Glazed Porcelain

Abstract

I MIX salt with water for occasional gargling, and keep it in a porcelain pot with a lid. Some weeks ago I began to use for the purpose a small well-glazed pot, in which cold cream had been bought a long time since. It was thoroughly washed by a careful servant, and the salt put into it. However, after a few weeks the salt became so strongly impregnated with the odour of rancid grease that it was not fit to be used, and I threw it away. The pot was washed a second time with scrupulous care: it seemed to me quite pure and free from odour; a new supply of salt was put into it, and now for the second time the salt has began to smell intolerably rancid. The interest of this is two-fold. First, it shows how large an amount of impurity is able to penetrate glazed porcelain, as photographers know to their cost; and secondly, it proves the possibility of concentrating odour. An imperceptible discharge from the porcelain was accumulated and stored in the salt until, when the lid was removed, it was found to be overpoweringly strong. The scent may therefore be said to have been magnified by these means, as much as a sound is magnified by an ear-trumpet, or a visible object by a lens.