Cyrano and Cyranose: The human nose and the electronic nose
Jose Ferrer as Cyrano De Bergerac in the 1950 film
First published Sept. 1, 2022
Among the great love stories of literature is Cyrano de Bergerac, a play written in verse by Edmond Rostand. It was set in 17th century France and first played on stage in Paris in December 1897. The production of the first English movie version in 1950 earned Jose Ferrer a best actor Oscar for his brilliant performance. Like many great literary love stories, think Romeo and Juliet and many operas, it is a tragic story of love gone astray. Roxane entered a convent after the battlefield death of her suitor, Christian. Before he left for battle against the Spanish, Christian expressed his love for her in the most glorious terms in the dark of night, unseen below her balcony. Two letters a day from the battlefield followed, containing rapturous expressions of love, requiring their author to risk crossing the battlefield to get them in the hands of a person who could deliver them to Roxane in Paris; she believes them the messages of devotion from Christian. Cyrano’s extraordinarily long and prominent nose leads him to believe that the fair Roxane could not love one so ugly. He uses Christian, a new handsome recruit in the Gascon Cadets in which Cyrano is a senior member, as a foil by which to express his love for Roxane. Following his return from war, Christian having died in battle, Cyrano visits Roxane, now a nun in a Parisian convent where she retreated after losing the love of her life, to deliver his Gazette, a weekly review of the outside world. In the final scene, Roxane asks Cyrano to read Christian’s last letter to her, which she has carried in a pouch next to her heart. While listening to Cyrano’s impassioned rendition, she recognizes that he was the person who spoke to her of love and devotion under her balcony in the dark of night. He, Cyrano, was the author of the twice-daily love letters from the battlefield. The elegant and passionate thoughts were delivered through the words of Cyrano, not Christian. In the last scene, Roxane, recognizing the truth, expresses her love for Cyrano as he dies from the wounds of an attack he suffered in route to the convent. He had made enemies of the powerful by his outspoken and pointed criticism of mediocrity. His visit to her despite mortal wounds, was his last expression of devotion to Roxane.
Disney’s Pinocchio after fibbing. An Italian novelist, Carlo Collodi, wrote a classic children’s book, Le Avventure di Pinocchio (The Adventures of Pinocchio), published in the late 19th century. This book created the character. The elongating nose when fibbing was a Disney creation. The Disney film was a giant leap forward in animation and is a classic of that genre
In a remarkably feat of technology, an electronic nose (eNose), in one case referred to as “Cyranose” after one of the two most famous noses in literature (along with Pinocchio), is capable of identifying volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) emitted in human breath that are products of the metabolism of tissue. E-noses are portable, cheap, and easy-to-use tests that produce rapid results. VOCs bind to sensors in e-noses that generate an electrical response. One can detect these VOCs in a “breath biopsy”. This technique has shown an ability to distinguish the VOCs of patients with lung cancer from both normal individuals and individuals with a variety of inflammatory conditions of the lung. Most or all cancers of human tissues generate distinguishable metabolic products. A sensitive and specific detection system, simulating olfaction, can identify the VOCs in the exhaled breath and can distinguish those generated in cancerous tissue as compared to normal or inflammatory tissue. The ability to identify a cancer in an individual with weight loss or other non-specific signs or symptoms by this non-invasive procedure may make identification of cancer as the problem on which to focus sooner than might otherwise be the case. It could be a non-invasive and inexpensive screening device in at risk asymptomatic persons, such as smokers. These methods are under clinical study for their applicability.
The proboscis monkey found on the island of Borneo. Studies among non-human primates indicate that the audiovisual contributions of enlarged male noses serve as advertisements to females in their mate selection.
The science of olfaction is a key area of neuroscience research. How does the brain appreciate and distinguish the fragrance of a rose and of Chanel no. 5, all in an instant of time? The choice of the term “Cyranose” for one of the electronic noses congers up Cyrano’s long proboscis turned to a useful medical diagnostic device.
The Cyranose® 320