The two senses already considered, sight and hearing, contribute most to the higher life of animals. Sight especially facilitates recognition of things by disclosing many differences (see Meta. 980a21–27), while hearing permits communication by voice for the greatest learning (980b22–25). The treatment of these distance senses shows the need for media and how sense perceives what is there in actuality to be perceived. The sense organ that is much like the medium receives the action of the sensible object by way of the medium, rather than being bombarded by effluences. Smell is also a distance sense, but more closely tied to the contact senses than the other distance senses. Odor and flavor are linked so that smell is somehow connected with taste, that is, a contact sense. Smell and taste may be particularly conjoined for animals that only smell by way of respiration through the throat. As a distance sense with close ties to the contact senses, smell is a sort of intermediate (μέση) of the senses (see De sensu 445a4–16). Typically lists of the five senses place smell between the distance and contact senses (e.g., 424b23). That there are two contact senses and three distance senses, with one of the distance senses standing between the two groups drawing them together, indicates some natural ordering of the five senses and possible completeness of the set of five.

The connection of smell with contact sense and its relative imprecision in humans put it last among the distance senses.