Date: Thu, 16 Jul 98 23:06 EDT From: dave evans <T442119@RUTADMIN.RUTGERS.EDU> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2388$foo@default> Subject: Re: Scent
Hello Nigel,
> Seeing last week's discussion about scented pygmies, does anyone have
> a formal definition of scent?
American Heritage Dictionary says: 1) A distinctive odor. 2) A perfume.
3) The trail of a hunted animal or fugitive.
> My first guess was that it could be a chemical signal with a
> significant airborne component. This would include what a cat leaves
> behind when it rubs itself on your leg - undetectable to humans but
> instantly recognisable by every other cat in the neighborhood.
I'm not so sure. If you or most other people can't detect an odor
then there is no scent. Perhaps it is a cat scent, which other cats can
smell, but I understand that cats and dogs (and the like) get alot more
information from such deposits. I suppose, for them, there is a scent
which helps them home in on pheromones which are present at the same
location as the smell. Pheromones are packed with all sorts of infor-
mation about the individual who left the mark. It's this data (like
health, status, availability for mating, ect) that they are actually
interested in. I can even detect odor of dog, but of course can't
gleem any of the other information and rather doubt a cat could (but it
sure could smell the dog) either.
> Or is it as above, with the proviso that it must be detectable by a
> human being. This would include pheromones - not detectable by the
> nose but they causing your I.Q. to halve and selective amnesia of
> every warning your parents ever told you.
Well, I don't beleive pheromones can be considered as part of your
sense of smell. Rather, a seperate sense (a sixth sense?). They don't
seem to work on our conscious like smell does. Smell is in your face
and instantly reconizable and you can remember odors also. Pheromones,
on the other hand, seem to influence emotions and feelings directly and
then through them your conscious.
Being happy may just do the people around you more good than you think.
:)
> Or is it as above, with the proviso that it must be
> consciously detectable by human nose?
Cats really like catnip because there is a chemical in it that
simulates a cat sex-pheromone. We can smell catnip because it has an
herd-like odor, but for us there isn't any other effect. I'm sure
cats can also smell herbs, including catnip, but they also get this,
ah, bonus effect unrelated to it's odor.
Down with five senses and up with six,
Dave Evans
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