Jacobson's Organ: And the Remarkable Nature of Smell - Softcover

Watson, Lyall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393332918 ISBN 13: 9780393332919

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000

Synopsis

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. So why do we persist in dismissing the nose as a blunt instrument?

Smell is our most seductive and provocative sense, invading every domain of our lives. We can identify our relatives, detect the availability of a potential mate, sniff out danger, and distinguish between good and bad food just with our noses. In this surprising and delightful book, Lyall Watson rescues our most unappreciated sense from obscurity. He brings to light new evidence concerning Jacobson's Organ: an anatomical feature discovered high in the nose in 1811 and dismissed for centuries as a vestigial ghost. Yet recent research has shown Jacobson's Organ to be an incredibly influential pheromonal mechanism that feeds the area of the brain affecting our awareness, emotional states, and sexual behavior.

Following the seven classes of smell devised by the pioneering botanist Carl Linnaeus in his Odores Medicamentorum, Watson examines the roles of smell and pheromones in humans, plants, and animals. He reveals the curious ways in which trees communicate their distress, the olfactory abilities of feral children, the bond we have with our offspring, the psychosexual effects of perfume, and the link between smell and memory formation. Jacobson's Organ unlocks the door to the strange world of this mysterious sense.

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Review

The nose knows, says Lyall Watson, and in Jacobson's Organ, he sets out to prove that a humble, often overlooked set of nasal pits helps us decide whom to hit on, and whom to hit. First identified in 1811 by Danish anatomist Ludwig Levin Jacobson, the vomeronasal organ has been implicated in the reception of pheromones, those ephemeral chemical signals animals use to communicate nonverbally.

Watson organizes his thesis around the seven broad classes of smells identified by pioneering naturalist Carolus Linnaeus: floral, goatish, musky, foul, nauseating, spicy, and garlicky. In each section, Watson presents evidence of a surprising and unacknowledged role of smell and pheromones in human life. Is it possible that first impressions are the result of chemical signals? Watson thinks so, and also that pair-bonding, fistfights, love of offspring, and memories may have more to do with our humble nose than we think. In what is bound to be one of his more controversial stretches, Watson implicates nasal plastic surgery in postoperative mood changes:

Every time a surgeon slices away at a nasal septum in the name of fashion or vanity, both sides of Jacobson's organ are at risk of being damaged or even removed entirely, without thought for the consequences.... If you are considering cosmetic surgery on your nose, know that it could deprive you of the very things in life which having a new, cute, little button nose were supposed to improve.

Jacobson's Organ is full of Watson's pithy opinions and conjectures. Some are supported by science, some are not. But as we learn more about the role of the vomeronasal structures in human chemical communication, it becomes clear that a nosey approach is nothing to sneeze at. --Therese Littleton

About the Author

Lyall Watson (1939―2008) was a naturalist and the author of over twenty books, including Heaven's Breath and Jacobson's Organ.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0393332918
• ISBN 13: 9780393332919
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268