Slotnick has also opined (personal communication) that intranasal zinc 
may well have more long-lasting effects in some species, including that so 
vain as to call itself  "Homo sapiens."  It may be next to impossible to 
determine if an individual's anosmia resulted from the application of 
intranasal zinc (it could have resulted from a viral infection of the 
olfactory mucosa, which stimulated the patient to use intranasal zinc). 
That said, the available evidence does strongly suggest that zinc solutions, 
should they reach the olfactory mucosa, can do long-lasting damage.  My 
summary of the research I have  been able to find is at 
http://personal.ecu.edu/wuenschk/Zinc.htm .  Having experienced how 
devastating anosmia can be, I would NEVER deliberately introduce a zinc 
solution into my nose!

Good smells to you all,

Karl W.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 12:20 PM
Subject: Smelling (and not), homeopathy, polio, and science


But there's an ironic footnot to all this, I've discovered. Slotnick et al 
(2000) showed that
Alberts and Galef (1971) were mistaken, and the application of zinc sulphate 
to the nasal
mucosa of the rat does not produce anosmia.

Stephen

References

Alberts, J., and Galef, B. (1971). Acute anosmia in the rat: A behavioral 
test of a peripherally-
induced olfactory deficit.Physiology and Behavior, 6, 619-621.

Rutty, C . (1996). The middle-class plague: epidemic polio and the Canadan 
state 1936-1937.
Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 13: 277-314 [available on-line at
http://www.healthheritageresearch.com/MCPlague.html ]

Slotnic, B., Glover, P., & Bodyak, N. (2000). Does intranasal application of 
zinc sulfate
produce anosmia in the rat? Behavioral Neuroscience, 114, 814-829.

___________________________________________________
Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.  ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Department of Psychology
Bishop's  University
Lennoxville, QC  J1M 1Z7
Canada
Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at
 http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm
_______________________________________________



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