180 Book reviews

research described in Chapter 12 (‘Food preferences’) tends to have been conducted by behavioural scientists such as psychologists and ethologists. In contrast the research described in Chapter 13 (‘Diet selection’) has tended to be the work of animal scientists with interests in modelling food intake and growth. A glance at the scientists cited in these two chapters tends to confirm this point. Yet, in reality diet selection is the study of food preferences, and it seems to me incomplete and probably confusing to have retained the rather artificial divide that exists between these areas of research. Similarly I would have felt that theories of food intake (Chapter 7) should have been integrated with the modelling and prediction of food intake (Chapter 17).

There is also a lack of synthesis within certain chapters. Most notably, Chapter 6 on ‘Central Nervous Control’ is in the author’s own words ‘something of a catalogue’ of various neurochemicals and their effects on food intake. The chapter left me none the wiser as to how the brain integrates control of food intake, nor indeed how the brain organises feeding behaviour in the face of competing demands unrelated to food intake. In fact, in his conclusions Forbes makes a good case for omitting this chapter altogether on the grounds that lesioning studies are far too imprecise, whilst almost all compounds administered intra-cranially affect food intake in some way.

In conclusion, I believe that this book will be an essential reference source for students of food intake and feeding behaviour in farm animals. It will demonstrate the many facets involved in the study of feeding behaviour, and how our knowledge of food intake can be turned into practice, for example, through the use of predictive models to make more efficient use of expensive animal foods. My one regret is that there has not been more attempt to integrate the separate areas of research, to look for common dimensions, and to produce a more coherent view of the area.

ALISTAIR E. LAWRENCE Scottish Agricultural College

Bush Estate Penicuik EH26 OQE

Scotland

PIN SO168-1591(96)OlO85-4

Olfaction and gustation

Handbook of Olfaction and Gusration. Richard L. Doty (Editor), Marcel Dekker, New York, 1995, 1st edn., x + 881 pp., US$225.00 (hardback), ISBN O-8247-9252-1.

This Handbook is one of 35 in the series of Handbooks on Neurological Disease and Therapy. Sixty authors contributed 21 chapters on olfaction, 14 chapters on gustation and three chapters on “other chemosensory systems”, which include the human vomeronasal organ, the trigeminal chemoreceptors and the nervus terminalis. The olfaction and gustation sections are subdivided into chapters on anatomy, biochemistry and physiology (seven chapters on olfaction and seven on taste); human psychophysics

and measurement of odour/taste-induced responses (six chapters on olfaction and three on taste) and clinical applications and perspectives (eight chapters on olfaction and four on taste).

While the focus of this book is primarily on the basic and clinical aspects of smell and taste in humans, there is much that will be of interest to the animal researcher and those involved in veterinary medicine. The chapters on the anatomy, biochemistry and physiology of chemoreception are comparative, with many references and figures relating to animal studies. The detail of the chapters makes them important references for studies on animals. For example, chapter 4 (by Igor Kratskin) on the functional anatomy, central connections and neurochemistry of the mammalian olfactory bulb, chapter 5 (by Gabriele Ronnett) on the molecular mechanisms of olfactory signal transduction, and chapter 6 (by Meng Inn Chuah and Albert Farbman) on the develop- mental anatomy of the olfactory system will be helpful to anyone working with animals. Chapter 7 (by Harriet Baker) on transport phenomena within the olfactory system discusses the problem of neurotoxic substances that can be taken up through the olfactory system and the use of the nasal system for drug administration, and chapter 15 (by William Stroop) on viruses and the olfactory system discusses how viruses can enter the body through the nasal passages. Chapter 1 (by Johnnye Lewis and Alan Dahl) on the functions of the olfactory mucosa and chapter 22 (by Lloyd Beidler) on saliva discuss the importance of these often overlooked bodily fluids in chemoreception.

The chapters on the development of odour preferences (chapter 12 by Richard Porter and Benoist Schaal) and the genetics of olfactory perception (chapter 13 by Nancy Segal and Tari Topolski) contain information on animal research. Chapter 8 (by Richard Doty and Gerd Kobal) on measurement of olfactory function, chapter 9 (by James Prah et al.) on modem approaches to air dilution olfactometry, chapter 10 (by J.E. Cometto-Muiiiz and William Cain) on olfactory adaptation, and chapter 11 (by David Laing) on the perception of odour mixtures focus primarily on human research, but the information is directly applicable to animal studies. Many of the same psychophysical methods used for humans can be used with animals, but there is little discussion of the apparatus or the methods for applying these procedures to animal research in this book. The reader interested in developing olfactory methods for animal research must still rely on the rather outdated Methods in Olfactory Research (Moulton et al., 1975), on methods described in the publications of the seven Symposia on Chemical Signals in Vertebrates (e.g. Apfelbach et al., 1995) or on journal articles for information.

In the section on Gustation, the chapters on the anatomy of the peripheral taste system (chapter 23 by Inglis Miller), central taste anatomy and physiology (chapter 24 by Edmund Rolls), receptor mechanisms in gustation (chapter 25 by Robert Margolskee), transduction of taste stimuli by gustatory receptor cells (chapter 26 by Sheella Mierson), and the developmental neurobiology of the taste system (chapter 28 by Charlotte Mistretta and David Hill) will all benefit the animal researcher and veterinarian. Chapter 29 (by Marion Frank et al.) on current trends in measuring taste, chapter 30 (by Hendrik Schifferstein) on the perception of taste mixtures, and chapter 31 (by Judith Ganchrow) on the ontogeny of human taste perception focus primarily on human research methods. Although chapter 32 (by Richard Mattes) on the nutritional implications of taste and smell disorders and chapter 33 (by Kathleen Chambers and Ilene Bernstein) on

182 Book reviews

conditioned flavour aversions both focus on human research, they have implications for animal research.

Olfaction and taste are fundamental in the lives of animals, and researchers in animal behaviour, applied animal research and veterinary medicine should be aware of the anatomy, physiology and behavioural aspects of chemoreception. This book is a good summary of our current knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the chemical senses but has little on the chemical senses and behaviour. Indeed, while there were a number of books on the chemical senses and animal behaviour in the 198Os, such as Vandenbergh’s Pheromones and Reproduction in Mammals (Vandenbergh, 1983) and our volume on Social Odours in Mammals (Brown and MacDonald, 1985), neither of these has much information on gustation and behaviour. Maybe it is time for someone to edit a new volume on the role of olfaction and taste in animal behaviour.

In summary, the Handbook of Olfaction and Gusration contains an encyclopedic amount of information on the chemical senses and provides essential information for anyone interested in the chemical senses in human and other animals. The focus on human research, however, means that animal researchers must use supplementary materials in order to get a detailed knowledge of the basic and clinical aspects of the role of the chemical senses in animal behaviour and veterinary medicine.

Richard E. Brown Pschology Department

Dalhousie University Halifax

Nova Scotia B3H 451 Canada

References

Apfelbach, R., Miiller-Schwarze, D., Reutter, K. and Weiller, E. (Editors), 1995. Chemical Signals in Vertebrates VII. Pergamon, Oxford.

Brown, R.E. and MacDonald, D.W. (Editors), 1985. Social Odours in Mammals, Volumes I and 2. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Moulton, D.G., Turk, A. and Johnson, J.W., Jr. (Editors), 1975. Methods in Olfactory Research. Academic Press, London.

Vandenbergh, J.G., (Editor), 1983. Pheromones and Reproduction in Mammals. Academic Press, New York.

PII SOlOSS-1591(96)01058-l