So you think your sh*t doesn't stink.

**Dishtrackted** · 13-02-11, 10:59 PM

I eat keppel apple. It comes from Sumatra in Indonesia. It has the properties that once you consume this fruit, for the next 24 hours all your bodily odours and excretions will smell nice and sweet like violets.

**Optima Collins** · 15-02-11, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by MrRadio

There is probably a good scientific reason for this and I'm sure it will be thrashed out here along with many humourous suggestions.

When you leave the bathroom after a library session why is it that you think that it still smells as sweet as when you went in whereas the next occupant will probably have lots to say about what has crawled up where and expired. It is interesting to note that just the opposite occurrs if you pass wind, accidentally of course, you will the first to suffer an assault on the nasal passages.

Mr Radio, on a serious note for such a challanging observation, I have had my thinking cap on during my moments of repose and have come up with a tentative solution that may hold up to further scientific scrutiny.To put things into perspective your scenario consists of two parts each with a distinct observer. In the first instance we have subject A, the pooper or purpetrator of an act against humanity, if you will. In the second instance we have subject B or the poopee or the unwilling victim of said act . Now, it is of common knowledge in biological and psychological circles that stimuli evoke neural, sensory or behavioural responses (and that these are not mutually exclusive). It is however also known that after repeated stimulation for a duration of time our perception of said stimulus is diminished through a proccess of non-associative learning know as habituation. In fact, habituation is the means by which organisms filter unnecessary information from background "noise" or in this case smell. Consequently, the pooper in this instance is protected from his own pong in a beautifully engineered mechanism that allows him or her to sit or squat comfortably during the act in total oblivion to such extraneous stimuli, as one might expect. In other words, we learn to ignore our own contribution to atmospheric pressure because we need to poop and to have it otherwise would have created an evolutionary anomoly such as that of an aversion to elimination, ultimately leading to the extiniction of the organism. See God does exist after all!

On the contrary, our poopee is subjected to two simultaneous events. The first is the abrupt quality of the air between the two locations, the enclosure trapping the foul molecules, which incidentally had hitherto dwelled in the fundus of the pooper only to make their way (and physically make contact) with our olfactory bulbs (a direct extension of our brain), whilst the second is the exponential growth of the bacteria (responsible for the foul smelling molecules in the first instance) now remaining in the can, as it were. So, essentially, our poopee is bombarded with a smell he or she has not had time to habituate to, but which could eventually occur given suffienct exposure, which is also compounded by production of further gas from the now billions of bacteria swimming at arms length below our shnazola.

A corollary of this most scientific treatise on the subject is that a small drop of disinfectant in the bowl will reduce the offence significantly if not totally, where no can of deodorant can ever suffice.

OC

**dogknees** · 15-02-11, 03:41 PM

Simple answer. You get used to you own stench. When your "in there" the change is gradual and you don't notice it. When you walk in the 'hit is immediate.

**Optima Collins** · 15-02-11, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by dogknees

Simple answer. You get used to you own stench. When your "in there" the change is gradual and you don't notice it. When you walk in the 'hit is immediate.

Oh, you make it sound so insignificant! Arguably, the survival of our species depended upon it!
OC

**Tradesman** · 16-02-11, 10:44 AM

Optima , does your theory also hold for underarm and breath vapours?

**dogknees** · 16-02-11, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by Optima Collins

Oh, you make it sound so insignificant! Arguably, the survival of our species depended upon it!
OC

I think it probably only became an issue in the last few hundred years. Back in the middle ages, everyone stunk appallingly.

**Optima Collins** · 17-02-11, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by Tradesman

Optima , does your theory also hold for underarm and breath vapours?

Originally Posted by Dogknees

I think it probably only became an issue in the last few hundred years. Back in the middle ages, everyone stunk appallingly.

Tradesman, the answer really isn't that simple. Both bad breath (halitosis) and Body odour (Bromohydrosis) are due to many factors: lifestyle, diet, genetics, hygiene or disease etc . Both, however, are largley due to bacterial breakdown of certain proteins or fatty acids. For example, bad breath can contain sulfur compounds, mercaptans etc, whilst BO is comprised of propionic acid (vinegar smell) and isovaleric acid (cheese smell).

Now, to answer your question, habituation would provide a clue as to why we can't perceive our own bad breath and even our own BO, but there is very much more to it. In the case of most foul smells our response is generally one of aversion, disgust and repulsion, even to the point of vomiting. There is a reason for this which goes back to my mention of the survival of the species. Bad breath actually consists of the same molecules that comprise faeces, rotting food and dead organisms. These are skatole, putrescine and cadaverine respectively. The strong emotional and physical responses evoked by these molecules have to do with their association with disease. In other words, throughout evolution those organisms that weren't repulsed by these smells must have had a greater mortality that those that were repulsed and hence exposed less to morbid elements.

Armpit odour, however is different. Sure, we can get the cheese and vinegar mix, but there is also a genetic contribution and even a gender difference. Sweat itself is usually odourless to humans, but there is a whole pyschology built around the subtle and not so subtle differences between individuals. We all know that dogs identify others from smell, what is often understated is the fact that humans also have this ability although it isn't used consciously. In one hallmark experiment women (who have a more heightened sense of smell than males) were asked to sniff a number of sweat laden tee shirts from male volunteers and to identify the one they "liked" the most. The interesting outcome was that each woman chose a male that was furthest apart genetically. This wasn't expected, but it gives insight into how a woman might choose a suitable and genetically viable partner. On the contrary, the study also suggested that couples that meet and enter a relationship whilst the lady is on the pill (which affects how a woman perceives odours) may be in for a rude awaikening once she gets off it. Essentially her alpha male may become a zeta pig overnight and he would't even have a clue what hit him!

Want more:

Dogknees. Yes, people didn't really start washing until realtively recently. Even doctors didn't routinely wash their hands until the 19th century. Dr Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis actually saved countless mothers and their newborns by suggesting that obstetricians use chlorinated lime handwash. Even then, the practice didn't become universal until Pasteur postulated the germ theory about 20 years later. Nevertheless, what I stated about the aversion to smell concerns external stimuli and even though everyone reeked of god knows what (and there are reports of actors in Shakespearean England fainting from the breath of the roaring crowds) each man's stench is his own sweet Parfum de Dieu, not necessarily his neighbour's!

OC