In search of human skin pheromones
B. A. Cohn
Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco.
The term pheromone was first designated by Karlson and Luscher in 1959 as a
substance secreted by an animal to the outside of that individual, which
was then received by another individual, classically of the same species,
and which then elicited some behavioral or developmental response in the
latter. They composed the term from the Greek words pherein, which means to
bring or to transfer, and hormon, which means to excite. In the usual
context, this response in the second individual is of a sexual or of a
reproductive physiologic nature, although sometimes the definition might
even be extended to include other social responses such as when a dog uses
pheromones in urine to mark territory. Classically, pheromones are thought
of as being olfactory, but these chemicals may also be received by contact.
Pheromones may be present in many different sites in animals, such as in
the skin, including some of its glands, saliva, urine, vaginal discharge,
and feces.
