The marked interest demonstrated for the last decades in research on olfaction has not yet abated. However, after the publication of an extremely large number of theories tending to explain such and such a point in the mechanism of olfaction, it appears necessary to stop and consider in what fashion the accepted theories have undergone confrontation with more extensive experimentation. One should also verify whether the objections that have caused rejection of certain theories are still to be considered in the same light (since new facts may cause review of a lawsuit). The application of electrophysiological methods to olfactic research constitutes the outstanding novel fact of the century in this field. However, a finer understanding and the accumulation of experimental data make it more difficult to interpret the results obtained by such techniques. A number of physiologists whose works are authoritative in the field of olfaction, Moulton and Beidler, Döving, Ottoson and Shepard, and Dravnieks, felt that the time had come to see where one actually stood. In extensive monographs, supported by hundreds of references, they specified the presently well‐established aspects of the structure and of the function of the olfactory system and also made a critical survey of the different theories. In a first part of this bibliographical survey, we shall attempt to indicate broadly the major aspects of such outstanding recent works since a complete analysis is obviously impossible within the scope of the present paper. In a second part, we shall summarize original papers published during the past two years.

J. Sfiras

Recent research on Olfactton∗

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