A natural history of the senses / Diane Ackerman.

New York : Random House, [1990], ©1990.

xix, 331 pages ; 25 cm

1st ed.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-315) and index.

Smell. The mute sense -- A map of smell -- Of violets and neurons -- The shape of smell -- Buckets of light -- The winter palace of monarchs -- The oceans inside us -- Notions and nations of sweat -- The personality of smell -- Pheromones -- Noses -- Sneezing -- Smell as camouflage -- Roses -- The fallen angel -- Ansomia -- Prodigies of smell -- A famous nose -- An offering to the gods -- Cleopatra's heirs -- Touch. The feeling bubble -- Speaking of touch -- First touches -- What is a touch? -- The code senders -- Hair -- The inner climate -- The skin has eyes -- Adventures in the touch dome -- Animals -- Tattoos -- Pain -- Easing pain -- The point of pain -- Kissing -- The hand -- Professional touchers -- Taboos -- Subliminal touch -- Taste. The social sense -- Food and sex -- The omnivore's picnic -- Of cannibalism and sacred cows -- The bloom of a taste bud -- The ultimate dinner party -- Macabre meals -- The heart of craving.

The psychopharmacology of chocolate -- In praise of vanilla -- The truth about truffles -- Ginger and other medicines -- How to make moose soup in a hole in the ground, or dine in space -- Et fugu, Brute? : Food as thrill-seeking -- Beauty and the beasts -- Hearing. The hearing heart -- Phantoms and drapes -- Jaguar of sweet laughter -- Loud noises -- The limits of hearing, the power of sound -- Deafness -- Animals -- Quicksand and whale songs -- The violin remembers -- Music and emotion -- Is music a language? -- Measure for measure -- Cathedrals in sound -- Earth calling -- Vision. The beholder's eye -- How to watch the sky -- Light -- Color -- Why leaves turn color in the fall -- Animals -- The painter's eye -- The face of beauty -- Watching a night launch of the space shuttle -- The force of an image : ring cycle -- The round walls of home -- Synesthesia. Fantasia -- Courting the muse -- Postscript.