Warning! Potential spoilers for the book "The Perfume"!
The Perfume, a book about a man in 18th-century France who starts killing women to create the perfect perfume from their scents had always fascinated Felix. He had read the book in school and it was the first book on his reading list he had actually enjoyed.
Just the thought of taking someone’s scent, applying it to himself and thus influencing other people in a way he desired seemed exciting. The fascination for it followed him through his teenage years and determined his degree of choice as he went into the field of biochemistry.
Felix soon discovered that the topic of human pheromones was a heavily discussed one. Humans lacked specific organ to sense pheromones and their olfactory sense wasn’t really strong enough. Some studies still tried to find a connection between androstadienone, estratetraenol and the way males and females interact with each other.
Some found a link, some didn’t.
The results only fueled Felix’s need for his own research. Androstadienone was present in male sweat. He wondered what would happen if he increased the concentration in his own sweat?
Synthetically recreating the molecule wasn’t that complicated and soon, Felix had his own supply of it. And it was ready for testing.
On a Saturday night, he sprayed a generous amount of his creation all over his body and then put the flask into his pocket, in case he needed to re-apply later. Then he made his way over to the next club, where they usually turned him away.
The bouncers looked muscular and grim as always and Felix felt fear rising in his body. Suddenly he started to worry if this was such a good decision after all. What if these men reacted aggressively to his new scent?
As he reached the head of the line, his heart was beating too fast in his chest. Tiny sweat droplets had formed on his forehead and slowly made their way downward. One of the bouncers examined him from head to toe, arms crossed. Then he nodded slowly.
”You can go in”, he told Felix.
Feeling like he was in a trance, Felix entered the club and was immediately overwhelmed by the noise and lights. He stumbled over to the bar and held onto one of the chairs, trying not to fall over. A young woman approached him.
”Hey, are you alright?” She asked with a friendly smile. ”You don’t seem to feel so well.”
”It’s all right”, answered Felix, slowly regaining his cool. ”It was just too much for a moment. Thank you for your concern.”
The woman gave him another smile, this time a lot wider.
”That’s good because I wanted to ask you if you wanted to dance.”
”Absolutely!” Felix didn’t hesitate and grabbed the woman’s hand to go with her to the dance floor.
It was crowded and people constantly bumped into each other. It became surprisingly difficult for Felix to keep his balance. He felt unwell, almost fuzzy.
”I think I need a break”, he told the woman he was dancing with. ”I guess I was wrong earlier, I don’t feel so well…”
Just as he started heading for the bar again, someone ran into him and knocked him to the floor. Felix heard the breaking of glass when he hit the ground and a wet spot started to form where he had stored the bottle with the pheromone.
The movement on the dance-floor stopped.
Several dozen eyes turned towards him, as the scent spread through the room.
Horrified, Felix remembered what had happened to Grenouille, the main character in The Perfume when he had poured his special perfume over himself.
It seemed that the writer hadn’t been too far away from the truth. Felix’s scream was stifled by dozens of people throwing themselves on top of him, demanding for his body.
Sources:
A putative human pheromone, androstadienone, increases cooperation between men
Chemosensory communication of gender through two human steroids in a sexually dimorphic manner
Pheromones and their effect on women's mood and sexuality
Putative sex-specific human pheromones do not affect gender perception, attractiveness ratings or unfaithfulness judgements of opposite sex faces
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