Fright & Bite

"When you are frightened," wrote doggy Albert Payson Terhune in Reader's Digest last summer (TIME, Aug. 17), "nature pumps an undue amount of adrenalin through your system. This throws off an odor . . . which human nostrils fail to detect. Dogs, however, hate it. It rouses some of them to rage; in others it inspires only contempt. Many an otherwise inoffensive dog will attack when that odor reaches him."

Most readers had heard of "fear-smell" before, accepted Author Terhune's dictum without question. But Dr. A. J. Reich of Manhattan wrote to the American Medical Association for confirmation. Last fortnight A. M. A. replied in its Journal that Mr. Terhune's "established scientific fact" was baseless. Fact was, said the Journal, that "many hundred times the normal output of epinephrine [adrenalin] may be injected intravenously in dogs, and man, in the presence of dogs, with the latter showing no 'hate' or 'contempt' detectable by man."

However far off-base Dogman Terhune might be in his explanation of the phenomenon, animal experts generally agree that dogs and other domestic beasts recognize human fear just as humans recognize it in each other. Some comments on the Terhune-A. M. A. controversy last week: Dr. Raymond Lee Ditmars, Bronx Zoo herpetologist: "Any indication of fear, either in humans or animals, is a temptation for the adversary to pile in."

William J. Largent, Merkel. Tex. cattle breeder: "If you are afraid of a bull, he's more likely to attack you."

George J. Peak, Winchester, Ill. horse breeder: "A horse is like a child. He will take advantage of a person who handles him in an uncertain manner. You can control him better if you are unafraid." Conceding the point for domestic creatures, Frank ("Bring 'Em Back Alive") Buck declared: "As a rule, 'man-smell' will make a wild animal run as fast as he can."

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