Originally stimulated by interviewing an anosmic patient who stated she could still perceive flavors, we turned to the literature on the subject of flavor and found that uncertainty continues to exist as to the importance of olfactory and extraolfactory sensations in this regard. Because of the availability of five patients whose olfactory nerves had been surgically proved to be destroyed, either by basofrontal brain tumors or by cranial trauma, the opportunity presented itself for more definitive study. METHOD The five patients (one the subject of a published case report 1 ) mentioned in the preceding paragraph were studied, together with a group of 10 normal controls. The patients without the sense of smell were of both sexes and of varying ages and occupations and had been anosmic for varying periods. The controls fell into similar categories. Smokers and nonsmokers were present in both groups. One control had complete dentures. All subjects