The vomeronasal organ (VNO) was not, in fact, first described by Jacobsen in 1809, but by Frederik Ruysch (1638–1731), the noted Dutch anatomist. He had an absolute passion for embalming, and his ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ in Amsterdam was acknowledged as Europe’s most famous anatomical collection. It was later bought by Peter the Great and transferred to St Petersburg.
In Ruysch’s meticulous catalogue, embellished with beautiful engravings, we first learn of the vomeronasal organ: “It appears on the anterior and inferior parts of the septum just above the palate, appearing laterally with its own duct” [1]. A similar image appeared in a paper by the Prussian anatomist Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, but the text of his thesis is sadly lost [2].
Ludwig Lewin Jacobsen (1783–1843) from a lithograph by Em Baerentzen and Co, produced in 1842 as a reproduction of a portrait by CA Jensen. (Courtesy Albert Mudry).
Ludwig Levin Jacobson was born in Copenhagen. He had three great interests in life: military surgery, veterinary surgery and comparative anatomy. During the Second Battle of Copenhagen, Jacobson worked tirelessly treating the wounded. After the capitulation in 1809, he published ‘An Anatomical Description of a New Organ in the Nose of Domesticated Animals’ [3]. A very important point in this seminal paper, and one worthy of emphasis, is that Jacobson (unlike Ruysch and von Sömmering) described the VNO in mammals other than humans, and clearly stated that “humans … have only a rudiment of the organ.”
Jacobson later worked with Napoleon’s famous army surgeon, Dominique Jean Larrey, during the Battle of Leipzig. He was badly beaten by Cossacks, who stole everything from him, including his uniform. Left for dead, he developed a fever and admitted himself to an Allied field hospital. On his recovery, he was recognised as a scientist and promoted to surgeon to the Hanoverian League. Ironically, therefore, he began the battle on the Napoleonic side and finished it on the British!
In Gratiolet’s extensive research on mammalian vomeronasal organs (1845), he made no reference to humans. The Swiss anatomist Rudolf Albert von Kölliker was the first to describe the vomeronasal organ in adult humans. After detailed histological descriptions, he likened it to the vermiform appendix and concluded his paper by comparing it to “the breast gland in man” [4,5].
Potiquet (1891) pointed out that, in humans, the appendix may be an atavistic remnant, yet remains surgically important. He proposed that the functionless Jacobsen’s organ provides a similar nidus for pathogens, suggesting that this explains why perforations of the nasal septum usually occur at a constant site corresponding to the vomeronasal canal.
Monti-Bloch (1994) claimed to have developed a remarkable instrument, the electrovomeronasogram (EVG), which he says showed the function of the VNO to be reception of pheromones. Not only has nobody been able to reproduce these electronic probe results, but it later came to light that there was a significant commercial conflict of interest: Monti-Bloch worked for, and held a financial stake in, a pheromone-producing company called Erox.
Finally, in 2011, the French neurobiologist Didier Trotier stated unequivocally that “the genes which code for vomeronasal receptor proteins … are mutated and nonfunctional in humans” [6].
References
1. Ruysch F. Thesaurus Anatomicus Tertius. Amsterdam, Netherlands; Wolters; 1703:48 (no.61, para.5), 50 (Pl. IV, fig.5).
2. von Sömmering ST. Abbildungen des menschlichen Hörorganes. Abbildungen der menschlichen Organe des Geruches. Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Varrentrapp & Wenner; 1809:24.
3. Jacobson LL. “Anatomisk beskrivelse over et nyt organ i huusdyrenes næse.” Veterinær-Selskabets Skrifter. 1813;2:209–46.
4. Kölliker RA. Über die Jacobson’schen Organe des Menschen. Leipzig, Germany; Engelmann; 1877.
5. Bhatnagar KP, Smith TD. The human vomeronasal organ. V: An interpretation of its discovery by Ruysch, Jacobson, or Kölliker, with an English translation of Kölliker (1877). Anat Rec B New Anat 2003;270B(1):4–15.
6. Trotier D. Vomeronasal organ and human pheromones. Eur Ann Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Dis 2011;128(4):184–90.
