At 07:46 PM 5/25/03 -0400, Sam Ritchie wrote:

Someone should suggest the use of Putrescine to Lt. Mathers... The chemical odor of decaying bodies is so sickening that Glade couldn't stand a chance. Anyone know a readily available way for synthesizing this stuff? A dead body lets off very small quantities of it, awful in itself. Distilled Putrescine would reduce the most stalwart of us to dry heaves.

Oddly, putrescine is used by cell biologists as something used to keep cell cultures alive. They use an odd, not fully characterized brew, including serum. Skatole and indole are reportedly the odors in feces. Interesting that the .mil doesn't use the riot control agents used by domestic pigs because the .mil is prohibited from doing so. (.mil idea of nonlethal force is warning shots..) It would be useful to find odors that freak horses but are not noticed by humans, for dealing with pigs on horses. Predator-urine odors have been discussed here in the past but are hard to obtain. Putrescine, skatole (and skunk) are cheap from chem houses; haven't looked on ebay :-)