Dear HFHS MD-JM,
I noticed your response to a subscriber's question concerning "olfactory hallucinations." With all due respect, olfactory hallucinations usually do involve the presence of "external stimuli." There is an odor present but the patient has a distorted perception of the smell. The particles that the odor consists of attach do the epithelial cells in the nasal walls of the recipient. The hallucination aspect of this terminology is not to be literally interpreted to mean a figment of the imagination as much as it is an inaccurate interpretation of a smell that is actually present.
Sincerely,
Dr. Burns