TASTE. 



863 



enough remains of the leaven of habit to 

 render every precaution needful. With such 

 precautions, however, which every physician 

 who can take schooling from experience will 

 employ, the stomach of the patient becomes a 

 valuable guide ; whether it dictate abstinence 

 from a recurrence to food ; whether much or 

 little in quantity; whether what is solid or 

 liquid; whether much drink or little; whe- 

 ther things warm or cold ; whether sweet, 

 acid, or saline ; whether bland or stimulating 

 to the taste." Further, Dr. Holland remarks : 

 " It is not wholly paradoxical to say that we 

 are authorised to give greatest heed to the 

 stomach when it suggests some seeming ex- 

 travagance of diet. It may be that this is a 

 mere depravation of the sense of taste ; but 

 frequently it expresses an actual need of the 

 stomach either in aid of its own functions or 

 indirectly (under the mysterious law just re- 

 ferred to) for the effecting of changes in the 

 whole mass of blood. It is a good practical 

 rule in such cases to withhold assent till we 

 find after a certain lapse of time that the same 

 desire continues or strongly recurs ; in which 

 case it may generally be taken as the index of 

 the fitness of the thing desired for the actual 

 state of the organs. In the early stage of 

 recovery from long gastric fevers, I recollect 

 many curious instances of such contrariety to 

 all rule being acquiesced in, with manifest 

 good to the patient. Dietetics must become 

 a much more exact branch of knowledge, 

 before we can be justified in opposing its 

 maxims to the natural and repeated sugges- 

 tions of the stomach, in the state either of 

 health or disease." In regard to the use of 

 wine in fever, it is universally admitted by prac- 

 tical physicians that very important indica- 

 tions may frequently be drawn from the appe- 

 tency or dislike manifested towards it by the 

 patient ; this being often exhibited when there 

 is an almost entire obtuseness of the mind in 

 regard to all other external impressions. In 

 such circumstances these dormant instincts 

 seem to manifest themselves, which are kept 

 under by the intelligence in the normal con- 

 dition; instincts akin to those which guide the 

 lower animals in their choice of food. There 

 is probably not a plant, however poisonous to 

 most, which has not one or more species of 

 animal specially adapted to derive from it 

 wholesome nutriment, and which is obviously 

 drawn to it by its odour or savour ; whilst 

 the most omnivorous feeders, such as the 

 monkey, are usually restrained by dislikes, 

 excited through these same senses, from 

 touching fruits which would be noxious to 

 them. 



It cannot be doubted that, in all persons 

 of ordinary aptitude for the discrimination of 

 flavours, there are certain natural harmonies 

 and discords among these, as among colours 

 and sounds ; so that particular substances of 

 very different flavours taste agreeably in com- 

 bination, whilst others are mutually repug- 

 nant. Thus every body likes sugar in combi- 

 nation with the acid of fruits ; and the sugar 

 is popularly believed to neutralise the acid, 



which (as we need scarcely say) is not at all 

 the case. On the other hand, sugar and 

 oysters are said to form one of the most 

 nauseous combinations possible. So, again, 

 the flavour of many wines is improved by 

 being tasted simultaneously with cheese, whilst 

 it is injured by fruits. The art of cookery is 

 founded upon a knowledge of these facts, 

 which have not yet perhaps received from the 

 .scientific physiologist the systematic atten- 

 tion they deserve. Attempts have been made 

 by Linnaeus, Bocrhaave, and others, to form 

 a classification of savours ; but no such clas- 

 sification has come into general use, although 

 there are certain savours which all agree to 

 consider primary ; such as the aromatic, the 

 sweet, the acid, the bitter, the saline, the 

 astringent, and the pungent. By the first of 

 these the sense of taste is connected with that 

 of smell ; by the last two with that of touch. 

 The impressions made upon the sense of 

 taste seem to remain longer after the with- 

 drawal of the body that excited them, than 

 those which are received through most of our 

 other senses. This is not surprising, when it 

 is considered that particles of the sapid sub- 

 stance, which have once penetrated the pa- 

 pillsc, may linger there in contact with the 

 sentient extremities of the nerves, for some 

 little time after they have passed away from 

 the external surface. In many cases, how- 

 ever, the substance leaves an after-taste which 

 is different from that which it first excited. 

 It is difficult to say how much of this may be 

 clue to the difference of the impression which 

 is made upon the sensory papillae at the front 

 of the tongue and upon those at its base, and 

 also to the admixture of the olfactive sense, 

 which will be most actively called into play as 

 the sapid body is passing the fauces; and how 

 much to the exhaustion of the nerves conse- 

 quent upon their previous stimulation, so that 

 the after-taste is complementary to that first 

 received. It certainly appears to confirm the 

 former explanation, that the after-taste is 

 generally of that bitterish character which we 

 have seen to be produced by the mere me- 

 chanical stimulation of the papilla? at the base 

 of the tongue. On the other hand, the fact 

 that tannin, one of the bitterest substances 

 known, has a sweetish after-taste, seems to 

 favour the latter view. Probably both causes 

 may participate in the production of the re- 

 sult. 



It is not very common to find the sense of 

 taste excited in a purely subjective manner ; 

 since many of the tastes which are experienced 

 in disease are probably due, as already re- 

 marked, to the depravation of the buccal 

 secretions. Nevertheless, we occasionally 

 meet with instances in which some peculiar 

 gustative sensation, usually of a disagreeable 

 nature, is constantly experienced without 

 being traceable to any such cause ; and in 

 which, therefore, we must seek for its occasion 

 in some disordered functional condition of the 

 sensorium. 



The jjttr])oscof the sense of taste is obviously 

 to serve as the guide and attraction towards 



