296 MORLEY R. KARE AND M. S. FICKEN 



The collective preference results presented here indicated that the four 

 qualities of taste used in human work serve no purpose with animal 

 behavior. On the contrary, the results with sugars support a concept of 

 separate taste worlds for each species. 



No pattern, chemical, physical, nutritional or physiological, can be 

 offered to explain the collective comparative results. However, the 

 apparent contradictions and exceptions in response behavior do not deny 

 the existence of an overall theory. 



Man, monkeys and the guinea pig, amongst the animals tested, are known 

 to require vitamin C, rats are uniquely independent of nicotinic acid, only 

 chickens require the simple amino acid glycine, the Dalmatian dog fails to 

 use uricase in protein metabolism ; pigs have their unsaturated fatty acid 

 on the outside of the glyceride while other animals have the unsaturated in 

 the middle. It follows that a species uniqueness in taste response would 

 have many precedents in nutrition and metabolism. 



One cannot freely ascribe to animals the taste sensations experienced by 

 man for specific chemical entities. The differences between species may 

 be fundamental. They could challenge the widely held concept which 

 infers a universal character to taste physiology more extensive than that of 

 the endocrines. 



The results presented here support a concept of differences in degree 

 between individuals and absolute differences between species. Further, 

 they question generalizations on taste, particularly those based upon 

 human experience. 



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