246 Observations and Experiments on the Sense of Taste. 



all, as he supposes, between taste and flavour; for that every 

 thing which we call taste is in fact this internal smell ; or else 

 is merely a feel in the mouth ; an operation of the sense of 

 feeling ; and that any peculiarity it may have is owing only to 

 the peculiar kind or degree of sensibility, which the tongue, * 

 and other adjacent parts have ; in respect to the sense of feel- 

 ing, compared to most other parts; just as the inside of the 

 eyelid, a sore place, the sole of the foot, the inside of the sto- 

 mach, the epiglottis and lungs, the naked nerve of a tooth, 

 the sides, where tickling is administered, &c. have very pecu- 

 liar degrees and kinds of sensibility in respect of feeling, com- 

 pared to one another, or to other parts ; so that one of those 

 parts feels very acutely certain sensations which another of 

 them, or which the ordinary skin of the body, scarce regards 

 at all : So aching is very different from itching, and the sense 

 of hunger in the stomach from that of cold in the fingers ; 

 and vet those different sensations are not therefore considered 

 as being distinct senses ; because the difference between them 

 is far less, and of another kind, than that between one sense 

 and another, as seeing and hearing, hearing and feeling, &c, 

 I mean to say, that, on reading this article, I did not recollect, 

 nor can I since find, any instance of the distinction set up by 

 this reviewer : it struck me, that, having adopted his way of 

 accounting for flavour, I had nothing left for what he would 

 call taste ; no instance of what is commonly called taste, but 

 what would be destroyed by stopping the nose, and thus ex- 

 tinguishing the smell ; or else would be properly referred to 

 the sense of feeling only. 



I then proceeded to try experiments. The unpleasant tastes 

 of castor oil, and of magnesia, are the principal instances 

 which the reviewer selects of what he would call real tastes, and 

 not flavours ; that is, he thinks, stopping the nose would not 

 relieve the sense of them at all. This I can positively deny : 

 I have taken castor oil, and, by persevering in keeping the 



* This peculiar feel of certain esculent substances, perceived in the 

 tongue, is sometimes perceived by the teeth too, as the acid and astrin- 

 gent property of lemon or Seville orange juice; but nobody ever consider- 

 ed the teeth as organs of taste. 



