TASTE 



5710 



TATTOOING 



demanded that all mythology and chivalrous 

 adventures be omitted, and persecuted him 

 with their criticisms. A blow on the head dur- 

 ing a quarrel added to his mental discomfort, 

 and in 1576 he showed signs of insanity. He 

 had an idea that he was constantly being 

 watched, and in June, 1577, while in the home 

 of the Duchess of Urbino, drew a knife on a 

 servant whom he considered a spy. He was 

 taken to a country home, but escaped and wan- 

 dered from towa to town. In February, 1579, 

 he returned to the court of Ferrara, and burst 

 into the royal rooms with such signs of rage 

 that he was confined as a madman. At length 

 he was allowed to go to Naples, where he 

 composed his Jerusalem Conquered, really a 

 revision of the other epic with most of the 

 chivalry omitted. 



In 1593 he was ordered to Rome by Pope 

 Clement VIII to be crowned for his poetry, but 

 in the midst of the preparations he became ill 

 and died in the Convent of Santo Onofrio, near 

 the city. The pathetic story of his life has 

 been used by such poets and writers as Goethe, 

 Lamartine and Byron as a theme for' poems and 

 stories. The Rinaldo, the Aminta, a tragedy 

 entitled Torrismondo, and Jerusalem Delivered 

 are among the greatest of Italian writings, 

 while the last-mentioned poem is classed as one 

 of the world's noblest epics.. R.D.M. 



Consult Boulting's Tasso and His Times; Wood- 

 berry's Inspiration of Poetry. 



TASTE, tayst, one of the five special senses 

 the one through which we recognize certain 

 substances when they are dissolved in the 

 mouth. The sense of taste is located in the 

 mucous membrane on the upper side of the 

 tongue and the upper back part of the mouth. 

 On this membrane are numerous minute ele- 

 vations called taste buds, containing the end- 

 ings of the nerve filaments which convey the 

 impulse to the taste centers in the brain. 

 When the sensation is registered by the brain 

 centers it is identified as sweet, sour, bitter or 

 salty. All taste sensations are formed by com- 

 binations of these or by combination of one of 

 them with the sense of smell. These two spe- 

 cial senses are very closely related, and it often 

 happens that smell sensations are mistaken for 

 those of taste. Also, when the sense of smell 

 is deadened by a. cold in the head, the victim 

 usually complains that he cannot taste well, or 

 that all foods taste alike. The "mouth water- 

 ing" that occurs when an appetizing odor 

 greets the nostrils is another example of a deli- 

 cate relationship existing between smell and 



taste. In this case there is stimulation of the 

 salivary glands, brought about by anticipation 

 of the enjoyment of eating. 



The sense of taste is one that can be trained. 

 In the grocery trade, for instance, the buyers 

 use this sense in appraising the quality of cof- 

 fee, tea, butter and other commodities. It is 

 also a sense that will become tired if not used 

 with discretion, and since it adds greatly to 

 one's ability to enjoy life, it should not be 

 abused. People who indulge to an excessive 

 degree in candies, highly-seasoned foods and 

 the like impair their power to enjoy them. 

 The ideal way is to eat plain food, as a rule, 

 and delicacies but occasionally. If such a 

 method is followed the sense of taste will not 

 become vitiated. C.B.B. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this 

 discussion of taste, the reader may consult the 

 following articles in these volumes : 

 Mouth Smell 



Senses, Special Tongue 



TATTOO 'ING, the savage art of making 

 permanent scars in patterns on the skin. It 

 originated as a purely decorative custom, but 

 among some races it grew to have a religious 

 or tribal significance. Real tattooing can be 



TATTOOING 

 As performed in Burma 



practiced successfully only by light-skinned 

 people, for it includes rubbing colors into the 

 fresh scars. Needles of steel, bone or shell are 

 used to puncture the designs in groups of lines 

 and dots, and one or several colors are em- 

 ployed to permanently set the patterns. The 

 Polynesians confine themselves to black, which 

 turns to blue in the skin, but the Japanese use 

 three or four pigments. Dark-skinned races 

 practice a related art, scarification, or gashing 

 the skin and rubbing in ashes or clay, which 

 causes light, raised scars to form. Another 

 method is to insert splinters of wood in the 

 skin and set them afire, known as branding. 



