870 OF SENSATION, AND THE ORGANS OP THE SENSES. 



871. Taken in its ordinary compound acceptation, the sense of Taste has for 

 its object to direct us in the choice of food, and to excite the flow of mucus and 

 saliva, which are destined to aid in the preparation of the food for Digestion. 

 Among the lower Animals, the instinctive perceptions connected with this sense 

 are much more remarkable than our own; thus an omnivorous Monkey will seldom 

 touch fruits of a poisonous character, although their taste may be agreeable ; and 

 animals, whose diet is restricted to some one kind of food, will decidedly reject 

 all others. As a general rule, it may be stated that substances of which the 

 taste is agreeable to us, are useful in our nutrition, and vice versa ;* but there 

 are many signal exceptions to this. Like other senses, that of Taste is capable 

 of being rendered more acute by education ; and this on the principles already 

 laid down in regard to Touch. The experienced wine-taster can distinguish 

 differences in age, purity, place of growth, &c., between liquors that to ordinary 

 judgments are alike ; and the epicure can give an exact determination of the 

 spices that are combined in a particular sauce, or of the manner in which the 

 animal, on whose flesh he is feeding, was killed. As in the case of other senses, 

 moreover, impressions made upon the sensory surface remain there for a certain 

 period ; and this period is for the most part longer than that which is required 

 for the departure of the impressions made upon the eye, the ear, or the organ 

 of smell. Every one knows how long the taste of some powerful substances 

 remains in the mouth ; and even of those which make less decided impressions, 

 the sensations remain to such a degree that it is difficult to compare them at 

 short intervals. Hence if a person be blindfolded, and be made to taste sub- 

 stances of distinct, but not widely different flavors (such as various kinds of wine 

 or of spirituous liquors), one after another in rapid succession, he soon loses the 

 power of discriminating between them. In the same manner, the difficulty of 

 administering very disagreeable medicines may be sometimes got over, by either 

 previously giving a powerful aromatic, or by combining the aromatic with the 

 medicine ; its strong impression in both cases preventing the unpleasant taste 

 from exciting nausea. 



1 It is justly remarked by Dr. Holland (" Medical Notes and Reflections," p. 85), that 

 "In the majority of instances of actual illness, provided the real feelings of the patient 

 can be safely ascertained, his desires as to food and drink may be safely complied with. 

 But undoubtedly much care is needful that we be not deceived as to the state of the appe- 

 tites, by what is merely habit or wrong impression on the part of the patient, or the effect 

 of the solicitation of others. This class of sensations is more nurtured out of the course 

 of nature, than are those which relate to the temperature of the body. The mind becomes 

 much more deeply engaged with them ; and though in acute illness they are generally 

 submitted again to the natural law, there are many lesser cases where 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 

 of food ; whether much or little in quantity ; whether what is solid or liquid ; whether 

 much drink or little ; whether 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 authorized to give greatest heed to the stomach when it 

 suggests some seeming extravagance 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 referred 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 suggestions of the stomach, in the state either of health or disease." 



