CLASSIFICATION OF SAVOURS. 149 



The savours, met with in the three kingdoms of nature, are innu- 

 merable. Each body has its own, by which it is distinguished : few 

 instances occur in which any two can be said to be identical. This 

 is the great source of difficulty, when we attempt to throw them into 

 classes, as has been done by physiologists. Of these classifications, 

 the one by Linnaeus 1 is best known : it will elucidate the unsatisfactory 

 character of the whole. He divides sapid bodies into sicca, aquosa, 

 viscosa, salsa, acida, styptica, dulcia, pinguia, amara, acria, and nau- 

 seosa. He gives also examples of mixed savours, acido-acria, acido- 

 amara, amaro-acria, amaro-acerba, amaro-dulcia, dulci- styptic a, dulci- 

 acida, dulci-acria, and acri-viscida ; and remarks, that the majority 

 are antitheses to each other, two and two, as dulcia and acria ; pin- 

 guia and styptica; viscosa and salsa; and aquosa and sicca. Boer- 

 haave 2 again divides them into primary and compound; the former 

 including the sour, siveet, bitter, saline, acrid, alkaline, vinous, spiritu- 

 ous, aromatic, and acerb ; the latter resulting from the union of cer- 

 tain primary savours. There is no accordance amongst physiologists 

 as to those that should be esteemed primary, and those secondary and 

 compound ; although the division appears to be admissible. The acerb, 

 for example which is considered primary by Boerhaave is by others, 

 with more propriety, classed among secondary or compound, and be- 

 lieved to consist of a combination of the acrid and acid. We under- 

 stand, however, sufficiently well the character of the acid, acrid, bitter, 

 acerb, sweet, &c.; but when, in common language, we have to depict 

 other savours, we are frequently compelled to take some well-known 

 substance as a standard of comparison. 



According to M. Adelon, 3 the only distinction we can make amongst 

 them is, into the agreeable and disagreeable. Yet of the unsatisfac- 

 tory nature of this classification he himself adduces numerous proofs. 

 It can only, of course, be applicable to one animal species, often even 

 to an individual only ; and often again only to such individual when 

 in a given condition. Some animals feed upon substances, that are not 

 only disagreeable but noxious to others. The most poisonous plants 

 have an insect which devours them greedily and with impunity : the 

 southern planter is well aware, that this is the case with his to- 

 bacco, unless the operation of worming be performed in due season. 

 The old adage, that "one man's meat is another man's poison," is 

 metaphorically accurate. Each individual has, by organization or asso- 

 ciation, dislikes to particular articles of food, or shades of difference 

 in his appreciation of tastes, which may be esteemed peculiar ; and, 

 in certain cases, these peculiarities are signal and surprising. 



Of the strange differences, in this respect, that occur in the same 

 individual under different circumstances, we have a forcible instance in 

 the pregnant female, who often ardently desires substances, that were 

 previously perhaps repugnant to her, or, at all events, not relished. 

 The sense, too, in certain diseases especially of a sexual character, or 

 such as are connected with the state of the sexual functions becomes 

 strangely depraved, so that substances, which can in no way be ranked 



1 Amoenit. Academ., ii. 335. a Prselect. Academ., torn. iv. 



3 Physiologic de 1'Homme, seconde 6dit, i. 301, Paris, 1829. , 



