CHAPTER XIV. 



Sense of taste. Organ of taste. Special nerves of the organ. Flavours. 

 taste. 



Organ of taste. In describing the mouth as a part of the 

 digestive apparatus, the functions of its several parts were 

 explained, as well as of the organs which surround or fill its 

 cavity. It is only requisite here to repeat that the tongue 

 receives three nerves, of which one, the great hypoglossal, 

 gives it motion; and the two others, the lingual and the 

 glosso-pharyngeal, give it gustatory sensibility. The tongue 

 participates by its movements in the digestive functions, and 

 in the articulation of sounds; but it has besides a special 

 sensibility it is the principal organ of taste. 



Flavours, taste. The cause and intimate nature of tastes 

 are no better understood than those of odours. It is by 

 volatilization that the intangible particles of the odoriferous 

 principles reach us; it is by a solution more or less complete 

 that substances impart their flavour, that inherent property 

 which taste alone reveals to us. We recognize in this way 

 their acidity or saltness, whether they are sweet or bitter, &c.; 

 but nothing in the nature of bodies, in their texture, or in 

 their constituent elements, has ever yet explained their 

 sapidity. Flavours elude analysis and defy classification, 

 even that which divides them into agreeable and disagreeable, 

 for the taste of individuals and of nations singularly differs in 

 this respect. The Laplander and the Esquimaux drink great 

 quantities of train-oil, which for them is a greatly esteemed 

 article of food, and is most admirably adapted to the exigen- 

 cies of a Polar climate; the Abyssinians eat raw flesh, and 

 find its flavour excellent, while the inhabitant of the West 



