280 THE SPECIAL SENSES 



same effect is frequently observed when smell is blunted during 

 an ordinary cold in the head. Sight also contributes to taste. 

 With the eyes closed, food appears comparatively insipid ; and 

 a person smoking tobacco in the dark is unable to determine by 

 the taste whether his cigar is lighted or not. Accordingly, it 

 is not a bad plan to close the nose and shut the eyes when 

 about to swallow some disagreeable medicine. 



36. Influence of Education on the Taste. The chief use of 

 the sense of taste appears to be to act as a guide in the 

 selection of proper food. Hence its organs are properly placed 

 at the entrance of the digestive canal. As a general rule, 

 those articles which gratify the taste are wholesome 5 while the 

 opposite is true of those which impress it disagreeably. This 

 statement is more exact in reference to the early than to the 

 later years of life, when, by reason of improper indulgence, the 

 sense of taste has become dulled or perverted. The desires of 

 a child are simple ; he is fully satisfied with plain and whole- 

 some articles of diet, and must usually "learn to like" those 

 which have a strongly marked flavor. Accordingly, it is far 

 easier at this age to encourage the preference for plain food, 

 and thus establish healthful habits, than later in life to uproot 

 habits of indulgence in stimulating substances, after their ill 

 effects begin to manifest themselves. 



37. The tastes of men present the most singular diversities, 

 partly the result of necessity and partly of habit or education. 

 The Esquimaux like the rank smell of whale-oil, which is a 

 kind of food admirably suited to the requirements of their icy 

 climate ; and travelers who go from our climate to theirs are 

 not slow to develop a liking for the same articles that the 

 natives themselves enjoy. The sense of taste is rendered very 

 acute by education, as is shown in an especial manner by those 

 who become professional "tasters " of tea and wine. 



38. The Sense of Smell the Nasal Cavities. The sense of 

 smell is located in the delicate mucous membrane which lines 



86. The chief use of the sense ui' taste ? The position of the organs ? The rule as 

 regards wholesome and unwholesome food ? Kemarks respecting the rule ? 



37. Diversity in tastes of men ? How shown ? The education of the sense of taste ? 



38. Location of the sense of smell ? The nose ? " Koof of the mouth ? " 



