430 COMPLEMENTARY AND SUBJECTIVE TASTES. 



gradually passing off into the refinement of taste. The action of any 

 given substance may be increased by motion and pressure, as when it is 

 rolled over the tongue, or held thereby. Its sense of discrimination may 

 be rendered more acute by education. 



As with the organs of the other senses, so with this, an impression 

 Duration of made upon it does not instantaneously cease, but remains for 

 tastes. a certain period of time, indeed, in this instance longer than 



in those. Hence many substances acting in rapid succession give rise 

 to a confused effect, though it is said that, out of such interminglings, an 

 accomplished epicure can fasten his attention on one, and continue to 

 recognize it just as we recognize and follow the sound of one instrument 

 in an orchestra. No explanation has as yet been given of the manner 

 of action of different tastes, though it is asserted that some act upon one, 

 and some upon another set of the papillae. After-tastes are also observed, 

 Complement- which are occasionally of a complementary kind, as, for in- 

 ary tastes. stance, the intensely bitter taste of tannin is followed by a 

 sweetness. These after effects modify the taste of substances which may 

 be taken while they last. They therefore form an ample subject for the 

 profound contemplation of the epicure, and should occupy the serious at- 

 tention of the cook. They may be illustrated in a general manner by the 

 injurious effect of sweet substances upon the flavor of delicate wines. 



It has been mentioned that the passage of a voltaic current through 

 Electrical and ^ e ton g ue causes an alkaline or acid taste. Some experi- 

 subjective menters deny the correctness of this statement, and assert 

 that the impression is merely metallic. The effect, however, 

 depends upon the intensity of the current employed, or on the nature of 

 the pieces of metal used. If the current has power enough to decom- 

 pose the salts of the saliva, acid or alkaline tastes will be detected, ac- 

 cording as the direction of the current is made to vary, and the acid or 

 alkaline body is disengaged on the upper or under side of the tongue. 

 Subjective tastes arise in diseases of the nervous centres, but these are 

 often rendered obscure by the exudations and furred condition of the 

 tongue. Dogs, into the blood-vessels of which milk has been injected, 

 have been observed to lick their lips ; and from this it has been inferred 

 that the presence of substances artificially introduced into the circulato- 

 ry current may be detected by the organ of taste. 



