FOOD AND FEEDING 201 



rise to such tastes (or, more correctly, sensations of touch 

 in the tongue) are obviously unwholesome and destructive 

 in their character, at least when taken in large quantities. 

 Nobody wishes to drink nitric acid by the quart. The first 

 business of this part of the tongue is, therefore, to warn us 

 emphatically against caustic substances and corrosive acids, 

 against vitriol and kerosene, spirits of wine and ether, cap- 

 sicums and burning leaves or roots, such as those of the 

 common English lords-and-ladies. Things of this sort are 

 immediately destructive to the very tissues of the tongue 

 and palate ; if taken incautiously in too large doses, they 

 burn the skin off the roof of the mouth ; and when 

 swallowed they play havoc, of course, with our internal 

 arrangements. It is highly advisable, therefore, to have an 

 immediate warning of these extremely dangerous sub- 

 stances, at the very outset of our feeding apparatus. 



This kind of taste hardly differs from touch or 

 burning. The sensibility of the tip of the tongue is 

 only a very slight modification of the sensibility possessed 

 by the skin generally, and especially by the inner folds 

 over all delicate parts of the body. We all know that 

 common caustic burns us wherever it touches ; and it 

 burns the tongue only in a somewhat more marked 

 manner. Nitric or sulphuric acid attacks the fingers each 

 after its own kind. A mustard plaster makes us tingle 

 almost immediately ; and the action of mustard on the 

 tongue hardly differs, except in being more instantaneous 

 and more discriminative. Cantharides work in just the 

 same way. If you cut a red pepper in two and rub it on 

 your neck, it will sting just as it does when put into soup 

 (this experiment, however, is best tried upon one's younger 

 brother ; if made personally, it hardly repays the trouble 

 and annoyance). Even vinegar and other acids, rubbed 

 into the skin, are followed by a slight tingling ; while the 



