172 PHYSIOLOGY. 



9. The taste is greatly under the influence of habit. ( Many 

 articles which at first excite disgust, being taken through 

 fashion or necessity, at length become highly grateful. We 

 need only name tobacco, and perhaps ardent spirits. The 

 taste for these substances is altogether artificial, no one be- 

 ing fond of them, when taken for the first time. Such per- 

 version of taste often becomes national. Thus garlic forms 

 a constant ingredient in the dishes of some European coun- 

 tries. The most celebrated sauce of antiquity, was the 

 Roman garum, prepared from the half-putrid intestines of 

 fish. Another of their favourite condiments was assafoetida ; 

 and this is still in high repute among many of the orientals. 

 Rotten eggs are highly esteemed by the Siamese, and fish in 

 an advanced state of decomposition is highly relished in the 

 northern and western islands of Scotland. Dried, putrid 

 mutton is habitually eaten in Iceland, and epicures in every 

 country esteem game and venison a greater luxury, if in a 

 putrescent state. To be a fashionable epicure of the present 

 day, requires that the taste should be educated or trained, 

 like a sportsman's setter. It is then prepared to scent out, 

 with infallible certainty, what fashion has taught it to relish 

 as choice luxuries ; but which -simple, unadulterated taste, 

 rejects as fit only for the kennel or the carrion crow^ 



10. The gratification which we derive from eating de- 

 pends chiefly on the state of the stomach. If that is not in 

 a condition to digest food properly, no matter how much we 

 may generally relish any particular article ; it will, at such 

 times, invariably excite disrelish or even disgust. So also 

 when we sit down with a keen appetite to a meal, as our 

 hunger is appeased, the relish proportionally diminishes, till 

 at length we reach the point of satiety, and if we persist, 

 nausea and disgust are certain to succeed/ Here then, is 

 another wise provision, informing us with infallible cer- 

 tainty when we have taken sufficient food to supply the 

 wants of the system. The ancient Romans availed them- 

 selves of a knowledge of this law, and hence were in the habit 



