TASTE, AS APPLIED TO FRUITS. 231 



inent is mainly a matter of taste. If the taste 

 be paralyzed to sucli a degree that the food 

 passes the palate as it were without a sensa- 

 tion, eating has ceased to be a pleasure, and 

 fails, in a measure, to perform its function of 

 supporting the body. Eating and drinking 

 are necessary to sustain life ; but both were in- 

 tended to be a pleasure as well as a necessity. 

 The taste may become so depraved as at last 

 to yield us' no appreciable enjoyment in the 

 act of doing either ; and thus we may sink to 

 the level of mere animals in all that pertains 

 to what was intended to be one of the purest 

 pleasures of life. On the other hand, the taste 

 may become so vitiated and artificial as to re- 

 ceive but little pleasure from natural flavors ; 

 it then depends for excitement upon stimula- 

 ting and pungent compounds. We say excite- 

 ment ; for the capacity to receive pleasure from 

 the normal exercise of the sense of taste is 

 so greatly impaired, that the nerves must be 

 sharply excited to produce a response, which 

 comes quickly and as quickly passes away. 

 These two extremes are by no means uncom- 

 mon. There are persons to whom all flavors 

 are nearly alike ; and there are others who 

 have no perception of flavor except in its 



