TASTfi, 537 



combined together in an innumerable variety of proportions. 

 Many of these have other modifications ; " in some the taste is more 

 quickly perceived upon the application of the sapid body, in others 

 more slowly; in some the sensation is more permanent, in others 

 more transient ; in some it seems to undulate or return after cer- 

 tain intervals, in others it is constant. All these, and other va- 

 rieties of tastes, Dr. Grew illustrates by a number of examples." 4 

 The various parts of the organ, as the lips, the tip of the tongue, 

 the root of the tongue, the fauces, the uvula, and the throat, 

 are some of them chiefly affected by one sapid body, and others 

 by another. 



Taste is rendered stronger by pressing the tongue firmly against 

 the sapid substance and moving it. The impression made by a 

 sapid substance is often much influenced by the taste just expe- 

 rienced. The taste of a second substance may be improved or 

 spoiled by the impression of the first : the taste of malt liquor 

 is greatly improved by first tasting cheese. Gall argues against 

 the common opinion, that indulgence deadens the taste, and 

 contends that this renders it more discriminating. He asks if our 

 cooks distinguish sapid articles less perfectly than savages ; and 

 if the instances of poisoning among peasants by eating hemlock, 

 belladonna, or poisonous mushrooms, do not prove that their 

 taste is not superior to that of voluptuous citizens? It varies 

 in different persons ; at least what is agreeable to one person is 

 disagreeable or indifferent to another; even in regard to mere 

 taste, it is true that " one man's meat is another man's poison." 

 It differs in the sexes, at different ages, and under the influence of 

 habit and of diseases : men like stronger articles of taste than 

 women ; children love sugar more than adults, and dislike fat, which 

 is agreeable to adults ; the lower orders enjoy food which would 

 make the higher sick ; and chlorotic girls are often fond of 

 mortar and cinders. 



Taste is not an unerring index of the wholesomeness of food : 

 for noxious articles are sometimes eaten with pleasure, and whole- 

 some substances disliked. 



1 Dr. Reid, Inquiry into the Human Mind, c. 3. 



M. M. Quyot and Admyrauld have just published a second memoir in which 

 they illustrate Dr. Grew's remark respecting the effect of different savours on 

 different parts of the gustatory apparatus, and show that its different parts are 

 affected differently by the same sapid body. 



