THE SENSE OF TASTE. 139 



mois liimter -with that of a sedentary artisan. But there is often to be seen 

 also, in individuals of spare habit, in whom there is outwardly no striking mus- 

 cular development, a surprising strength and energy of the muscles, which would 

 indicate the enhanced nutrition of those organs arising from continued use. 

 The muscles, then, being susceptible of this improvement by use, what should 

 forbid our inferring that the working capacity of the apparatus of the senses 

 may, in like manner, be nourished to a higher degree of perfection by habitual 

 exercise ? But whether the whole result should be referred to habitual use and 

 exercise, is extremely doubtful ; for those, at least, to whom soul and nerve ap- 

 paratus are not identical. While it may well be believed that an organ of 

 sense may be impi'oved to such a point by material treatment as to be more 

 sensitive to related impressions, it would seem impossible to explain by a sim- 

 ply improved mechanism the vastly increased delicacy of discrimination ac- 

 quired by practice in distinguishing different impressions or different degrees of 

 the same quality of impressions. If we consider the soul as an immaterial 

 principle, which is indeed consigned to the material organs for all its intercourse 

 with the outward world, and yet is so far independent as to be capable of a 

 different cultivation through the employment of the same unchanged organs, 

 we may also assume that it first gradually learns to interpret and discrimhiate 

 the permanent processes in the sensitive apparatus, and will of course make the 

 greater progress therein, the greater its practice. We are here venturing, how- 

 ever, into a province where no ordinary sagacity is requisite to find a sure 

 route, and to pursue it without stumbling upon prejudices or deviating into by- 

 paths. We return, therefore, to our immediate subject. 



Examples of the degree of delicacy to which the sense of taste may be trained 

 by use need not detain us. Every one may find them among his acquaintances, 

 and few probably of my readers are without a knowledge of some connoisseur iu 

 wines, who, from the taste of the precious juice, will undertake to pronounce the 

 year and vineyard which were privileged with its production. Though in such 

 cases there may be often pretence or self-deception, yet it is certain that the sense 

 of smell and even that of touch afford, for these trials, a degree of succor to the 

 sense of taste ; even common parlance recognizes the " bloom," the " bouquet," 

 or again the " harshness," of certain objects submitted to the scrutiny of the latter ; 

 still there remains for the share of the sense in question enough to secure respect 

 for its educational capacity. It is not, however, iu different individuals only tliat 

 striking differences iu the delicacy of the sense of taste occur ; they present them- 

 selves frofti time to time in one and the same individual, as the experience of every 

 one will testify. Thus it happens, notixufrequeutly, that a severe catarrh migrates 

 from the pituitary tunic of the nose to the mucous membrane of the mouth, and 

 occupies the latter to such an extent that, in a scarcely exaggerated sense, all taste 

 may be said to be lost. In this uncomfortable state, food excites only the im- 

 pressions of touch, often improperly confounded with what is called a " clammy 

 taste," though in truth no genuine sensation of taste exists ; with the exception, 

 perhaps, of that generated by intensely sour or bitter objects, which still is scarcely 

 itiore than a counterfeit of the sensation excited by the same objects in a healthy 

 condition of the organ. In the same way loss or depravation of taste is a very 

 regular concomitant of many disorders of the stomach and bowels, manifested in 

 some cases by hebetation of the organ, in others by perverted sensations, as when, 

 for instance, all substances leave a bitter after-taste. We may remark, finally, 

 that very intense impressions of taste blunt the susceptibility for succeeding and 

 weaker impressions of the same quality, whence after partaking of a sour salad, 

 the wine bibber may smack his lips over the sourest products from the vineyards 

 of Griineberg ; while, on the other hand, the sensibility to impressions of another 

 Quality seems to be exalted, so that after the enjoyment of a sweet confection, the 

 least acidity causes the best wine to taste like vinegar. For these facts we can 

 propose only superficial and fragmentary explanations. As regards the bodily 



