194 



PHYSIOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY OF ANIMALS. 



taste. The true taste is exactly the same in both ; the 

 real difference is in the feel of the alimentary bolus as it 

 is chewed and moved about in the mouth. The same 

 parcel of rice may be cooked thoroughly and yet in such 

 wise that each grain shall stand in separate and self- 

 reliant individuality, or in such wise that all individual- 

 ity is lost in a common socialistic mush. We all know 

 the entire difference in what we call the taste. But really 

 it is a difference in the feel only. There is very little 

 taste of any kind in rice, but what there is is exactly 

 the same in the two cases. 



It is far more difficult to separate taste and smell, 

 and yet even popular language has taken note of the 

 difference. It is embodied in the two words savor and 

 flavor. Savors are tastes, flavors are smells. We have 

 heard of "salt that had lost its savor," * but never its 

 flavor, for it has none to lose. It is necessary to re- 

 member, then, that what we call flavors are not tastes at 

 all, but smells. They are affections of the olfactory 

 nerves, not the gustatory. They aire all, therefore, vola- 

 tile substances, essential oils, compound ethers, etc. 

 They can all be smelled without eating. 



Examples. — Coffee or tea, so far as taste in the ordi- 

 nary sense is concerned, has two principles : a bitter 

 astringent principle, which is a taste, and a flavor, which 

 is a smell. This last is due to a volatile substance 

 which may be all driven off by long boiling. In a 

 broiled steak the slight saltiness is nearly all that affects 

 the gustatory nerve. Its pleasant flavor is an affection 

 of the olfactory nerve entirely. It can be enjoyed with- 

 out tasting at all. The same is true of all fruits. In a 



* The salt used by the poor of Palestine is said to have been 

 very impure — in fact, a sort of salty earth, from which the salt was 

 easily washed out. 



