The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1885-02-28
The Tip Of the Tongue.
(From the Cornhin Magazine.1 !


When we want to assure ourselves.
by means of TASTE, about any unknown
object-say lump of some white stuff.
which may be crystal or glass or alum or
borax or quartz or rock -salt-we put the
tip of the tongue against it eingerlv.
If 1t begins to bum us we draw it away
more or less rapidly, with an accompa-
niment IN language strictly dependent
upon our personal habits and manners.
The test we thus occasionally apply,
even in the civilized adult state, to un-
known bodies is one that is being ap-
piled every day aud all day long by
children and savages. Unsophisticated
humanity is constantly putting every.
thing it sees up to It's mouth in frank
spirit of experimental inquiry as to its
gustatory properties In civilized life we
find every thing ready labeled and assort-
ed for US; we comparatively seldom re-
qulre to roll the contents of suspi
cious bottle lin very small quantities.
doubtfully upon thetongue in order to
discover whether it is pale sherry or
Chill vinegar, Dublin stout or mush-
room ketchup. But N the savage state,
from which, geologically and biologi-
cally speaking, we have only Just
emerged, bottles and hbels do not exist.
Primitive man, therefore, in his sweet
simplicity, has only two modes open be
fore him for deciding whether the things
he etinds are or are not strictly edible.
The first thing he does is to sniff at
them, and smell being, as Mr.. Herbert
Spencer has well put it, an anticipatory
taste, generally gives him some idea of
what the thing is likely to prove. The
second he does is to pop it into his
mouth, and proceed practically to ex-
anime it's further characteristics.
Strictly speaking, with the tip of the
tongue one can't taste at all. If you
put small drop of honey or of oil OF
bitter almonds on that part of the
mouth, yon will find mo doubt to your
surprisel that it produces no effect of
any sort; you only taste it when it be-
gins slowly to diffuse itself, and reaches
the true tasting region IN the middle
distance. But if you put little cay
enne or mustard on the same part you
viii find that it bites you Immediately
the experiment should be tried spar
ingl while If you put it lower down
IL the mouthyOu swallow it almost with
out noticing he pungency of the stimu-
liant. The reason is that the tip of the
tongue is supplied only with nerves,
which are really nerves of touch, not
nerves of tase proper; they belong to a
totally different main branch, and they
go to different center IN the brain. to-
gether with the very similar threads
which supply the nerves of smell for
mustard and pepper. That is why the
smell and tate of these pungent sub
| stances are sCmuch alike, as everybody
must have ,oticed; a good sniff at a
mustard pot producing almost the same
irritating eff'ct as an incautious mouth
ful. AS rlle, we don't accurately dis
| tinguish, it il true, between these differ
ent regions # taste IN the mouth in or
binary life; ,ut that is because We usu-
ally roll our food about instinctively,
without paying much attention to the
particular part affected by it. Indeed,
when one is trying deliberate expert
ments in the subject, in order to test
the varying tensitiveness of the differ
CuG DdIbS suDSbduCSS. 1T IL
necessary TO Keep the tongue quite dry
in order to isolate the thing you are ex-
perimenting with and prevent its
spreading toall parts of the mouth to-
gether. In sctual practice this result
is obtained il rather ludicrous man
ner-by blowing upon the tongue be-
tween each experiment. with pair of
bellows. To such undignifed expedi-
ent does the pursuit of science lead the
| ardent modern psychologist. Those
domestic rivals of DR.. Forbes Winslow,
the servants, who behold the enthusias-
tic investigator alternately drying his
tongue in this ridiculous fashion, as il
he were a blacksmith's fire, and then
squeezing out a single drop of essence
of pepper, vinegar, or beef tea from q
glass syringe hpon the dry surface, not
unnaturally arrive at the conclusion
that master has gone stark mad, and
that in their private opinion, it's the
microscope and the skeleton as has
done it.