The Washington bee., 1899-05-20
THE SENSE OF TASTE.
Experiments That Havs Brought Gus
Some Curious Discoveries.

Some Curious Discoveries.
Curious experiments by Prof. q. T.
W. Patrick, Of the University OF Iowa,
show that our ideas about the sense OF
taste have been all wrong. He expert
mented on an anosmic-that is, per-
son absolutely without the sense or
smell. He experimented also on nor
NAL subjects, with most interesting re-
suits. His conclusions are as follows:
There are only four simple taste SEN
sations, namely, sweet, bitter, sour and
salt. 1t is said by some that there are
only two, sweet and bitter. All other
sensations which are commonly called
tastes are complex results OF sensations
Of smells, touch, temperature and sight.
The means by which We distinguish al
most all of our common food and
drinks Is not the sense OF taste so
much as 1t is the sense OF smell, touch,
,, temperature and sight.
All the fine differences by which we
distinguish the various fruits, meats
and drinks depend not upon taste at
all, but upon these other senses. Pure
sensations of taste add hardly more
than a certain emotional element to the
complex sensations. Sweet things we
call good" and bitter things we call
"bad," while salt and sour add GER
tain piquancy, which is pleasing when
| not excessive.
A martial proof OF these facts may
| be given by merely blindfolding the
eyes and closing the nose and taking
various kinds of foods and drinks into
! the mouth without swallowing them.
! It will then be found that it Is quite
impossible to distinguish many Of the
commonest foods and drinks. II the
! further precaution be taken to elimin-
ate as much as possible the senses OF
touch and temperature upon the tongue
! by representing the material in liquid
form or chopped Into small bits, the
results are still more striking.
| It is always difficult to eliminate the
sense of smell in normal subjects. Pro-
fessor Patrick was able, however, by
experimenting with a subject possess
ing no sense of smell whatever, and
comparing the results with those OBJ
tanned from normal subjects, to get
more accurate results as to the more
important part played by smell in dis
tinguishing foods and drinks.
1t is, of course, generally known that
what is popularity mistaken for the
taste of coffee, tea and wine is only
their aroma or odor. By these expert
ments, however, it was shown that cof-
fee and tea have a distinct taste, which
is simply bitter and cannot be distin-
guished from a weak solution Of quiz
nine. A weak infusion of coffee or tea,
however, cannot be distinguished from
water.
Even with normal subjects, with the
eyes and nose closed, twenty expert
ments with coffee gave the following
results: 1t was called coffee" once,
bitter" eleven times, "quinine" four
times, 'tea" three times and milk"
once.
In the recognition of foods and
drinks, as we'll as in their enjoyment.
the sense of sight plays much more
prominent part than is usually sup
posed. With normal subjects blind
folded it was found impossible to dis
tinguish many of our common foods
and drinks. Different kinds of meat
and meat broths, as we'll as the differ
ent kinds of bread, were often confus-
ed
One subject. a woman noted for her
skill in cooking, made the following
judgments: Raw potato chopped she
called acorns; boiled pumpkin she said
was something sweet and fiat; fresh
pear she called sweet berry slightly
fermented; roast pork she called boil
ed beef; raw turnip. chopped she call
ed cabbage sweetened; raw apple was
grape juice; roast trukey was called
beef, and horseradish she said was
something she had never tasted.