The Washington times., 1919-04-06

THE sense Of taste Is q very curiously
complicated one and scientists have
= been perplexed to account for some
OF the things which every schoolboy knows
but doctors couldn't explain. Recent care
full experiments and investigation have
cleared up many of these mysteries.
Taste is perhaps the most fundamental
Of all our senses. It exists from birth, and
scientists have even proved that it exists
before birth.
It is usually the last of the senses to
maintain its strength in old age. The
toothless old woman rolls g piece Of candy
upon her tongue with pleasure, and the
tottering old man smacks his lips-or has
done so in the pAst-over MS glass Of
wine or his toddy.
Taste is called one Of the lower senses,
and yet By an extension Of meaning the
word has been applied to appreciation Of
the finest things in life.
Taste was essential to our evolution
from the dust In many Of the lower forms
Of life taste ana touch are the only senses
existing.
And vet we know singularly little aboIt
the nature Of taste. We do not realize
that in many cases we recognize things
only or partly By their smell when we
think we know their flavor. This has
caused a philosopher to speak Of ''the pow
erty Of taste and the self sacrificing char
acter Of smell"
We do not az a rule know that we taste
some things with one part Of the tongue
and some with another and that part Of
our tongue s. without taste.
These matters are explained very inter
estingly In q new book, "The Sense OF
Taste" by Professor n. L. Hollingworth,
Phi D., associate professor Of psychology
In Columbia University, an DR.. A. T. Poi.
fenberger, Of the same institution (pub-
lished by Moffat, Yard & Coz.
The process Of perceiyinE the taste Of
things with our brains Is especially compli-
Gated and has never been fully explained.
Three Of the cranial nerves, those
nerves passing directly from the head and
face to the brain, are now believed to
carry the taste dbres from the mouth. or
these the lingual nerve carries the hbres
from the forward two-thirds Of the tongue,
the upper surface and the sides of that of
the tongue and the tip. Another nerve,
the ninth, or "glosso-pharyngeal, carries
the fbres from the back Of the tongue, in
cluding the soft palate. The great pneu-
mogastric nerve trunk coming from the
stomach carries the fibres from the eX-
treme back Of the tongue and the larynX,
What has puzzled the scientist most is
now JuS HOTeS from LnS tongue Eeacn the
nerve trunks in which they are found
The connection between q sense organ and
the brain consists Of a series Of separate
links. Each one Of these links consists OF
a body which contains the nucleus and two
sets Of branches.
In one set the branches are very short
and numerous called dendrites, meaning
little bushes" In the other there is usrI-
ally one branch, called the axone, which is
relatively long. A group Of these cell
bodies is called a ganglipn. The. ganglion
is kind of telephone central"
Four ganglions outside the brain are
concerned in the sense of taste. From
these ganglions the branches called dem
drites pass to the tongue and are found
twining round the taste cells in the taste
buds. The other branches. the axones,
pass into the brain and finally end in some
brain centre.
L When the Gasserian ganglion (the nerve