Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-13
SMOKING DEADENS
TASTE SENS|T|WTY
Users of Tobacco Unable to
Detect Sour Flavor Quickly
in Tests.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Smoking dulls the sour" taste SEN
! sitivity.
This curious effect of tobacco has
| just been found through experiments
conducted at the psychological labora-
| tory of Catholic University. The pur-
| pose OF the experiment was to find the
minimum amount of sourneSs a person
| could detect.
First the subject washed out his
mouth with distilled water. Then an
! extremely weak acid solution was drop
ped on his tongue and he was asked to
roll it around in his mouth until he
was aware of some sensation different
than that caused by the water. If he
could detect no difference the strength
of the acid concentration was increased
until the faintest trace of sour taste
was reported.
From the first it appeared that some
of the men tested were more sensitive
than others. Their SenSitivity was con-
siStently higher after many trials. The
outstanding difference between the two
types was the use of tobacco. Part of
the group happened to be members OF
religious community whose rules pro-
hibIr smoking, so they had not touched
tobacco for at least year. Some of
them never had used the weed.
Several Acids Used.
The experiment was conducted with
dilutions of hydrochloric, sulphuric,
nitric, acetic, citric and Tactic acids.
All of these normally give sour taste.
The subjects all were university stu
dents and the tests were made under
standardized conditions. No test was
made when the subject reported
the slightest symptom of a cold, which
normally would dull the taste. Three
hours were allowed to elapse after
meal Care was used that the subject
was not tired and the sensitivity to
only two acids was tested at any one
session. The acid solution was always
at the room temperature.
approximately the same results were
obtained with all the acids except sui
phuric. With dilutions of this, several
of the subjects, including smokers, re-
ported that the first sensation was not
of sourness but of puckering OF the
mouth. such as would be caused by
alum and some similar aStringent sub
stance. The smokers reported this at as
low concentra tons as did the non
smokers. But, it was determined, this
sensation is not properly one of taste at
all but of touch.
''Of the IS subjects used in this in
vestigation," reports Rev. Robert A.
Boelcke, who conducted the experiment,
40 were non-smokers. By this we
mean that the habit of smoking had
not been acquired by any one of them.
Some of them had never smoked at all
and none of them to any appreciate
extent during the preceding seven
years. All the non-smokers were men.
Not one of them had smoked at all dur
ing the year just previous to the tests"
Further Tests Plan.
1t is planned to continue the expert
ment to determine whether there is
difference In sensitivity to the other
three primary tastes, salt, sweet and
bitter, between smokers and non
smokers Each of these tastes Is caused
by stimulation of a different set of
taste buds" the nerve endings in the
tongue and sides of the cheeks. Each
set, differently located, is responsible for
its own specific taste. The sensations