Evening star., 1935-04-06
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

To most 1t tasted sour, although some
found it salty and few bitter. Hydro
chloric acid ordinarily would taste
quite sour. But some reported ac-
companying sensations Of sweet, salt,
bitter and astringent.
Sweet-tasting substances were found
difficult to grade, since the taste SEN
Sation is fleeting. Among the taste
sensations which came with sucroSe,
underlying the predominant sweet,
were reported fragrant, fruity, sour,
astringent and slippery. Sweet, sour,
bitter and soapy were reported for
substances whose ordinary taste would
be disagreeably salt.
DR.. Blakeslee found l3 grades of
vanillin tasters. Some described it
as sweet and others as tasting like
chocolate" To one subject cascara
was twice as bitter as quinine and to
another quinine was 256 times assbit-
ter as cascara. To one subject sac
charine was 1000 times as sweet as
cane sugar.
mo two of the subjects were alike
in all their thresholds" says DR.
DAoNSoACC Ia AlAo 1CPOLG W UIlC IVA
tional Academy. II enough substances
were used as test reagents, it might
be possible to show that no two people
are alike in their sense reactions. No
two would have the same sense for
mula. Each of us lives in different
world and each, within limits. in
world which is subject to change with
out notice."
These taste differences, Dr. Blakes-
lee finds, are by no means theoretical,
but explain some of the real likes and
dislikes of persons in common foods.
Because another does not like some
thing which you find delicious may
mean that to actual taste 1t Is different
to him. For example. DR.. Blakeslee
distributed at a dinner of biologists
tablets each containing five milligrams
of mannose, one of the rarer sugars.
Fifteen per cent could not taste it
at all. Twenty per cent said it was
sweet. Ten per cent found it bitter.
Fifty-five per cent said that it was
both sweet and bitter.
Information also was obtained on
differences in after-tastes. Following
a salad of artichokes about three-fifths
water tasted sweet, while two-fifths
could detect no change.
Even more striking differences have
been found in the reactions of in
dividuals to odors
Thus, DR.. Blakeslee points out. it
never will be possible to stabilize the
environment Of any two persons.
Everything might be precisely the
same, so far as physics and chemistry
could make it. But what is real to
the individual is the sensory impress
sion-not the thing itself. In fact,
he has no other means of experiencing
the thing itself. NSo. as long as people
have different eyes, noses, ears and
tongues, will the world be q place OF
an infinite variety of differences.
Still, the general pattern Of the
human sensory world seems to vary
very little. To a vast majority of per-
sons substance Is sweet or bitter,
although there may be some slight
variation in the degree. It appears to
be these slight variations that are
responsible, at least in part, for the
commonly accepted fact that there
Is no accounting for tastes" There
can be no accounting for them, ac-
cording to the Carnegie Institution
experiments, so long as they cannot
be standardized. Then, Of course, the
habit differences underlie the phys
iological and chemical and may be the
most important factors Of all In what
persons like and dislike.