TION.

INTRODUC- or social habits, than those of any race of mankind; but their desires seem, in general, to be excited by smell, rather than by sight or contact. If, however, a boar can think a sow the sweetest and most lovely of living creatures, we can have no difficulty in believing that he also thinks her the most beautiful: for the sense of smell is much more impartial, and less liable to be influenced or perverted by mental sympathies, than that of sight; there being no communications of thought or sentiment from one mind to another (at least among human creatures) by the nose, as there are by the eyes.

12. The sense of taste is equally impartial; being equally unconnected with, and uninfluenced by, the higher faculties of the mind: it is also the first that is employed in preserving life by selecting nourishment; and that which hath consequently given a name to that rule or criterion of just exertion in all the rest, which is the subject of the present inquiry: wherefore I shall examine it first; and, after comparing it with those of its two kindred organs of smell and touch, in order to ascertain the principles of sensation in general, proceed to the examination of the re" maining two, whose objects are the proper objects of taste in the more general sense of the

word, as used to signify a general discriminative faculty arising from just feeling and correct judgment implanted in the mind of man by his Creator, and improved by exercise, study, and meditation.

INTRODUC

TION.

PART I.

OF SENSATION.

CHAP. I.

CHAPTER I.

OF TASTE.

PART I. 1. THE organs of taste, considered merely as the faculty of distinguishing flavours, are the lips, Of Taste. the tongue, and the palate, whose sensibility is preserved by a fluid, with which they are constantly moistened; and which is consequently a medium of communication for every thing applied to them.

2. If any quantity of any other fluid of exactly the same quality and temperature be received into the mouth, it will produce no other sensation than that of pressure; that is, it will merely cause itself to be perceived by its gravitation upon the extremity of the nerves, without otherwise altering the mode or degree of their action. This is the first and simplest kind of sensation; for unless there be some gratification of a want, such as thirst, the perception is merely of contact.

3. But let the liquid, so received, be impreg nated with salt, with sugar, with acid, or any

1

CHAP. I.

other extraneous matter; or let it be of a greater PART I. or less degree of warmth; and its impression will not be mere contact, but will produce a change of Taste. in the mode or degree of action in the nerves; by which we perceive its flavour. I say a change in the mode or degree of action; because the 'commencement of a new sensation is never from absolute inaction; all the organic parts of animal bodies, and many of those of vegetables, being irritable; and a certain degree of irritation being always kept up in the former by the acrimony of the blood, or by the necessary operation of vital warmth and motion.

4. This irritation may be either increased or diminished by external impressions, according as they are stimulant or narcotic; or its modes may be changed according to the different qualities of the substances applied: but how these changes take place, or what those different modes are, by which we discriminate such an infinite variety of different flavours, smells, tones, colours, &c. is beyond the reach of human faculties to discover. All that we know is, that certain modes of irritation produce sensations, which are pleasant, and others, sensations which are unpleasant; that there must be a certain degree of it to produce either; and that, beyond a certain degree, all are painful. If the irritation be too weak, the effect

PART I. is insipidity or flatness:-if it be too strong, it is CHAP. I. pain or uneasiness.

Of Taste.

5. The effect, however, of the same things on different individuals varies according to the different degrees of irritability in their organs; from which their sensibility arises:-it also varies in the same individual, as he advances from infancy to maturity; and from maturity to decay. Very young children are almost always fond of pure sweet; but as the palate grows adult, it requires some mixture of acid or bitter to vary it, and give it pungency, or it becomes vapid and disgusting.

6. These mixt flavours continue ever after to be most grateful; and it is in mixing and preparing them in the ways best adapted to excite and prolong appetite by stimulating the organs, that all the arts subservient to gluttony consist. Nature, however, has anticipated most of these arts, and rendered them superfluous further than as they tend to assist and vary her operations; for we must not imagine that the food, which we call simple, is in reality so: all the fruits, herbs, and meats, on which we feed being composed of many simple elements, blended and tempered by Nature with a delicacy and exactitude, which art can but feebly imitate. By the variation and succession of the seasons, too, we are supplied with all that variety, which, if not