On the Vital Principle/Book 2/Prelude to Chapter 10
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Prelude to Chapter X.
This theory of taste and savour is adopted substantively by modern physiology. Cuvier[1] says that "Taste is only a more delicate kind of Touch;" and Müller[2] considers fluid essential to its manifestations. There are three conditions essential to Taste, he observes, the specific nerve, the excitation of that nerve through savour, and the solution of the savour in the moisture of the sapid organ; for sapid matter to be tasted, must either be moistened, or else be solvable in the tongue's moisture. All which implies that, if an object is very arid, or if the organs of Taste are incapable of supplying moisture, the percipient will be sensible, not of sapid but, of tangible qualities only, such as hot and cold, hard and soft.