THE TRUE SENSE OF TASTE

When all odor is completely eliminated by stopping the nostrils with cotton and the surface of the tongue is stimulated directly, it has been discovered that there are only four fundamental tastes, sour, salt, sweet and bitter. A particular region of the tongue is responsible for each of these four tastes. It is very easy to find these specialized parts for, while the functional organ of the nose is so securely hidden that it is almost impossible to stimulate it directly, the gustatory organs are visible to the naked eye. They are contained in the tiny bright red spots, or papillae, that dot the duller surface of the tongue everywhere except in the center. Although any single papilla is apt to contain several kinds of taste buds and may, therefore, be sensitive to more than one taste, and although the buds which respond to salt are fairly equally distributed over the sensitive area of the tongue, those which react to sweet, sour and bitter are grouped on different regions. Language recognizes this distribution.

We describe as a sweet expression one in which the lips are drawn toward the tip of the tongue and the tip, itself, is flattened out. The taste buds which respond to sweet stimuli are found clustered at the tip of the tongue. In a sour expression the lips are drawn back from the tip of the tongue and down toward the sides. And the sour taste buds are thickest on the sides of the tongue. When a face wears a bitter expression the tongue itself is pulled back until it is in contact with the roof of the mouth. And the bitter taste buds are found almost exclusively at the rear of the tongue.

Testing these three facial expressions before the mirror will afford you a little innocent amusement, but remembering what they represent will help you to get the full effect of desirable tastes and to avoid the disagreeable qualities of others. A bitter tablet, for example, should not be placed at the rear of the tongue where you would get the full benefit of its bitterness, but rather in the center which is relatively insensitive to any taste.

The manner in which children lick a stick of candy shows that they realize unconsciously how they can make the most of its sweetness. The taste buds also explain another habit of children which is usually frowned upon by their elders—that of taking large mouthfuls. Children have many more taste buds than adults. They are distributed not only over the whole surface of the tongue but on the insides of the cheeks as well. Consequently when children stuff their mouths until their jaws bulge, they actually get a great many more gustatory sensations than when they have only a dainty morsel on their tongues. If the taste buds in the cheeks did not atrophy early in life, there would probably be nothing ill mannered about large mouthfuls. As it is, large mouthfuls are quite useless to adults. The food has to be directly on their tongues before they can taste it. So, forgetting the days when bulging cheeks were so delightful, adults become intolerant of a habit which was once both pleasant and useful.