Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1915 — TASTING WITH THE NOSE [ARTICLE]

TASTING WITH THE NOSE

Scientist Asserted That Flavor of Food and Drink la Not Through Sense of Taste. Sir Ray Lankester, the eminent man of science, asserted that the flavor of food and drink does not come to us through the sense of taste. That sense, he says, can only furnish sensations that correspond to the chemical composition of the substances presented to It. These sensations, while almost infinite in their shadings, are few in number. We can distinguish by taste -only sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and saltness, although the various Intensities of these sensations are innumerable. The distinctive flavor of various foods is not the result of chemical action, and it not perceived by the taste nerves, flavors excite' the olfactory nerve instead, and are transmitted by it to the brain. A person whose sense of smell is impaired is unable to detect the flavor of the food he eats, although he haa the taste sensation that it stimulates. This Is an explanation of the effect that Influenza often has apparently on the taste, but, really, on the sense of smelL