Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1886 — The Nerves of Taste. [ARTICLE]

The Nerves of Taste.

The discovery that heat influences one set of nerve-points in the skin while sensations of cold are received by another set, has been followed by an interesting investigation by two Italian physiologists, whose experiments seem to indicate that the various tastes result from the exciting of distinct sets of nerve-fibers in the. tongue. The prolonged application of ice removed the sensibility for all tastes —sweet, sour, salt and bitter. Cocaine destroyed —temporarily, of course —sensibility for bitter only. Other substances, such as caffeine and morphia, reduced the power of discriminating between different degrees of bitter. Diluted sulphuric acfd had a peculiar effect, causing distilled water and even quinine to taste sweet at the tip of the tongue, although the bitter of the quinine, was elsewhere tasted as usual.