As in the case of the other senses, so do we find with regard to that of taste, that continual attention to its indications greatly increases its acuteness. Thus the " tasters " of wine, tea, &c., acquire a power of discrimi nation which is truly wonderful to those who have not exercised themselves in the same manner. Thus we have been informed that the " taster " to one of the extensive cellars of sherry wines at Cadiz or Seville has not the least difficulty in distinguishing the butt from which a given sample may have been drawn, although the number of different va rieties of the same kind of wine under his keeping may not be less than five hundred. So we are informed by Dr. Kitchener that many London epicures are capable of saying in what precise reach of the Thames the salmon on the table has been caught; and the Parisian gourmet is said to be able to distin guish by the taste, whether the birds on which he is dining are domesticated or wild, male or female, or to give an exact determination of the spices, &c., that are combined in a parti cular sauce.
On the other hand, the power of distin guishing sapors is for a time suspended, when several substances of very decided but dif ferent tastes are taken into the mouth in quick succession : thus, if sweet, sour, salt, or bitter substances be applied to the tongue, or if different kinds of wine be taken, one after another, the sense is so much blunted after a short time, as to impair or destroy the power of discrimination between them until after an interval of rest. So, again, when two sub stances of very different flavours are mingled together, the stronger will frequently mask the presence of the weaker : thus we often find it advantageous, in prescribing nauseous medicines, to combine with them aromatics, whose stronger impression shall take posses sion (so to speak) of the sense for a time ; and the object may be still more completely attained by giving the aromatic a moment or two previously, instead of simultaneously with the disagreeable substance.
The influence of habit in blunting the sen sibility to particular tastes, is as remarkable as it is in the case of other sensations. Still more extraordinary, however, is the degree in which the taste may be educated to approve savours which are in the first instance most disgusting. "Thus," says Dr. Dunglison*, "the Roman liquamen or gamin, the most celebrated sauce of antiquity, was prepared from the half-putrid intestines of fish ; and one of the varieties of the Orog aiXotov, or laserpitium, is supposed to have been the assafcetida. Even at this time, certain of the Orientals are fond of the flavour of this nauseous substance. Putrid meat is the de
light of some nations ; and a rotten egg, es pecially if accompanied with the chick, is highly esteemed by the Siamese. In civilised countries, we find game, in a putrescent state, eaten as a luxury ; this, to those unaccus tomed to it, requires a true education. The same may be said of the pickled olive, and of several cheeses ; the fromage de Gruyere, for example, so much esteemed by the inhabitants of continental Europe." Very extraordinary appetencies for particular flavours are some times morbidly developed ; as in the case of chlorotic girls, pregnant women, and insane patients. The latter will sometimes even devour their own excrement.
Independently of the changes produced by the education of the taste, we find great al terations in the likes and dislikes connected with it, taking place in accordance with the development of the body, or with other changes in its physiological conditions. Thus to the infant there is obviously nothing so agreeable as milk ; in more advanced child hood there is almost invariably a fondness for sweets ; whilst after adult age this is usually in a great degree superseded by a preference for other savours. It sometimes happens that articles of diet which were peculiarly agree able to us in childhood, become positively disgusting to us in later life; whilst, on the contrary, many things to which we feel a strong distaste in childhood, are relished when we come to be men, and this by a sponta neous change in our own appetencies. We fully believe with Wagner that these altera tions are in some way connected with the physical condition of the nutritive functions ; for we have other examples in which this connexion is very evident. Thus, we may continually remark that articles of food for which we have the keenest relish when we commence a meal with a good appetite, be come positively distasteful when we have al ready satisfied it. Again, we have known per sons who have a positive repugnance to fatty or oleaginous matters of almost any description, so long as they reside in temperate climates, but who eat them with avidity when exposed to the severe cold of the arctic winter. And even in our own country we may frequently remark that the taste for such articles varies with the temperature ; a cup of sweet olea ginous cocoa, which would be almost loathed on a hot summer day, being very palatable on a cold winter night ; whilst ascescent drinks, such as would be greatly relished in the former season, are altogether discarded in the latter, except when a heated atmosphere brings back the physical condition of the system which renders them palatable.