CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| Editorial Introduction | [vii] | |
| Preface | [xiii] | |
| I | The Qualities of Taste The Taste Manifold—The Classification of Tastes—Taste Blends and Fusions—The Poverty of Taste—Psychological Analysis of the Taste Qualities—Distribution of the Taste Qualities—The Vocabulary of Taste. | [1] |
| II | The Organization of the Tastes System and Organization in Other Senses—Taste Mixtures and Compounds—Compensation, Antagonism, and Neutralization—Contrast Phenomena—After Images of Taste—The Schema of Taste Relations. | [27] |
| III | The Sensitiveness of Taste Various Measures of Sensitiveness—The Threshold of Taste Sensation—Relative Sensitivity of Taste and Smell—The Discrimination of Tastes—Adaptation and Fatigue—Acquired Tastes—The Early Development of Taste. | [43] |
| IV | Time Relations of Taste Qualities The Inertia of the Taste Organs—Reaction Time to Taste Stimuli—Determinants of Reaction Time to Taste. | [55] |
| V | The Sense Organ of Taste Comparison with other Sense Organs—The Salivary Glands and Their Activity—The Tongue: Its Muscles and Covering Membranes—Classification of Papillæ—The Determination of the Taste Areas. | [60] |
| VI | Sensory Elements of the Taste Mechanism Taste Buds and Their General Characteristics—Supporting Cells, Gustatory Cells, and Nerve Filaments—Relations Among the Structures within the Taste Bud—The Sensory Nerves of Taste—The Cerebral Taste Centers. | [78] |
| VII | Taste-Producing Substances Adequate and Inadequate Stimuli—Adequate Taste Stimuli—Inadequate Taste Stimuli. | [92] |
| VIII | The Function of the Taste Mechanism The Function of Tongue and Salivary Glands—The Function of the Taste Buds. | [103] |
| IX | The Development of Taste in the Individual Development Before Birth—Development of Taste in Infancy and Childhood—Taste in the Adult—Structural and Functional Differences Among Individuals—Individual Differences Due to Pathological Changes—Racial Differences in the Structure and Function of the Taste Organs. | [116] |
| X | Evolution of Taste Sensitivity of the Unicellular Organisms—“The Chemical Sense”—Chemical Sense in Fishes—Land-Dwelling Animals. | [128] |
| XI | Gustatory Imagination and Memory The Nature and Frequency of Mental Images—Mental Images of Taste—Taste in Dreams and in Hallucinations. | [144] |
| XII | Unusual and Abnormal Taste Experiences Gustatory Hallucinations and Auræ—Partial and Complete Ageusia—Taste Hallucinations of the Insane—Synæsthesias of Taste—Perversions of Taste. | [151] |
| XIII | Food and Flavor The Biological Rôle of Taste—Taste and Digestion—Experimental Evidences—The Function of Taste in the Organic Economy. | [158] |
| XIV | The Æsthetic Value of Taste The Higher and Lower Senses—Bounty of Nature and Ecclesiastical Censorship—The Psychophysical Attributes—The Tendency to Adaptation—Spatial Attributes of Taste Qualities—Immediate Affective Value of Taste—Development in the Individual and the Race—The Imaginative Value of Taste—The Non-Social Character of the Lower Senses—The Unsystematic Relations of Taste Qualities—The Motive of Æsthetic Products. | [168] |
| Index | [197] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Diagram showing relations between the taste qualities | [40] |
| Sketch of the tongue | [69] |
| Diagram showing some of the various courses which have been advocated for the taste fibers in man | [88] |
THE SENSE OF TASTE
CHAPTER I
The Qualities of Taste
The Taste Manifold
The casual observer would probably feel that any attempt to enumerate and arrange in a logical scheme the infinitude of tastes and flavors would be an impossible task. To him it might seem that nearly everything in the world possessed its own peculiar taste. Such an observer would also be likely to think it impossible and thankless to attempt to reduce to their necessary limits the various kinds of substance of which this infinitude of things is made up. But the chemist would readily be able to show him that the infinitude of substances consisted, as a matter of fact, only of various forms and combinations of less than one hundred “elements,” and that from these elements one could produce, by appropriate selection and apportionment, any one of the infinitude of substances.