The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (suggested reading .TXT) 📕

to the

brain, through the nervous conduits. It insinuates itself into the

same places, and follows the old road. It produces the same, but

less intense effects.

 

I could easily ascertain the reason of this. When man is impressed

by an external object, sensation is sudden, precise, and

involuntary. The whole organ is in motion. When on the contrary,

the same impression is received in sleep, the posterior portion of

the nerves only is in motion, and the sensation is in consequence,

less distinct and positive. To make ourselves more easily

understood, we will say that when the man is awake, the whole

system is impressed, while in sleep, only that portion near the

brain is affected.

 

We know, however, that in voluptuous dreams, nature is almost as

much gratified as by our waking sensations; there is, however,

this difference in the organs, for each sex has all the elements

of gratification.

 

When the nervous fluid is taken to our brain, it is always

collected in vats, so to say, intended for the use of one of our

senses, and for that reason, a certain series of ideas, preferable

to others, are aroused. Thus we see when the optic nerve is

excited, and hear when those of the ear are moved. Let us here

remark that taste and smell are rarely experienced in dreams. We

dream of flowers, but not of their perfume; we see a magnificently

arranged table, but have no perception of the flavor of the

dishes.

 

This is a subject of enquiry worthy of the most distinguished

science. We mean, to ascertain why certain senses are lost in

sleep, while others preserve almost their full activity. No

physiologist has ever taken care of this matter.

 

Let us remark that the influences we are subject to when we sleep,

are internal. Thus, sensual ideas are nothing after the anguish we

suffer at a dream of the death of a loved child. At such moments

we awake to find ourselves weeping bitterly.

 

NATURE OF DREAMS.

 

Whimsical as some of the ideas which visit us in dreams may be, we

will on examination find they are either recollections, or

combinations of memory. I am inclined to say that dreams are the

memory of sensations.

 

Their strangeness exists only in the oddity of association which

rejects all idea of law and of chronology, of propriety and time.

No one, however, ever dreamed of any thing absolutely unknown to

him.

 

No one will be amazed at the strangeness of our dreams, when we

remember, that, when awake, our senses are on the alert, and

respectively rectify each other. When a man sleeps, however, every

sensation is left to his own resources.

 

I am inclined to compare these two conditions of the brain, to a

piano at which some great musician sits, and who as he throws his

fingers over the keys recalls some melody which he might harmonize

if he use all his power. This comparison may be extended yet

further, when we remember that reflection is to ideas, what harmony

is to sounds; that certain ideas contain others, as a principle

sound contains the others which follow it, etc. etc.

 

SYSTEM OF DR. GALL.

 

Having followed thus far a subject which is not without interest,

I have come to the confines of the system of Dr. Gall who sustains

the multiformity of the organs of the brain.

 

I cannot go farther, nor pass the limits I have imposed on myself:

yet from the love of science, to which it may be seen I am no

stranger, I cannot refrain from making known two observations I

made with care, and which are the more important, as many persons

will be able to verify them.

 

FIRST OBSERVATION.

 

About 1790 there was in a little village called Gevrin, in the

arrondissement of Belley a very shrewd tradesman named Landot, who

had amassed a very pretty fortune.

 

All at once he was stricken with paralysis. The Doctors came to

his assistance, and preserved his life, not however without loss,

for all of his faculties especially memory was gone. He however

got on well enough, resumed his appetite and was able to attend to

his business.

 

When seen to be in this state, all those with whom he ever had

dealings, thought the time for his revenge was come, and under the

pretext of amusing him, offered all kinds of bargains, exchanges,

etc. They found themselves mistaken, and had to relinquish their

hopes.

 

The old man had lost none of his commercial faculties. Though he

forgot his own name and those of his servants, he was always

familiar with the price-current, and knew the exact value of every

acre and vineyard in the vicinity.

 

In this respect his judgment had be en uninjured, and the

consequence was, that many of the assailants were taken in their

own snares.

 

SECOND OBSERVATION.

 

At Belley, there was a M. Chirol, who had served for a long time

in the gardes du corps of Louis XV. and XVI.

 

He had just sense enough for his profession, but he was

passionately fond of all kinds of games, playing l’hombre, piquet,

whist, and any new game that from time to time might be

introduced.

 

M. Chirol also became apoplectic and fell into a state of almost

absolute insensibility. Two things however were spared, his

faculty for digestion, and his passion for play.

 

He used to go every day to a house he had been used to frequent,

sat in a corner and seemed to pay no attention to any thing that

passed around him.

 

When the time came to arrange the card parties, they used to

invite him to take a hand. Then it became evident that the malady

which had prostrated the majority of his faculties, had not

affected his play. Not long before he died, M. Chirol gave a

striking proof that this faculty was uninjured.

 

There came to Belley, a banker from Paris, the name of whom I

think was Delins. He had letters of introduction, he was a

Parisian, and that was enough in a small city to induce all to

seek to make his time pass agreeably as possible.

 

Delins was a gourmand, and was fond of play. In one point of view

he was easily satisfied, for they used to keep him, every day,

five or six hours at the table. It was difficult, however, to

amuse his second faculty. He was fond of piquet and used to talk

of six francs a fiche, far heavier play than we indulged in.

 

To overcome this obstacle, a company was formed in which each one

risked something. Some said that the people of Paris knew more

than we; and others that all Parisians were inclined to boasting.

The company was however formed, and the game was assigned to M.

Chirol.

 

When the Parisian banker saw the long pale face, and limping form

opposed to him, he fancied at first, that he was the butt of joke:

when, however, he saw the artistic manner with which the spectre

handled the cards, he began to think he had an adversary worthy of

him, for once.

 

He was not slow in being convinced that the faculty yet existed,

for not only in that, but in many other games was Delins so beaten

that he had to pay more than six hundred francs to the company,

which was carefully divided.

 

RESULT.

 

The consequences of these two observations are easily deduced. It

seems clear that in each case, the blow which deranged the brain,

had spared for a long time, that portion of the organ employed in

commerce and in gaming. It had resisted it beyond doubt, because

exercise had given it great power, and because deeply worked

impressions hatf exerted great influence on it.

 

AGE.

 

Age has great influence on the nature of dreams.

 

In infancy we dream of games, gardens, flowers, and other smiling

objects; at a later date, we dream of pleasure, love, battles, and

marriages; later still we dream of princely favors, of business,

trouble and long departed pleasures.

 

PHENOMENA OF DREAMS.

 

Certain strange phenomena accompany sleep and dreams. Their study

may perhaps account for anthropomania, and for this reason I

record here, three observations, selected from a great many made

by myself during the silence of night.

 

FIRST OBSERVATION.

 

I dreamed one night, that I had discovered a means to get rid of

the laws of gravitation, so that it became as easy to ascend as

descend, and that I could do either as I pleased.

 

This estate seemed delicious to me; perhaps many persons may have

had similar dreams. One curious thing however, occurs to me, which

I remember, I explained very distinctly to myself the means which

led me to such a result, and they seemed so simple, that I was

surprised I had not discovered it sooner.

 

As I awoke, the whole explanation escaped my mind, but the

conclusion remained; since then, I will ever be persuaded of the

truth of this observation.

 

SECOND OBSERVATION.

 

A few months ago while asleep I experienced a sensation of great

gratification. It consisted in a kind of delicious tremor of all

the organs of which my body was composed, a violet flame played

over my brow.

 

Lambere flamma comas, et circum temporo pasci.

 

I think this physical state did not last more than twenty seconds,

and I awoke with a sensation of something of terror mingled with

surprise.

 

This sensation I can yet remember very distinctly, and from

various observations have deduced the conclusion that the limits

of pleasure are not, as yet, either known or defined, and that we

do not know how far the body may be beatified. I trust that in the

course of a few centuries, physiology will explain these

sensations and recall them at will, as sleep is produced by opium,

and that posterity will be rewarded by them for the atrocious

agony they often suffer from when sleeping.

 

The proposition I have announced, to a degree is sustained by

analogy, for I have already remarked that the power of harmony

which procures us such acute enjoyments, was totally unknown to

the Romans. This discovery is only about five hundred years old.

 

THIRD OBSERVATION.

 

In the year VIII (1800,) I went to bed as usual and woke up about

one, as I was in the habit of doing. I found myself in a strange

state of cerebral excitement, my preception was keen, my thoughts

profound; the sphere of my intelligence seemed increased, I sat up

and my eyes were affected with a pale, vaporous, uncertain light,

which, however, did, not enable me to distinguish objects

accurately.

 

Did I only consult the crowd of ideas which succeeded so rapidly,

I might have fancied that this state lasted many hours; I am

satisfied, however, that it did not last more than half an hour,

an external accident, unconnected with volition, however, aroused

me from it, and I was recalled to the things of earth.

 

When the luminous apparition disappeared, I became aware of a

sense of dryness, and, in fact, regained my waking faculties. As I

was now wide awake, my memory retained a portion of the ideas

(indistinctly) which crossed my mind.

 

The first ideas had time as their subject. It seemed to me that

the past, present and future, became identical, were narrowed down

to a point, so that it was as easy to look forward into the

future, as back into the past. This is all I remember of this

first intuition, which was almost effaced by subsequent ones.

 

Attention was then directed to the senses,