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SELECTED ARTICLES.

IS THE SENSATION OF BITTERNESS A NECESSITY?1

BY JOHN URI LLOYD, PHAR. M., CINCINNATI.

In some of the questionings relative to the physics and the chemistry of pharmacy, many radiating lines of thought experimentation steal upon one as possibilities, even though, perhaps, not as probabilities. The discursive imagination of the manipulative pharmacist becomes often a factor, radiating from conditions well known, into things possible, or such as are even deemed impossible. This writer believes that, although brilliant results often ensue from accident, the man who becomes markedly eventful in the evolution of any branch of science, must often allow his imagination to flow into unrecognized channels, perhaps even into questionings that parallel in many directions the creative methods of the novelist. In these he often questions facts recorded under the authority of others, as well as by his own experience. The tracing of a line of theoretical possibilities, based perhaps upon a mere fact that leads only to a mental outreach, brings occasionally a result known afterward to the world as a great discovery. Alas, however, it more often brings failure in all except the pleasure that comes to him who indulges in these imaginative thought outreaches and their connected experimentations.

To this writer, the gymnastics of speculative pharmaceutical manipulation, parasitical to established science, as they may perhaps be viewed, have been exceedingly pleasurable. Lines of such imaginative opportunities and resultant disastrous endings need, however, pass unmentioned, because even to voice such failures in words would be to find one's self perhaps ridiculed by reason of their apparently unscientific or unfounded reasonings. To speculate and succeed becomes the genius. Failure brings only criticism regarding the visionary folly of a dreamer!

Again and again has this writer, in the enthusiasm of restful mental gymnastics, revealed in this or that outgrowth to a germ of fact, thinking to bring it before his friends as a bit of speculative pleasantry. But when the lines were indited, the apparently un

The same question might apply to any other taste-touch, such as sweet, sour, etc. This article is, however, restricted to bitter only. This paper will appear also in the American Druggist, New York City.

founded visions, as well as the impossibilities pertaining thereto, have usually caused such writings to be either laid aside to slumber unseen or to be wantonly destroyed. Then passes a period of momentary auto-hallucination; the awakened, cold-blooded mentality of the speculative wanderer leads perhaps to very severe self-ridicule.

These preliminary remarks may excuse that which follows, and introduce a seemingly visionary dream.

More than twenty-five years ago, under the heading of this article, was published an editorial by this writer, in which the question was asked, "Is the sensation of bitterness in bitter substances a necessity? Are morphine and strychnine and quinine and such typically bitter alkaloids and alkaloidal salts necessarily bitter to the taste?" In that editorial distinctions as regards the shades of bitterness were drawn, contrasting the nauseating bitterness of apocynum with the clear-cut bitterness of quinine sulphate, and the sharper and more persistent bitterness of strychnine, all these substances being bitter, but each being characteristically different from the others. The writer then indulged a cautious criticism of the "Pharmacopeia's" description of blood-root as "bitter," while to him the characteristic tongue touch of that drug related it to peppery rather than to bitter substances. Shadings were progressively drawn from the nauseating bitterness of apocynum and alstonia constricta, down through a chain of relatively decreasing bitter substances, such as strychnine, quinine, morphine, brucine, gentian, hops, and such, to the feeble bitterness of caffeine, until finally it became a question whether the particular substance under discussion was actually bitter or not. The same connection was made between the shadings in peppery substances, such as capsicum, black pepper, "grains of paradise," pepper-grass, bloodroot, and other peppers.

Came then the summing up of it all, and, as concerns the bitter, the questioning: "Is this sensation (nerve touch) that we call bitter an inherent quality of the material, even of alkaloidal entities, or is it due to an unknown something, mingled with the material that is accepted to be bitter because the substance has been known only in bitter form? Is it an inherent quality, unalterably and irrevocably present, or, by excluding an isomer, can the bitterness be overcome without altering the therapeutic or physiological phase of the alkaloid?" The questions were then asked:

"Is morphine necessarily bitter? Is strychnine necessarily bitter? Are the bitter alkaloids and their salts necessarily possessed of this nerve-impression quality? Is it possible to separate from morphine an isomeric something, as yet unknown, that will dispossess the real alkaloid of its bitter alkaloids, and yet leave it possessed of its soporific qualities? Is it thus possible to exclude from strychnine its bitterness, the real toxic agent, remaining physiologically and therapeutically active?"

Take another view of the subject. Is it possible to paralyze the bitter phase of the material and annihilate its bitterness, leaving it yet possessed of its physiological and therapeutical qualities, somewhat as in stereochemistry one looks mentally at a twisted molecule? Or, again, as in catalysis, may a substance, by contact action, render a soluble alkaloidal salt inactive to the taste?

As the imaginings of illogical auto-intoxication or unbalanced self-hallucination must such reasonings as these have appeared to the cold-blooded reader, for no recognition was given the article, and even in the mind of the writer, when the enthusiasm of the radiating thought-explorations had passed, the line of reasoning became dormant, though not extinguished.

In 1898 Prof. Edward Kremers honored the writer by reproducing in the Pharmaceutical Review a letter in which this subject was again intimated, but very conservatively, the printed fragment of the letter being as follows:

"Sensation of Taste.'-I am in receipt of the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin on the 'Action of Solutions on the Sense of Taste." You will note that at the meeting of the A. Ph. A. I called attention to the desirability of having standards of taste established, that can be used for reference, and that in my opinion there should be subdivisions in the standards now used; for example, many different sensations seem to me to be included under the single term sour or bitter. Thus to me the sourness of a diluted solution of muriatic acid is accompanied by a sensation of sweetness that is quite different from any sensation I obtain from a dilution of sulphuric acid or of citric acid carried to the limit of the sense. In other words, the sensation of the diluted muriatic acid is not the same to me as the sour of diluted citric, sulphuric, or lactic acids, and I believe that the pure sour sensations produced by citric, lactic, and sulphuric acids form a class in themselves dif

1 Pharmaceutical Review, December, 1898.

• Pharmaceutical Review, October, 1898.

ferent from the sourness of nitric or muriatic acid. In studying this paper of Mr. Kahlenberg, I find that he has taken up the subject of positive taste sensation, and it seems to me there is a negative side also. In other words, the sensation of taste may be due to contrast, as is due the sensation of cold or of heat to contrast. A body that feels cold to the touch at one time may feel warm at another; so it seems to me that the taste imparted by a substance at one time may be quite different from the taste imparted by the same substance at another time. Thus I believe that a body capable of imparting a certain effect to the tongue can modify the sensation of taste to such an extent as to make the sensation of another body very different from what it would be had it been tasted before the other substance had exerted its influence on the sense of taste. This is seen in the sensation that follows after having eaten very peppery substances, or in the sweetening of coffee or tea after having eaten syrup in quantity. And while I am on this subject of contrasts, I might say that a body absolutely without taste under one condition may (with me) become possessed of a decided taste. think this can be exemplified in no better way than by the following experiment: Dissolve half a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in four ounces of water and drink the solution. Then immediately take a drink of pure distilled water, and it will be seen that the distilled water imparts a sweet taste, as much so as though a solution of sugar were in the mouth under ordinary conditions.

"This leads me to another thought, namely, that Professor Kahlenberg did not consider the change in taste that produces one sensation to begin with and another to end with. Thus if one chews a few twigs of dulcamara he will find that the sensation produced is one of bitter; then let him spit out the magma and note the after-taste that follows. The bitterness will very soon disappear, and in its place will come a sensation of sweet, decidedly sweet, on which account the name dulcamara arose, as well as the common name bittersweet. Other substances possess similar qualities, and I can not tell just how such substances can be defined scientifically, or the action of such substances be explained."

Let us venture now again to reason as concerns possibilities and probabilities. Since the earliest paper mentioned herein, it has been

"The above communication was not sent to be published, but inasmuch as the subject of the definition of color and taste and odor is very likely to be taken up seriously at the next meeting of the Am. Pharm. Ass'n, it will be well to have as much preliminary discussion as possible on the subject. ee also the abstract of Prof. Ayston's address on 'The Physics of Smell.'-E. K." Footnote by the editor of the Pharmaceutical Review.

shown that cocaine will paralyze the nerves so completely that not only does taste become no longer a factor, but that even the dissection of a living creature may be painless; that if the eyes of the person operated upon be closed, a part from the living tissue may be cut away, while yet the mental faculties are normal, without any sensation whatever. The subject of nerve touch and therapeutic action becomes now not merely a utopian vision, as formerly. Greater charity will probably be given him who reasons in paths heretofore untrodden.

To this writer comes again the question, "May there not be a substance that, touched by the tongue, will dispossess it of the power of perceiving the sensation known as bitterness, when comes the bitter substance to the tongue? May there not be a substance that, tasteless in itself, will, when in contact with a bitter material, dispossess it of the quality known as bitter?" And in this seemingly utopian theory, has not nature given us a text? Indeed, has she not combined in the same plant the two qualities of bitter and sweet, so that bitterness disappears and sweet follows, in the same drug? Inasmuch as the sensation of sweet follows the bitter of dulcamara, may there not be a something that, added to a bitter, will reverse the process and suppress or paralyze the bitter, leaving yet the qualities of the agent otherwise unchanged?

To those who believe that such reasonings as these are unbalanced mental radiations, such a paper as this will seemingly appear as a useless waste of mental energy.-Eclectic Medical Journal.

PRACTICAL THERAPEUTIC POINTS.

EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE IN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. BY BEVERLEY ROBINSON, M. D., NEW YORK.

I scarcely ever go the rounds of hospital wards without seeing some new departure in practice based upon later experiments in the laboratory and upon which some new and for the moment satisfying theory of disease and treatment is based. Alas! very soon experiment, theory and treatment disappear and are substituted by something newer, although perhaps no better, and the former methods are said to be erroneous and faulty in many particulars. And so it is and so it has been repeatedly, during many years in my own observation and experience.

The older and conservative man, when he makes doubting

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