The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental GastronomyBrillat-Savarin
Philosophy
The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy
Brillat-Savarin
Gastronomy
This state of things lasted some time, and all said he suffered
from the indigestion caused by truffles; at last nature came to
the patient's aid, and Mr. S-- opened his mouth and threw up a
single truffle, which struck the wall and rebounded, luckily
without injury to the by-standers.
All unpleasant symptoms at once disappeared, tranquility was
restored, digestion recommenced its course, the patient went to
sleep and awoke in the morning perfectly well.
The cause was easily understood, Mr. S--had been eating a long
time, and his teeth were unable to sustain the labor imposed on
them. He had lost many of those precious members, and those he had
left did not always meet together.
A truffle had thus escaped mastication, and almost whole had been
swallowed. Digestion had carried it to the pylorus where it was
momentarily detained, and this mechanical detention had caused all
his trouble, as expulsion had cured it.
Thus there was no indigestion, but merely the interposition of a
foreign body.
This was decided on by the consulting body, which saw the corpus
delicti, and which selected me as its reporter.
Mr. S-- did not on this account remain a whit less fond of
truffles. He always attacked them with the same audacity, but was
very careful to swallow them with more prudence. He used to thank
God that this sanitary precaution had prolonged his life and his
enjoyments.
Section VIII. SUGAR.
In the present state of science we understand by sugar a substance
mild to the taste, crystalizable, and which by fermentation
resolves itself into carbonic acid and alcohol.
By sugar once was understood only the crystalized juice of the
cane, (arundo saccharifera.)
A few pages of old authors would induce us to think the ancients
had observed in certain arundines a sweet and extractible portion.
Lucanus says:
"Qui bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos."
Between water sweetened by the juice of the cane, and the sugar we
have, there is a great difference. Art in Rome was not far enough
advanced to accomplish it.
Sugar really originated in the colonies of the New World. The cane
was imported thither two centuries ago and prospered, and effort
was made to utilize the juice which flowed from it, and by gradual
experiments they accomplished the manufacture of all the variety
of its productions we know of.
The culture of the sugar cane has become an object of the greatest
importance; it is a great source of wealth both to the cultivators
and the vendors, and also to the taxes of governments who levy an
import on it.
INDIGENOUS SUGAR.
It has long been thought that tropical heat was not needed to form
sugar. About 1740 Morgroff discovered that many plants of the
temperate zones, and among others the beet contained it.
Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, circumstances
having made sugar scarce, and consequently dear, the government
made it an object for savants to look for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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