Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/718

 702 Condiments act principally upon the nervous system. Some of them, for instance, excite the nerve termini of the mucous membrane of the digestive canal, whence the excitation or stimulus passes to certain centres in the intestine, or to more remote centres in the spinal cord, the brain, etc. Others of them, having been absorbed in the blood, reach the central organ of the nervous system, and act upon it. Passing beyond all these nerve-centres, their influence may extend farther, and may, through the intestinal canal, affect portions of the system which have no direct relation to digestion.

Bearing all this in mind, we perceive that the term condiment is commonly used in too restrictive a sense, being applied to but a few of the substances which act upon the system in the manner above indicated. There is no reason why we should give the name of condiments only to those substances which produce agreeable and useful stimulation in the nervous system, either by exciting the palate or by entering: into the blood. The site of the excitation is immaterial, and cannot determine whether a substance is or is not properly a condiment. The first effects produced by sundry agents not commonly regarded as condiments—tea and coffee, for example—are at bottom the same as those produced by the condiments. As for those substances which produce their effects only when they have entered into the blood, and which have nothing to do with digestion, these have been regarded as condiments if they are absorbed by the intestinal canal, as caffeine; or by the nasal mucous membrane, as the nicotine of snuff. To be consistent, we must give the same name of condiment to sundry substances which are not at all eaten. This will readily be admitted with regard to the sense of smell, since many dishes, instead of pleasing by their flavor, please rather by their agreeable odor. The volatile elements of food, by gratifying the sense of smell, become true condiments. The same is to be said of other volatile elements which are not derived from articles of food, such as the fragrance of flowers, etc.

The excitation of the organs of taste or of smelling produces, in certain determinate portions of the brain, corresponding agreeable sensations. The process is essentially the same in the case of sensations of hearing or of seeing. Hence we might reckon among condiments the vibrations of the ether, and those of sound. However wide the difference between the pleasure we experience in the contemplation of a Madonna by Raffaelle [sic], the hearing of one of Beethoven's symphonies, inhaling the fragrance of a rose, and tasting a savory fruit, still these have all something in common. External causes will always produce a movement in the nerves, and this will be transmitted to certain points of the central organ, where it will give rise to sensations; and thence again there may be transmitted to still other centres other nerve-influences, which will produce simultaneous action in other points.

The term condiment, as commonly used, is taken in too restricted