The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (bearly read books txt) 📖

fever.

 

People are not always able to resist thirst so long: in 1787, one

of the hundred Swiss of Louis XVI., died from having been twenty-four hours without drink.

 

He was at a cabaret with some of his comrades, and as he was about

to carry his glass to his lips, he was reproached with drinking

oftener than the rest, and with not being able to do a moment

without it.

 

He then made a bet of ten bottles of wine, that he would not drink

for twenty-four hours.

 

He ceased at once, and sat by, for two hours, seeing the others

drink.

 

The night passed well enough, but at dawn he found it difficult to

do without his habitual glass of brandy.

 

All the morning he was uneasy and troubled; he went hither and

thither without reason, and seemed not to know what he was about.

 

At one o’clock he laid down, fancying he would be calmer: he was

really sick, but those about him could not induce him to drink. He

said he could get on till evening: he wished to gain his bet, and

it is probable also, that some military pride was mingled in the

matter, which prevented him from yielding to pain.

 

He kept up until seven o’clock, but at half-after seven was very

sick and soon died, without being able to swallow a glass of wine

which was presented to him.

 

I was informed of all these details that very night, by the Sieur

Schneider, the fifer of the hundred Swiss, in the house of whom I

lived at Versailles.

 

CAUSES OF THIRST.

 

Many circumstances, either united or separate, contribute to

thirst. We shall mention some which are not without influence on

our habits.

 

Heat augments thirst. Whence comes the disposition men have always

had to build their habitations near the sea.

 

Corporeal labor augments thirst. Persons who employ labourers,

always gratify them by drink—hence the proverb that wine given

them is always well sold.

 

Dancing increases thirst, and for this reason the ball-room is

always supplied with invigorating drinks.

 

Declamation also increases thirst, which accounts for the glass of

water readers always seek to drink with grace, and which is always

beside the white handkerchief on the desk.

 

Genesiac pleasure excites thirst, and accounts for the poetical

descriptions of Cyprus, Amathonte, Gnidus, and other homes of

Venus, in which there are always shady groves and murmuring

streamlets.

 

Song augments thirst, and therefore all vocalists are said to be

such huge drinkers. A musician myself, I protest against this

assertion, which has neither rhyme nor reason.

 

The artists in our saloons drink with as much prudence as

sagacity; what they lose in this, however, they atone for on the

other side; if not given to drink, they are untiring gourmands, so

much so, that I am told at the Circle of Transcendental Harmony,

[Footnote: A well known “Musical Society.”] the festivals of St.

Cecile lasted twenty-four hours.

 

EXAMPLE.

 

Exposure to a rapid current of air, causes a rapid augmentation of

thirst, and I think the following observations will be read with

pleasure by all the lovers of the chase.

 

It is well known that quail are fond of huge mountains, where

their broods are in more safety, from the fact that the harvests

are later.

 

When the rye is cut, they go into the barley and oats; and when

the latter is being harvested, they go into that portion which is

less matured.

 

This is the time to shoot them; because in a small number of

acres, are found all the birds which a few months before were

strewn through a whole commune and are at that time fat as

possible.

 

I went with some friends for the purpose of shooting to a mountain

in the arrondissiment of Nantua, in the canton known as plan

d’Hotonne, where we were about to commence the day’s work under a

brighter sun than any Parisian badaud ever saw.

 

While we were at breakfast a violent north wind arose which was

much in the way of our sport: we however continued.

 

We had scarcely been out a quarter of an hour, when the most

effeminate of the party said he was thirsty. We now, doubtless,

would have laughed at him, had we not all experienced the same

sensation.

 

We all drank, for an ass loaded with refreshments followed us, but

the relief afforded was of brief duration. The thirst soon

appeared with increased intensity, so that some fancied themselves

sick, and others were becoming so, and all talked of returning. To

do so was to have travelled ten leagues for no purpose.

 

I had time to collect my ideas, and saw the reason of this strange

thirst; and told them we suffered from the effects of three

causes. The dimunition of atmospheric pressure made our

circulation more rapid. The sun heated us, and walking had

increased transpiration. More than all these—the wind dried up

this transpiration, and prevented all moistness of the skin.

 

I told them that there was no danger, that the enemy was known,

and that we must oppose it.

 

Precaution however was ineffectual, for their thirst was

quenchless. Water, wine and water, and brandy, all were powerless.

We suffered from thirst even while we drank, and were

uncomfortable all day.

 

We got through the day, however; the owner of the domain of Latour

entertaining us, joining the provisions we had, to his own stores.

 

We dined very well and got into the hay-loft, where we slept

soundly.

 

The next day’s experience showed my theory to be true. The wind

lulled, the sun was not so warm, and we experienced no

inconvenience from thirst.

 

But a great misfortune had befallen us. We had very prudently

filled our canteens, but they had not been able to resist the many

assaults made on them. They were bodies without souls, and we all

fell into the hands of the cabaret-keepers.

 

We had to come to that point, not however without murmuring. I

addressed an allocution full of reproaches to the wind, when I saw

a dish fit to be set before a king, “D’epinards a la graisse de

cailles,” destined to be eaten with a wine scarcely as good as

that of Surene. [Footnote: A village two leagues from Paris,

famous for its bad wine. There is a proverb which says that to get

rid of a glass of Surene, three things are needed, “a drinker and

two men to hold him in case his courage fail.” The same may be

said of Perieux, which people however will drink.]

 

MEDITATION IX.

 

ON DRINKS. [Footnote: This chapter is purely philosophical: a

description of different kinds of wine does not enter into the

plan I have marked out for myself. If it was, I would never have

finished my book.]

 

By drinks we mean all liquids which mingle with food.

 

Water seems to be the natural drink. Wherever there is animal life

it is found, and replaces milk. For adults it is as necessary as

air. WATER. Water is the only fluid which really appeases thirst,

and for that reason only a small quantity of it can be drank. The

majority of other fluids that man drinks are only palliatives, and

had he drank nothing else he never would have said that he drank

without being thirsty. QUICK EFFECT OF DRINKS. Drinks are absorbed

by the animal economy with the most extreme facility. Their effect

is prompt and the relief they furnish is almost instantaneous.

Give the most hungry man you can meet with the richest possible

food, he will eat with difficulty. Give him a glass of wine or of

brandy, and at once he will find himself better.

 

I can establish this theory by a very remarkable circumstance I

received from my nephew, Colonel Guigard, a man not disposed to

tell long stories. All may rely upon the accuracy of what he has

said.

 

He was at the head of a detachment returning from the siege of

Jaffa, and was but a few hundred paces from the place where he

expected to find water, and where he met many of the advanced

guard already dead with heat.

 

Among the victims of this burning climate was a carabinier who was

known to many persons of the detachment.

 

Many of his comrades who approached him for the last time, either

to inherit what he had left, or to bid him adieu, were amazed to

find his limbs flexible and something flexible around his heart.

 

“Give him a drop of sacre chien” said the lustig of the troupe.

“If he is not too far gone into the other world, he will come back

to taste it.”

 

At the reception of the first spoonful of spirits he opened his

eyes: they then rubbed his temples and gave him a drop or two.

After about an hour he was able to sit up in the saddle.

 

He was taken to a fountain, nursed during the night, and carefully

attended to. On the next day he reached Cairo.

 

STRONG DRINKS.

 

There is one thing very worthy of attention; the instinct which

leads us to look for intoxicating drinks.

 

Wine, the most pleasant of all drinks, whether due to Noah who

planted the vine, or to Bacchus who expressed the juice of the

grape, dates back to the infancy of the world. Beer, which is

attributed to Osiris, dates to an age far beyond history.

 

All men, even those we call savages, have been so tormented by the

passion for strong drinks, that limited as their capacities were,

they were yet able to manufacture them.

 

They made the milk of their domestic animals sour: they extracted

the juice of many animals and many fruits in which they suspected

the idea of fermentation to exist. Wherever men are found, strong

liquors are met with, and are used in festivities, sacrifices,

marriages, funeral rites, and on all solemn occasions.

 

For many centuries wine was drank and sung before any persons had

an idea that it was possible to extract the spirituous portion,

which is the essence of its power. The Arabs, however, taught us

the art of distillation, invented by them to extract the perfume

of flowers, and especially of the rose, so celebrated in their

poems. Then persons began to fancy that in wine a source of

excitement might be found to give taste a peculiar exaltation. By

gradual experiments alcohol, spirits of wine, and brandy were

discovered.

 

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids, and takes possession of the

extreme tastes of the palate. Its various preparations offer us

countless new flavors, and to certain medicinal remedies, it gives

an energy they could not well do without. It has even become a

formidable weapon: the natives of the new world having been more

utterly destroyed by brandy than by gunpowder.

 

The method by which alcohol was discovered, has led to yet more

important results, as it consisted in the separation and

exhibition of the constituent parts of a body, it became a guide

to those engaged in analogous pursuits, and made us acquainted

with new substances, such as quinine, morphine, strychnine and

other similar ones.

 

Be this as it may, the thirst for a liquid which nature has

shrouded in veils, the extraordinary appetite acting on all races

of men, under all climates and temperatures, is well calculated to

attract the attention of the observer.

 

I have often been inclined to place the passion for spirituous

liquors, utterly unknown to animals, side by side with anxiety for

the future, equally strange to them, and to look on the one and

the