It has nothing to do with Glorantha particularly, but until good scientific tests became available, tasting urine was part of the standard diagnostic test for diabetes. The medical profession had it rough back then!
I had a great little 1920's medical textbook as a CofC prop (my character was a forensic pathologist - very good for avoiding SAN loss for seeing dead people). My favourite snippet was that the treatment for narcotic overdose was a hot coffee enema!
> I half remember that there is a theory that there is an extra
>flavour sense above sweet/sour/bitter/salt. This flavour
>is associated with mushrooms and some of the flavours of Thai cooking.
>I think that the flavour enhancing effects of adding worcestershire
>sauce to dishes is a way of adding this extra flavour. Sorry to be
>so vague. Does this factoid ring any bells out there?
It doesn't sound like how I remember taste working. I thought that you got the basic four, and all the rest was just a reaction from your sense of smell. Apple and onion taste very similar if you can't smell it. The four basic tastes are the ones that you can sense with your tongue alone, and the rest are what you can sense with your nose as well. I don't know how 'heat' of chilis and such fits in, though - you can feel it with all sorts of body parts it you are silly enough to let chilli oil get there!
Of course, there are probably a few extra tastes known to trolls. I suspect trolls are fairly picky about texture, as well.
Cheers
Dave Cake
------------------------------
Powered by hypermail