Table Of Content

H II The reason £H X.v i flcTrwTii a liTiMfll EL :&> CD jO) I IRVING and RUTH ADL Van Home Librar % ^ w II llll II II II II 3 0433 00000 513° V/- \ I ^ 6l2 Ad Adler, Irving TASTE, TOUCH AND SMELL JM l i DATE DUE OCT 2 6 ffifr oct 24 rca* AW Z 5- ^~ The "Reason Why 9 Books i TOUCH TASTE, AND SMELL Irving and Ruth Adler The John Day Company New York THE "REASON WHY" BOOKS AIR ATOMIC ENERGY ATOMS AND MOLECULES THE CALENDAR COAL COMMUNICATION DIRECTIONS AND ANGLES ENERGY THE EARTH'S CRUST EVOLUTION FIBERS HEAT HOUSES INSECTS AND PLANTS IRRIGATION: CHANGING DESERTS TO GARDENS LANGUAGE AND MAN LEARNING ABOUT STEEL THROUGH THE STORY OF A NAIL MACHINES MAGNETS NUMBERS OLD AND NEW NUMERALS: NEW DRESSES FOR OLD NUMBERS OCEANS RIVERS SETS SHADOWS STORMS TASTE, TOUCH AND SMELL THINGS THAT SPIN TREE PRODUCTS WHY? A BOOK OF REASONS WHY AND HOW? A SECOND BOOK OF REASONS YOUR EARS YOUR EYES Copyright © 1966 by Irving and Ruth Adler All rights reserved. No part of this hook may be reprinted, or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrievalsystem, without permission in writingfrom the Publisher. The John Day Company, 257 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10010 an IntexJ publisher Published on thesame day in Canada by Longman Canada Limited. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 66-11448 Printed in the United States ofAmerica Fifth Impression Contents Natural Teaching Machines 4 The Electrical Network Inside You 6 Messages to the Brain 8 The Skin Senses 10 Touch 12 Experiments with Touch 14 Pressure 17 Hot and Cold 19 Pain 22 Getting Used to Sensations 28 Pain-killers 30 Anesthetics and Surgery 33 Animal Taste and Smell 36 Man's Sense of Smell 38 Facts and Theories About Smell 40 Man's Sense of Taste 44 Word List 47 3 Natural Teaching Machines Your senses are natural teaching machines. They teach you everything you know about the world around you. They help you perceive (pur-SEEVE). Youperceive shapes, sizes, distances and colors through your eyes with your sense ofsight You perceive sounds through your . ears with your sense of hearing. Your eyes and your ears are your most important sense organs.* You can perceive shapes, sizes and sounds with your sense of touch, too. There are other things, however, that you can perceive with your sense of touch that you cannot perceive as easily with your eyes and ears. With your sense of touch you can tell easily whether some- • See YOUR EYES and YOUR EARS by the same authors, The John Day Company, New York. ' SEP1* -^ . v2^ £v thing is hard or soft or rough or smooth. You have other senses with which you perceive things that your eyes and ears cannot perceive at all. You perceive tastes with special organs in your mouth and smells with special organs in your nose. Taste and smell are called chemical senses because it is the chemicals in things that make it possible for you to taste and smell them. You can feel whether something is hot or cold. You can feel something pressing We against your skin. call this feeling pressure (PRESH-er). You can also feel f < pain. Pressure, pain, heat, cold and touch are called skin senses because they are all perceived through the skin. This book is about your skin senses and your chemical senses. The Electrical Network Inside You Your body is made up of small parts called cells (SELLS). There are many different kinds of cells in your body. There are bone cells and blood cells. There are muscle cells, skin cells and nerve cells. Each kind of cell has its own special job to do. There are some nerve cells whose job it is to make the senses work. They are called sensory nerve cells. Another name for a nerve cell is a neuron (NYOU- ron). Every neuron has nerve endings which usually look like the branches of a tree and a nerve fiber or axon (AX-on) which is like a thin thread. The axons of many neurons are covered with a fatty material called myelin (MY-uh-lin). Axon or nerve fiber 6