Has Water a Specific Taste?

Abstract

IN 1949 it was found that water applied to the tongue of the frog elicited an electrical response from the glossopharyngeal nerve¹. This response was produced by specific fibres². It was first thought that these ‘water’ fibres might serve a particular purpose in Water regulation in amphibians living in fresh water. These findings also revived the old problem of whether warm-blooded animals and man possess similar specific taste fibres mediating what we might call a water taste. The late Prof. David Katz of Stockholm, who believed this to be the case, often asked in his examinations: What is the taste of water? The correct answer was ‘wet’.