Taste, Touch and Smell

56 Pages·1966·8.925 MB·English

by  Irving Adler, Ruth Adler

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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 ma-
chines. 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.
'
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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
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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