In Burmah and Sumatra a mess is made by pounding together prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish; this is frequently allowed to become partially putrid.  It is largely used as a condiment for mixing with their rice.  Numerous examples of this sort could be given.  There is scarcely anything that it is possible to eat, but has been consumed with relish by some tribe or other.  The strongest flavoured, and to our minds most disgusting foods are eaten by the least intelligent and most brutal races.  It is hunger that compels the poor African bushman to eat anything he can get, and the Hottentot not only the flesh, but the entrails of cattle which die naturally, and this last he has come to think exquisite when boiled in beast-blood.  All this shows a wonderful range of adaptability in the human body, but it would not be right to say that all such food is equally wholesome.  The most advanced and civilised races, especially the more delicately organised of them are the most fastidious, whilst it is the most brutal, that take the most rank and strongly flavoured foods.  Even amongst the civilised there are great differences.  The assimilative and nervous systems can be trained to tolerate injurious influences to a remarkable degree.  A striking example is seen in the nausea commonly produced by the first pipe of tobacco, and the way the body may in time be persuaded, not only to tolerate many times such a quantity without manifesting any unpleasant feelings, but to receive pleasure from the drug.  Opium or laudanum may be taken in gradually increasing quantities, until such a dose is taken as would at first have produced death, yet now without causing any immediate or very apparent harm.  Nearly all drugs loose much of their first effect on continued use.  Not only is this so, but a sudden discontinuance of a drug may cause distress, as the body, when free from the artificial stimulation to which it has become habituated, falls into a sluggish or torpid condition.  For the enjoyment of food two things are equally necessary, a healthy and keen appetite and suitable food; without the first no food, however good and skilfully prepared, will give satisfaction.  The sense of taste resides in certain of the papilloe of the tongue, and to a much less degree in the palate.  Tastes may be classified into sweet, bitter, acid and saline.  Sweet tastes are best appreciated by the tip, acid by the side, and bitter by the back of the tongue.  Hot or pungent substances produce sensations of general feeling, which obscure any strictly gustatory sensations which may be present at the same time.  To affect the taste the food must enter into solution.  Like the other senses, taste may be rendered more delicate by cultivation.  Flavours are really odours, and the word smell would be more appropriate.  For example, what we call the taste of an onion, the flavour of fruit, etc. (independent of the sweetness or sourness of the fruit) is due to the nose.