The Taste End-Organs of the Chicken

THIS histological study of the taste buds of the chicken is part of an extensive investigation being carried out at Cornell concerning all phases of the sense of taste of domestic fowl. Numerous two-choice preference trials revealed that chickens possess a chemical sensitivity of a much higher order than previously recognized. (Kare et al., 1957.) In these trials certain organic compounds were detected in very dilute solutions, some being consistently rejected while others were preferred over pure water. These reactions of the birds could not be correlated with any physical or chemical property of the solutions, such as the viscosity, surface tension, osmotic pressure, pH, or molarity (Kare, 1958). The rejection of solutions as dilute as 1/25,000 lead one to consider this sense to be one of taste and not merely a common chemical sense. It is interesting to note that these solutions have barely any taste to man. A …