Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's 1825 treatise on the mouth and ingestion

This article quotes and discusses Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's musings on the mouth and ingestion as described in his book The Physiology of Taste. The book was first published in France in December 1825, and is still widely read as a key work in Gastronomy today. The mouth is intimately related to the acts of chewing, swallowing and eating and it would be interesting to report an early 19th century epicurean's views on the mouth.

Passages from Brillat-Savarin's book describing the functions of the teeth and tongue and the acts of tasting, chewing, and swallowing are quoted in full. Anecdotes also include one on the horrifying punishment of having one's tongue removed and another illustrating the poor oral health found among Europeans of that era.

His work offers a unique glimpse into how a 19th century gastronome viewed the oral cavity and its gastronomical functions. While some of his writings may appear archaic and antediluvian to the modern reader; others relating to, for example chewing and swallowing, are surprisingly accurate by contemporary standards. Nonetheless, the gastronomic savant seemed to know a lot right about modern stomatology!