Chocolates That Bite Back
Recently as I bit into a chocolate, I felt a strange tingling sensation in my tooth. I’d failed to notice that some of the foil wrapping was still stuck to the chocolate. The resulting unpleasant tingle was due to a modest electric shock. The combination of my amalgam dental filling and the aluminium foil, surrounded by saliva, made a very simple battery. When the foil touched my filling, a chemical reaction occurred. Since saliva is a moderately good conductor of electricity, an electric current flowed between the two different metals. People with the newer white fillings miss the tingle, since non-metals don’t conduct electricity.
You can experience a similar sensation if you put a copper wire and an iron nail into a lemon and touch them with the tip of your tongue.
In 1762, the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani showed that an electric current was produced when any two dissimilar metals were submerged in salt water. He demonstrated the electricity by stimulating the nerves in frog legs to make them twitch.
Some brave people have actually chomped into foil chocolates on purpose and in total darkness in front of a mirror. They claim to have seen tiny bursts of light as their teeth bit into the foil. Even though I love chocolates, that’s the kind of experiment I leave to others.
So next time you bite into a chocolate, be careful to remove all the wrapping, or it might bite back.
Many of us have had the experience of having a piece of tinfoil touch our metal fillings - especially when eating those little chocolate Easter eggs with their brightly coloured foil wraps. Little did we know that we were creating a battery in our mouth. A shocking experience!
Our mouth can be the source of some pretty unpleasant experience, not only for ourselves but for others. We rarely consider the opportunities our mouths have to encourage or to discourage others, to bless or to curse them, to heal or to wound. Our mouths can speak words of wisdom or of foolishness. So much power is carried in a word.
Yet the words that proceed from our mouth have had their origin in our heart and mind. They flow out of our inner being. Our emotions and our thoughts come out in what we say, as well as what we do. Often times we don’t consider our words beforehand. Less frequently do we understand our own motives and the secrets of our own hearts.
Sometimes we draw on examples of others as we’ve seen them in action. We imitate their kindness and altruism, their harshness and critical spirit. At other times, there are emotional triggers - experiences from our past which continue to haunt our present situation. Sometimes it is a matter of our own personalities, our strengths and our weaknesses. Today, take some time to reflect on the sources of our conversations and comments. Do we like what we see? How well do we understand ourselves?
As we’ve considered our words and their source, we have been looking into the motivating factors in our hearts and minds. Words are, in effect, a measuring stick of what’s happening inside. I suppose it is similar to a thermometer, gauging our internal temperature.
Listen to these ancient Jewish proverbs which should shed some light on today’s theme: ‘The mouth of the righteous is a well of life.’ ‘The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom.’ ‘Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.’
Consider the power in your words today. They can build up or tear down. They can give life or drain it away.
Dr. David Humphreys and Debbie Hughes
© August 2004
