Word: saliva
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...lung has become much more prevalent in recent years, cancer of the mouth has not. Medical researchers have been puzzled by this, since cancer-causing agents, e.g., tobacco tar, reach the lungs through the mouth. In the Journal of the American Dental Association, investigators offer two tentative explanations: saliva has a protective effect, though whether this is brought about simply by washing away the cancer agent or by combating it chemically is not known; the tissues of the mouth are so constructed as to constitute a kind of "physiological barrier" against the entry of cancer agents...
Animal tests support both explanations. Mice develop skin cancer (which resembles lung cancer because of the similarity of the tissues) after a single painting of methylcholanthrene outside the mouth, but they resist repeated paintings inside. However, if their saliva glands are removed and the mouth becomes ulcerated, they become susceptible to cancer. These results are consistent with observed cases of human mouth cancer. Such cases are rare among both smokers and betel-nut chewers with good teeth. But they are relatively common in individuals with jagged teeth or ill-fitting dentures that may have worn through the "physiological barrier...
...sounds . . . combined with the urgency of the need and the final insufficiency of all attempts to satisfy it ... The sound is turned up and up until it reaches the physical level of pain . . . One addict told me he would not be satisfied until he could hear the drop of saliva from the French horns...
...begins with Parry snarling around the track, sinking into what he calls his "competitive trance," beneath which lies the quick temper of a scalded hog. When the spirit moves him, he snatches up the shot in his left hand, licks the fingers of his right hand and rubs the saliva on the back of his neck. This is not superstition. The thin lamination of moisture is meant to keep the shot from clinging an instant too long to the side of Parry's neck, where it rests before...
...ensembles, it cuts through the other voices like a Damascus blade, clean and strong. But after the first hour of a performance, it tends to become strident, and late in a hard evening, begins to take on a reverberating quality, as if her mouth were full of saliva. But the special quality of the Callas voice is not tone. It is the extraordinary ability to carry, as can no other, the inflections and nuances of emotion, from mordant intensity to hushed delicacy. Callas' singing always seems to have a surprise in reserve. With the apparently infinite variety...