Dave Anderson wrote: "...the Scoville Organoleptic Test...This test used a panel of five human heat samplers who tasted and analyzed a solution made from exact weights of chile pepper dissolved in alcohol and diluted with sugar water. The pungency was recorded in mutiples of one hundred "Scoville Units" A majority of three of the tasters had to agree before a value was assigned to a given chile or food;" One important concept omitted from the above is that Scoville diluted his samples way out before presentation to his panel. They were asked simply to say whether the sample had any detectable heat at all. The Heat Units were the dilution at which the heat was barely detectable by 3 of the 5 panelists. It is interesting the resolution of the method was to the nearest hundred SHU. This implies three, or maybe even four significant digits, though I would be surprised to have more than two significant digits. However, if range of the samples is from 0 to less than 10,000 SHU, it could be possible to get to the nearest 100 units (2 significant digits) in a maximum of three tastings, each one narrowing the range of SHU. George Nelson 70431.3065@compuserve.com