OF SMELL. 159 



On the septum and the turbinated bones it is fungous 

 and abounds in mucous cryptae. 



In the frontal, sphenoidal, ethmoidal, and maxillary 

 sinuses, it is extremely delicate, and supplied with 

 an infinite number of blood-vessels which exhale an 

 aqueous dew. 



242. It appears the principal, not to say the sole, use 

 of the sinuses,* to supply this watery fluid, which is 

 perhaps first conveyed to the three meatus of the nos- 

 trils and afterwards to the other parts of the organ, 

 preserving them in that constant state of moisture which 

 is indispensable to the perfection of smell. 



The sinuses are so placed, that, in every position of 

 the head, moisture can pass from one or other of them 

 into the organ of smell. 



243. The principal seat of smell, the fungous por- 

 tion of the nasal membrane, besides numerous blood- 

 vessels, remarkable for being more liable to sponta- 

 neous hemorrhage than any others in the body, is sup- 

 plied by nerves, chiefly the first pair,f which are dis- 

 tributed on both sides of the septum narium, and also 

 by two branches of the fifth pair. The former appear 

 to be the seat of smell : ^ the latter to serve for the com- 

 mon feeling of the part, which excites sneezing, &c. 



* In my Prolus. de Sinibus Frontal. Getting. 1779. 4to. I have brought 

 forward many arguments from osteogeny, comparative anatomy, and patho- 

 logical phenomena, to prove that these sinuses contribute indeed to the 

 smell, but little or nothing to voice and language as was believed by many 

 physiologists. 



f Metzger, Nervorum Primi Paris Historia. Argent. 1766. 4to. reprinted 

 in Sandifort's Thesaurus. Vol. iii. 



Scarpa, slnatomic. Annotat. L. ii. tab. i. ii. 



J This is shewn by pathological dissection and comparative anatomy. Thus 

 in Loder's Oliserv. Tumoris Scirrhosi in bast eranii reperti. Jen. 1779. 4to. is 



