SENSE OF TASTE. 



399 



known to Whale-fishers, especially to those who pursue the Spermaceti 

 Whale, that these animals have the power of communicating with each other 

 at great distances. It has often been observed, for example, that when a 

 straggler is attacked, at the distance of several miles from a shoal, a number 

 of its fellows bear down to its assistance, in an almost incredibly short space 

 of time. It can scarcely be doubted, then, that the communication must be 

 made through the medium of the vibrations of the water, excited by the 

 struggles of the animal, or perhaps by some peculiar movements especially 

 designed for this purpose, and propagated through the fluid to the large cuta- 

 neous surface of the distant Whales ; and this idea is fully confirmed by 

 the fact, that the nerves which proceed to the skin, pass through the inner 

 layers of blubber with scarcely any subdivision, but spread out into a net- 

 work of extreme minuteness, as soon as they arrive at the surface. 



3. Sense of Taste. 



527. That this sense may be really considered as a peculiar modification 

 of that of Touch, appears from several considerations. In the first place, the 

 actual contact of the object of sense, with the organ through which the im- 

 pression is received, is here necessary ; and this is the case in regard to no 

 other sense. Moreover the intimate 



structure of the organ is nearly the [Fig. 163. 



same in both instances. Again, it ap- 

 pears from the considerations formerly 

 alluded to ( 407), that there is no 

 special nerve of taste ; the gustative 

 impressions made upon the front of 

 the tongue, being conveyed by the 

 lingual branch of the fifth pair ; whilst 

 those made upon the back of the organ, 

 are conveyed by the glosso-pharyngeal. 

 The first of these nerves also ministers 

 to ordinary tactile sensibility ; the se- 

 cond appears to convey the impres- 

 sions which produce nausea. The 

 papillae of the Tongue are essentially 

 the same in structure with those of 

 the Skin ; but many of them are of a 

 peculiarly complex nature. 



a. The characters of the papillae of the 

 tongue have recently undergone a very careful 

 examination by Messrs. Todd and Bowman 

 (Physiological Anatomy, Chap. xv.). They 

 may be divided, in the first place, into the 

 simple and the compound; the former of which 

 had previously escaped observation, through 

 not forming any apparent projection. The 

 Simple papillae are scattered in the intervals of 

 compound, over the general surface of the 

 tongue ; and they occupy much of the surface 

 behind the circumvallate variety, where no 

 compound papillae exist. They are com- Tongue, seen on iis upper surface: a. One of 

 pletely buried and concealed beneath the the circumvallate papillae, b. One of the fungi- 

 continuous sheet of epithelium, and can only form papilte. Numbers of the conical papillae 

 be detected, when this membrane has been are seen about rf, and elsewhere, e. Glottis, epi- 

 removed by maceration; they are then found 'glottis, and glosso-epiglottidean folds of mucous 



membrane. From Sffimmering.] 



