CARPS. 209 



ous, are doubtless delicate organs of touch ; and, 

 being principally conferred on such species as 

 habitually grovel on the bottom, they may be 

 intended to compensate for the lack of light 

 in such situations, as an aid for the discovery and 

 trial of substances proper for food. The tongue, 

 in most fishes, appears not to be an organ of 

 taste ; when it projects at all into the mouth, 

 it is commonly covered with integuments, which 

 are callous and void of sensitive papillae,* or else 

 these are hardened and sharpened into bony teeth, 

 studding its surface, and denying the power of 

 sensation. " The integuments of the palate, 

 however, not unfrequently present that degree of 

 vascularity, and supply of nerves, which indicate 

 some selective sense, analogous to taste. In the 

 Carps, the palate is cushioned with a thick, soft 

 vascular substance, exuding mucus by numerous 

 minute pores, but more remarkable for its irri- 

 table, erectile, or contractile property ; if you 

 prick any part of this in a live Carp, the part, 

 rises immediately into a cone, which slowly sub- 

 sides ; this peculiar tissue is richly supplied by 

 branches of the glosso-}')haryngeal nerves '^^ it 

 may assist in the requisite movements of the 

 vegetable food, as well as add to it an animalizing 

 and solvent mucus, whilst it is undergoing masti- 

 cation by the pharyngeal teeth." % 



These teeth themselves are interesting from 

 their position and nature. The lower pharyngeal 



* The minute pimples or wart-like eminences that thickly cover 

 the human tongue, and give it its peculiar spongy appearance. 



t The nerves which go off to the gullet, the back of the mouth and 

 the tongue. 



X Owen's Comp. Anat. ii. 230. 



P 



