TRANSACrrOXS OP THK SECTIONS. 129 



the College of Surgeons' museum, has observed (before be was aware 

 of Panizza's experiments) in Dr. Todd's Cyclopmdia, in the article upon 

 Birds, that he never could discover any nerve corresponding with that 

 which in mammalia is called the gustatory nerve in the tongues of birds, 

 and that the glosso-pharyngeal ney've is freely distributed amongst the 

 soft papilla of the tongue, and lost where the tip in some birds is covered 

 with a horny cuticle. The glosso-pharyngeal nerve moreover, is not 

 found in fishes, which have no papillae for the propagation of taste, but 

 the organ of smell powerfully developed, and whilst the fifth and the 

 ninth branches are liberally distributed. In the assumed function of 

 the glosso-pharyngeal nerve we find a close analogy to the optic nerve 

 and the retina ; the latter possess no sense of common feeling or tact, 

 but they are the media of a specific sense exclusively of all other sen- 

 sations, and have no influence upon motion ; and such appears to be 

 the character of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve. 



Anatomy, both human and comparative, appears to corroborate the 

 notion of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve being that which ought properly 

 to be termed in future " gustatory"; at the same time we may 

 ascribe "tactile sensibility" to the lingual branches of the fifth, and de- 

 glutition and mastication to those of the ninth pair of nerves exclusively. 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



On the Theory of British Naval Architecture. By Henry Chatfield, 

 Naval Architect. 



The author, after noticing the general disadvantage under which this 

 country has laboured from not having applied the principles of science 

 to ship-building, and the insufficiency of the experiments hitherto made 

 on the construction and qualities of ships, proposes as a means of re- 

 ducing the theory of British naval architecture to correct principles, to 

 make it a part of an official system in the department of naval architec- 

 ture to register, in a very systematic manner, the minutest calculations 

 by which it is attempted to predict a ship's qualities at sea; and to make 

 an equally systematic arrangement of faithfully observed results to which 

 the calculated predictions refer. Comparisons might thus be instituted 

 which would tend gradually to the establishment of correct principles 

 in cases where pure mathematics are insufficient. 



Mr. Chatfield contrasts with the precise information which would 

 thus be gathered, the vague notions, rather than data, which have been 

 collected in the official reports of what are called " ships' sailing quali- 

 fications" ; replies to objections which have been urged against the at- 

 tempt at numerical precision in recording observations of this nature 

 made at sea, by showing that the nature of the problems to be solved 

 requires accurate data expressed numerically ; admits that to prosecute 

 the subject in an adequate manner and with a reasonable chance of suc- 



voL. v. — 183G. K 



