Major Price’s Extracts from the Mualijat-i-Dard Shekohi. 45 
But the superior excellence of one sense above another in the irrational 
animal is different from what it isin man. In some cases it may be similar, 
while in others it is the very reverse. In the irrational animal I shall then 
say that the sense of touching is the more perfect, because it pervades the 
whole body; the more useful, because it enables the animal the more readily 
to perceive and avoid the dangers which might otherwise prove its destruc- 
tion, and through the attraction of the sexual intercourse to seek its mate, 
and in the act of procreation to preserve its species from extinction. In 
the sense of taste the usefulness to animals consists in its enabling them to 
select their food. 
But the sense of touching in irrational animals excels that of taste, 
inasmuch as in them the sense of taste is peculiarly feeble. Being little 
capable of discriminating flavours, it is through the mere operation of their 
digestive powers, and the cravings of hunger, that they become inclined to 
their food. That the sense of tasting does not enable them to distinguish 
that which is pleasing from what is disagreeable, is particularly observable 
in fish and granivorous birds, which swallow their food without masti- 
cation. By the sense of touching, on the other hand, they are directly able 
to reject that which is injurious or hurtful, and, as already observed, dis- 
posed to pair and continue their species. 
The sense of hearing is to irrational animals useful, but in a small degree, 
since there are many animals entirely destitute of it: such are serpents, 
fish, ants, mice, locusts, some birds, and many others that might be men- 
tioned. But being unnecessary to their existence, and to the powers of 
propagation, to animals the most important property, it has been thus 
denied them. 
Of the sense of smelling, the advantage to animals consists in its enabling 
them the better to distinguish in their food that which is wholesome from 
what is noxious or injurious—to reject among vegetables that which is poi- 
sonous, and in water that which is salt or otherwise deleterious. By this 
sense it is that the animal distinguishes in vegetables that which is destined 
for its peculiar sustenance. In the sense of smelling, indeed, it is considered 
that irrational animals excel beyond all others; for do we not see that it is 
by the sense of smell that the pointer or spaniel discovers its prey in the flood 
or on the field? that the industrious ant in the earth perceives the grain of 
corn scattered at its door, and is thus enabled to convey it to his nest. 
