MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



883 



tions assumed and dismissed : how 

 numerous are the permutations, how 

 Tarious, yet how infallible? Arbi- 

 trary and antic yariety is not the 

 thing we admire; but variety obey- 

 ing a rule conducing to an effect, 

 and commensurate with exigencies 

 infinitely diversified. I believe also 

 that the anatomy of the tongue 

 corresponds with these observations 

 upon its a6tivity. The muscles of 

 the tongue are so numerous and so 

 implicated with one another, that 

 they cannot be traced by the nicest 

 disscdtion ; nevertheless, which is a 

 great perfection of the organ, nei- 

 ther the number, nor the complexi- 

 fy, nor what might seem to be the 

 entanglement of its fibres, in any 

 wise impede its motion, or render 

 the determination or success of its 

 elForts uncertain.* 



In fa6l, the constant warmth and 

 moisture of the tongue, the thin- 

 ness of the skin, the papillte upon 

 its surface, qualify tliis organ for its 

 office of tasting, as much as its in- 

 extricable multip/iicity of fibres do 

 for the rapid movements which are 

 necessary to speech. Animals wliich 

 feed upon grass, have their tongues 

 covered with a perforated skin, so 

 as to admit the dissolved food to the 

 papilla: underneath, w'lich, in the 

 mean time, remain defended from 

 the rough action of the unbruiscd 

 $piciihc. 



There arc brought together within 

 the cavity of the mouth more dis- 



tinct nscs, and parts executing more 

 distinct oiPices, than I think can be 

 found lying so near to one another, 

 or within the same compass, in any 

 other portion of the body, viz. 

 teeth of different shape; first for 

 cutting, secondly for grinding : mus- 

 cles, most artificially disposed for 

 carrying on the compound motion 

 of tlie lower jaM', half lateral, and 

 half vertical, by which the mill is 

 Avorked: fountains of saliva, spring- 

 ing up in different parts of the ca- 

 vity, for the moistening of the food, 

 whilst the mastication is going on: 

 glands to feed the fountains : a mus- 

 cular constri6tion of a very pecu- 

 liar kind in the back part of the 

 cavity, for the guiding of the pre- 

 pared aliment into its passage to- 

 wards the stomach, and in many 

 cases for carrying it along that pas- 

 sage: for, although we may ima- 

 gine this to be done simply by the 

 M eight of the food itself, it in truth 

 is not so, even in the upright pos- 

 ture of the human neck ; and most 

 evidently is not the case with quad- 

 rupeds; with a horse, for instance, 

 in which, when pasturing, the food 

 is thrust upward by muscular 

 strength, instead of descending of 

 its own accord. 



In the mean time, and within the 

 same cavity, is going on another bu- 

 siness, altogether difl'erent from what 

 is here described, that of respira- 

 tion and speech. In addition, there- 

 fore, to all that has been muntioned, 



* I here entreat the reader's permission to step a little out of my way to consider 

 the parts of the muutli in some of tlicir other properties. It lias been said, and 

 that by an eminent plivsiuioi^ist, that, whenever nutiire attempts to work two or 

 more purposes by one instrument, slie does both or all inipcrt'ectly. Is tliis true 

 of the tuuj^ue, regarded as an instrument of S|jeecli, and of taste : or reanriled as 

 nn instrument of speed), of taste, and of dcKJutition ? So mncli otlierwise, that 

 many per'ons, thiit is fo sav, nine hundred and uinety-niiie persons out of a tliou- 



, iKuid, by tlie lujtruuientality of this one organ, talk, ami taste, uimI swallow, veiy 



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