420 PROPERTIES AND FUNCTIONS 



taste; with the olfactory nerves that we may smell, 

 as well as in contact with the papillae of the skin 

 that we may feel, although to the former, and especially 

 to the olfactories, a substance must be presented in a 

 more attenuated form. 



The sense of taste in the most perfect animals resides 

 in the papillae of the tongue, and palate. In insects it 

 is supposed by some naturalists to reside in the antennae 

 in combination with the sense of touch. The duck tribe 

 are capable of distinguishing the quality of their food in 

 the mud, and it is difficult to tell whether the sense of 

 taste resides in their mandibles together with that of 

 smell and touch or not. 



The organ of taste is so situated that it may be truly 

 called the guardian of the stomach ; for before food can 

 enter that organ, its noxious or its salutary qualities are 

 subjected to its particular scrutiny. The tongue must be 

 moistened with saliva, and the food must partially be dis- 

 solved before the sense of taste can be excited, or the 

 qualities of the food ascertained. If the tongue is per- 

 fectly dry, as it sometimes is rendered by disease, the 

 sense of taste is vitiated, if not annihilated. This sense, 

 like all the other senses in man, is often perverted, so 

 that substances which were originally unpleasant, become 

 highly delicious and agreeable. This is never the case 

 with animals. Their taste remains as pure as when 

 originally formed. They are not subjected to the ca- 

 prices of fashion or fastidious flights of ever varying 

 fancy. An-imals have no compounds, but they eat their 

 food in its simple state. They know of no medley messes, 

 in which a poison may be swallowed without perceiving it. 



In such animals as have nostrils, the sense of smell 

 resides in the nerves that are distributed on the mem- 

 brane which lines them. The acuteness of this sense 

 differs in different animals. The dog has it in a much 

 more perfect state than man. It is generally found that 

 this sense in its acuteness is in proportion to the extent 

 of the membrane that is exposed. In dogs, and in most 

 quadrupeds, it possesses a variety of folds, whereby a 

 large surface is exposed. In birds it extends to 

 the extreme points of the nostrils. In the elephant 



