TOUCH. 277 



Serpents, from the great flexibility of their spine, are ca- 

 pable of grasping an'd twining round objects of almost any 

 shape, and of taking, as it were, their exact measure. This 

 conformation must be exceedingly favourable to the acqui- 

 sition of correct perceptions of touch. As it is these per- 

 ceptions, which, as we shall afterwards find, lay the founda- 

 tion of the most perfect acquaintance with the tangible pro- 

 perties of surrounding bodies, we may presume that this 

 power contributes much to the sagacity possessed by these 

 animals. It has been said of Serpents, that their whole body 

 is a hand, conferring some of the advantages of that instru- 

 ment. Hellman has shown that the slender bifurcated 

 tongue of these animals is used for the purposes of touch.* 



In those species of Lizards which are enabled by the 

 structure of their feet to clasp the branches of trees, as the 

 Gecko and the Chameleon, and whose tails also are prehen- 

 sile, we must, for the same reason, presume that the sense 

 of touch exists in a more considerable degree than in other 

 saurian reptiles, which do not possess this advantage The 

 toes of Birds are also well calculated to perform the office of 

 organs of touch, from the number of their articulations and 

 their divergent position, and from the papillae with which 

 their skin abounds, accompanied as they are with a large 

 supply of nerves. Those birds, which, like the Parrot, em- 

 ploy the feet as organs of prehension, probably enjoy a 

 greater development of this sense. The skin which covers 

 the bills of aquatic birds is supplied by very large nerves, 

 and consequently possesses great sensibility. This struc- 

 ture enables them to find their food, which is concealed in 

 the mud, by the exercise of the sense of touch residing in 

 that organ. A similar structure, probably serving a similar 

 purpose, is found in the Ornithorhyncus. 



Among Mammalia, we find the seat of this sense frequent- 

 ly transferred to the lips, and extremity of the nostrils, and 



the fish, while lurking in ambush, as a decoy to other fishes, which they en- 

 tice by their resemblance to worms. 

 * Quoted by Blumenbach. 



