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CHAPTER III. 



TASTE. 



THE senses of taste and smell are intended ta convey im- 

 pressions resulting from the chemical qualities of bodies, the 

 one in the fluid, the other in the gaseous state.* There is 

 a considerable analogy between the sensations derived from 

 these two senses. The organ of taste is the surface of the 

 tongue, the skin of which is furnished with a large propor- 

 tion of blood vessels and nerves. The vascular plexus im- 

 mediately covering the corium is here very visible, and forms 

 a distinct layer, through which a great number of papilla 

 pass, and project from the surface, covered with a thin cuti- 

 cle, like the pile of velvet. In the fore part of the human 

 tongue these papillae are visible even to the naked eye, and 

 especially in certain morbid conditions of the organ.t They 

 are of different kinds; but it is only those which are of a co- 

 nical shape that are the seat of taste. If these papilla? be 

 touched with a fluid, which has a strong taste, such as vine- 

 gar, applied by means of a camel-hair pencil, they will be 

 seen to become elongated by the action of the stimulus, an 

 effect which probably always accompanies the perception of 

 taste. 



* Bellini contended that the different flavors of saline bodies were owing 

 to the peculiar figures of their crystalline particles. It is strange that Dumas 

 should have thought it worth while seriously to combat this extravagant hy- 

 pothesis, by a laboured refutation. 



j- This is particularly the case in scarlatina, in the early stage of which dis- 

 ease they are elongated, and become of a bright red colour, from their mi- 

 nute blood vessels being distended with blood. As the fever subsides, the 

 points of the papillae collapse, and acquire a brown hue, giving rise to the 

 appearance known by the name of the strawberry tongue. 



