258 TASTE BUDS. [BOOK in. 



of the one closely resemble the rod cells of the other, and the 

 subsidiary cells of the taste-bud are clearly analogous to the 

 cylinder cells of the olfactory mucous membrane ; and much that 

 we urged as to the relative values of the rod cells and cylinder 

 celb of the olfactory membrane may be applied to the rod cells 

 and subsidiary cells of the taste-buds. The resemblance is carried 

 still further in the case of the olfactory organ of some of the lower 

 animals. In these the olfactory membrane is not a continuous 

 sheet, but is broken up into patches by the intervention of non- 

 olfactory epithelium, and the isolated patches often take on the 

 form of nests very similar indeed to taste-buds. It is obvious 

 that the senses of taste and smell are closely akin, and in the 

 peculiar organs distributed over the skin of some of the lower 

 animals such as those along the lateral line in fishes, we probably 

 have to do with structures which subserve a sense not exactly 

 that of smell or of taste as we ourselves experience these 

 sensations, but of something intermediate between the two, or 

 possibly between both of them and the more general sense of 

 touch. 



