The Special Senses 



247 



taste and flavor influence nutrition by affecting the digestive 

 process, so the various odors about us have an important 

 bearing upon respiration. 



/^383. The Marvelous Sense of Sight. Sight is well 

 regarded as the highest and the most perfect of all our 

 senses. It plays so com- 

 mon a part in our daily 

 lives that we scarcely 

 appreciate the marvelous 

 gift. Sight is essential not 

 only to the simplest mat- 

 ters of daily comfort and 

 necessity, but is also of 

 prime importance in the 

 culture of the mind and 

 in the higher forms of 

 pleasure. It opens to us 

 the widest and the most 



varied range of observa- FIG. 128. Distribution of Nerves over the 



Interior of the Nostrils. (Outer wall.) 



A, branches of the nerves of smell, olfactory 

 nerve, or ganglion ; B, nerves of common 

 sensation to the nostrils ; E, F, G, nerves 

 to the palate springing from a ganglion at 

 C; //, vidian nerve, from which branches 

 Z>, 7, and / spring to be distributed to the 

 nostrils. 



tion and enjoyment. 



Unlike the senses of 

 taste and smell, the sense 

 of vision seems to make us 

 aware of the existence of 

 objects which are entirely 

 apart from us and have no direct or material link connect- 

 ing them with our bodies. 



4 384. The Eye. Apart from its uses, the eye itself is an 

 interesting and instructive object of study. It presents 

 beyond comparison the most beautiful example of design 

 and artistic workmanship to be found in the bodily structure. 

 It is the watchful sentinel and investigator of the external 

 world. 



