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■ 



■ 

 SECT. XIV. 



OF TASTE. 



234. We perceive tastes by the tongue and in some 

 degree by the other neighbouring internal cutaneous 

 parts of the mouth, especially by the soft palate, the 

 fauces, the interior of the cheeks, and lips ; by them, 

 however, we taste only what is acrid and very bitter.* 



235. The chief organ of taste is the tongue,f agile, 

 obsequious, changeable in form, and, in its remarkably 

 fleshy nature, not unlike the heart. 



236. Its integuments resemble the skin. They are an 

 epithelium, performing the office of cuticle; the reti- 

 culum Malpighianum ; X and a papillary membrane, 

 but little different from the corium. 



237. The integuments of the tongue differ from the 

 skin chiefly in these respects — in the epithelium being 

 moistened, not by the oily fluid of the skin, but 

 by a mucus which proceeds from the foramen caecum 

 of Meibomius§ and the rest of the glandular expan- 



* Grew, Anatomy of Plants, p. 284 sq. 



Petr. Luchtmans, De Saporibus et Gustu. LB. 1758. 4to. p. 58 sqq. 



J. Gottl. Leidenfrost, De sensu qui in faucibus est, ob eo qui in lingua 

 exercetur, diverso. Duisb. 1771. 4to. 



•f Sommerring, Icones Organorum Humanorum Gustus. Francof. 1808. fol. 



X In dogs and sheep with variously coloured skin, I have commonly found 

 the reticulum of the tongue and fauces also of various colours. 



§ Consult Just. Schrader, Observat. et Histor. from Harvey's book De Gene- 

 ration Animalium. p. 186. 



