THE HOESE. 



89 



Beneath it are seated numerous mucous 

 follicles, that elevate it everywhere into lit- 

 tle papillcB, which are perforated by the 

 mouths of these follicular glands, as may 

 be readily seen with the naked eye by evert- 

 ing either the superior or the inferior lip. 

 The skin covering the lips is extremely 

 thin, and possesses considerable vascularity 

 and sensibility. To the tenuity of it, and 

 to the shortness and scantiness of their 

 pilous covering, is to be ascribed the su- 

 perior sensitive faculty of these parts. 



" CHEEKS. 



" The cheeks are constituted substantially 

 of the masseter and buccinator muscles, 

 covered by the skin upon the outside, and 

 the buccal membrane upon the inside. 

 Their internal or membranous surface is 

 studded with scattered mucous follicles, 

 whose excretory orifices may be seen by 

 everting the part. 



" GUMS. 



" The gums consist of dense, compact, 

 prominent, polished masses, of the nature 

 of periosteum, adhering so closely and 

 tenaciously to the teeth and the sides of 

 then* sockets, that it renders the one insep- 

 arable from the other, but by extraordinary 

 mechanical force. Like other parts of the 

 cavity of the mouth, they receive a cover- 

 ing from the buccal membrane. 



" PALATE. 



" Two distinct parts are included under 

 this head ; the hard and the soft palate. 

 The hard palate is constituted of the pala- 

 tine processes of the superior and anterior 

 maxillary bones ; and of a firm, dense, 

 periosteum-like substance, the vaulted, in- 

 ward part of which is elevated into several 

 semicircular ridges, vulgarly called the bajs. 

 The fibres of this substance, which pos- 

 sess great tenacity, are inserted into the 

 pores of the bone in every part, but are 

 most numerous and dense along the pala- 

 tine suture : the interstices are filled up by 

 a dense cellular tissue, through the sub- 



12 



stance of which are dispersed the ramifica- 

 tions of the palatine vessels and nerves. 



" The soft palate, sometimes called the 

 velum palaii, is attached to the superior or 

 crescentic border of the hard palate, the 

 border formed by the palatine bones ; from 

 wliich the velum extends backward and 

 downward as far as the larynx, and there 

 terminates over the epiglottis, in close ap- 

 position with that part, in a loose semi- 

 circular edge. In consequence of the 

 velum palati being long enough to meet the 

 epiglottis, the cavity of the mouth has no 

 communication with that of the nose — 

 these two parts forming a perfect septum 

 between them ; hence it is that a horse 

 cannot respire and vomit by the mouth lilic 

 a human being, in whom the velum is so 

 short that there is an open space left be- 

 tween it and the epiglottis, through which 

 air or aliment can pass either upward or 

 downward. The soft palate is composed 

 of extensions of membrane from the nose 

 and mouth, between which is interposed a 

 pale, thin layer of muscular fibres. ' 



" The velum performs the office of a 

 valve : it prevents the food, in the act of 

 swallowing, from passing into the nose, and 

 it conducts the air from the windpipe into 

 that cavity, without permitting any to 

 escape into the mouth. 



" OF THE TONGUE. 



" The tongue, the principal organ con- 

 cerned in taste and deglutition, is lodged in 

 the mouth ; filling the interspace between 

 the branches of the inferior maxilla. 



'-'■ Duplicitij. — Like the other organs of 

 sense, it is double ; being composed of two 

 parts, whose union is marked by a longitu- 

 dinal crease along its middle, the divisions 

 having no vascular nor nervous connection 

 nor in fact any intercommunication what- 

 ever ; so that an animal has to all intents 

 and purposes tiuo tongues, and apparently 

 for the same reason that he has two eyes, 

 two ears, and two nostrils. Anatomy, as 

 far as we can carry our researches, demon- 

 strates this ; perhaps we have no better 



