ANIMALS. 229 



happening to be applied to the papillae of the tongue, excite a very 

 powerful sensation, and give us the idea of saltness. Such, on the 

 contrary, as are of a rounder figure, slide smoothly along the oapillse, 

 and are perceived to be sweet." In this manner they have, with 

 minute labour, gone through the variety of imagined forms in bodies, 

 and have given them as imaginary effects. All we can precisely de- 

 termine upon the nature of tastes is, that the bodies to be tasted must 

 be either somewhat moistened, or, in some measure, dissolved by the 

 saliva, before they can produce a proper sensation: when both the 

 tongue itself, and the body to be tasted, are extremely dry, no taste 

 whatever ensues. The sensation is then changed ; and the tongue, 

 instead of tasting, can only be said, like any other part of the body, 

 to feel the object. 



It is for this reason that children have a stronger relish of tastes 

 than those who are more advanced in life. This organ with them, 

 from the greater moisture of their bodies, is kept in greater perfec- 

 tion; and is, consequently, better adapted to perform its functions. 

 Every person remembers how great a pleasure he found in sweets, 

 while a child ; but his taste growing more obtuse with age, he is 

 obliged to use artificial means to excite it. It is then that he is found 

 to call in the assistance of poignant sauces, and strong relishes of salts 

 and aromatics; all which the delicacy of his tender organ, in child- 

 hood, were unable to endure. His taste grows callous to the natural 

 relishes, and is artificially formed to others more unnatural ; so that 

 the highest epicure may be said to have the most depraved taste; as 

 it is owing to the bluntness of his organ, that he is obliged to have 

 recourse to such a variety of expedients to gratify his appetite. 



As smells are often rendered agreeable by habit, so also tastes may 

 be. Tobacco and coffee, so pleasing to many, are yet, at first, very 

 disagreeable to all. It is not without perseverance that we begin to 

 have a relish for them; we force nature so long, that what was con 

 straint in the beginning, at last becomes inclination. 



The grosse'st, and yet the most useful of all the senses, is that of 

 feeling. We are often seen to survive under the loss of the rest; but 

 of this we can never be totally deprived, but with life. Although this 

 sense is diffused over all parts of the body, yet it most frequently hap- 

 pens that those parts which are most exercised in touching, acquire 

 the greatest degree of accuracy. Thus the fingers, by long habit, be- 

 come greater masters in the art than any others, even where the sen- 

 $;Uion is more delicate and fine.* It is from this habit, therefore, and 

 their peculiar formation, and not, as is supposed, from their being fur- 

 nished with a greater quantity of nerves, that the fingers are thus per- 

 fectly qualified to judge of forms. Blind men, who are obliged to use 

 them much oftener, have this sense much finer; so that the delicacy 

 of the touch arises rather from the habit of constantly employing the , 

 fingers, than from any fancied nervousness in their conformation. 



All animals that are furnished with handst seem to have more un 

 derstanding than others. Monkeys have so many actions like those 

 of men, that they appear to have similar ideas of the form of bodies 



* Buffon, vol. vi. p. 80. f Ibid. vol. v 1 p 82 



