ON THE TONGUE 



545 



That concluding link is supplied by the anatomical and 

 histological union of the spongy excreting bodies known 

 as the tonsils, whose function we have elsewhere described 

 as cerebro-excretory, with the matrix of the tongue and its 

 abounding, amorphous, indefinite, semi-effete elements, 

 and the more or less wide and otherwise unoccupied inter- 

 fibro-muscular spaces. Here, then, we claim to see the 

 theatre of one of the concluding acts of the great cerebro- 

 excretory circulation and the final disposal of the residual 

 pituitary material, which finds its way into the pituitary 

 gland, and which in turn finds its way through the lateral 

 sphenoidal foraminal openings into the tonsillar bodies, 

 and thence into the amorphous and semi-adipose material 

 matrix, in the inter-muscular spaces of the tongue, where it 

 affords that semi-plastic and faintly fluid material in the 

 discharge of which the epithelial covering and papillary 

 structures of that organ are constantly engaged. Should 

 the truth of these contentions be established, and their 

 physiological importance in the economy of health become 

 a matter of orthodox belief, then it will follow that any 

 pathological departure from the normal structural or 

 functional conditions of the parts involved may become a 

 matter of supreme pathological moment and a morbid 

 entity of the greatest consequence the recognition, there- 

 fore, of such a condition will be of proportionately great 

 importance, and a complete understanding of the normal 

 condition of the parts involved will become a sine qua non 

 in forming a diagnosis, in indicating the lines of treatment, 

 and in dictating a prognosis. 



The display of a suspicious appearance, or an unmistak- 

 able departure from the normal condition on the part of 

 the tongue of its surface arrangements as to " fur," should 

 at once sound "a note of warning " to the observant 

 practitioner and indicate to him that a morbid process is in 

 embryo, or has already made progress along this pathological 

 way. Such displays may vary from the slightest suspicion 

 to the most fully developed example of the abnormal, 

 and their teaching and appreciation become a pathological 

 volume, which has continued to be added to, and more or 

 less scientifically read, since the foundation of the healing art. 



The faint suspicion and the fully evolved example of 



2 M 



