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it is unquestionably the tongue, which is, in some, 

 as the bee and humming-bird, rolled into a suck- 

 ing tube, and an organ, therefore, not only of 

 taste, but of imbibition ; and, accordingly, when 

 the lips take the same form, as in the wared 

 whelk, and various kinds of fly, we may presume 

 they are an organ, not only of imbibition, but of 

 taste. Acuteness of taste seems to be much pro- 

 moted by a copious flow of saliva, by which the 

 sapid particles are dissolved ; and it may be pre- 

 sumed, therefore, that it is much greater in the 

 herbivorous, than in the carnivorous birds and 

 quadrupeds, as indeed the necessity which the 

 former are under, but from which the latter are 

 exempt, of distinguishing wholesome from delete- 

 rious herbs, would seem to require. Carnivorous 

 animals, on the other hand, are directed to their 

 food principally by the smell ; and how much 

 they excel those which are herbivorous in this 

 function has been already noticed. 



The organ of touch the most general of the 

 sensations, and of which all the rest are perhaps 

 only varieties is, collectively speaking, the whole 

 surface of the bodies of animals ; although it is, 

 in each, much more delicate in certain parts of 

 this surface than in others, owing to the greater 

 number of papillae with which they are furnished, 

 and which are generally the immediate instru- 

 ment, as well of touch as of taste. The common 

 integuments of the bodies of animals in general 

 consist principally of the scarf-skin or cuticle, a 



