50 HISTORY OF 



sons, from disorder, retain an incurable aversion 

 to those smells which most pleased them before ; 

 and many have been known to have an antipathy 

 to some animals, whose presence they instantly 

 perceived by the smell. From all this, therefore, 

 the sense of smelling appears to be an uncertain 

 monitor, easily disordered, and not much missed 

 when totally wanting. 



The sense most nearly allied to smelling is that 

 of tasting. This some have been willing to con- 

 sider merely as a nicer kind of touch, and have 

 undertaken to account, in a very mechanical man- 

 ner, for the difference of savours. Such bodies, 

 said they, as are pointed, happening to be applied 

 to the papillae of the tongue, excite a very power- 

 ful sensation, and give us the idea of saltness. 

 Such, on the contrary, as are of a rounder figure, 

 slide smoothly along the papillae, and are perceiv- 

 ed to be sweet. In this manner they have, with 

 minute labour, gone through the variety of ima- 

 gined forms in bodies, and have given them as 

 imaginary effects. All we can precisely determine 

 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 ex- 

 tremely dry, no taste whatever ensues. The sen- 

 sation 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 



