TASTE. 353 



touched with a fluid, which has a stroug- taste, such 

 as vinegar, applied by means of a camel-hair 

 pencil, they will be seen to become elongated by 

 the action of the stimulus; an effect which probably 

 always accompanies the perception of taste. 



The primary use of this sense, the organ of 

 which is placed at the entrance of the alimentary 

 canal, is evidently to guide animals in the choice 

 of their food, and to warn them of the introduction 

 of a noxious substance into the stomach. With 

 respect to the human species, this use has been, in 

 the present state of society, superseded by many 

 acquired tastes, which have supplanted those ori- 

 ginally given to us by nature; but in the inferior 

 animals it still retains its primitive office, and is a 

 sense of great im[)ortance to the safety and welfare 

 of the individual, from its operation being coin- 

 cident with those of natural instincts. If, as it is 

 said, these instincts are still met with among men 

 in a savage state, they are soon weakened or effaced 

 by civilization. 



The tongue, in all the inferior classes of ver- 

 tebrated animals, namely Fishes, Reptiles, and 

 Birds, is scarcely ever constructed with a view to 

 the reception of delicate impressions of taste; being 

 generally covered with a thick, and often horny 

 cuticle ; and being, besides, scarcely ever employed 

 in mastication. This is the case, also, with those 

 quadrupeds which swallow their food entire, and 

 which cannot, therefore, be supposed to have the 

 sense of taste much developed. 



Insects which are provided with a tongue or a 

 proboscis may be conceived to exercise the sense 

 of taste by means of these organs. But many 



VOL. II. A A 



