PERCEPTIONS OF ANIMALS. 511 



performing some sensitive function ; and tlieir 

 situation would point them out as fitting tliem for 

 the appreciation of objects presented to the mouth 

 to be used as food : hence it is probable that the 

 perceptions they convey have a close affinity with 

 those of smell and taste. 



The palate of the Carp is furnished with a very 

 singular organ, of a reddish grey colour, soft and 

 fleshy in its texture, abundantly supplied with 

 nerves, and having the appearance of a gland. It 

 is exceedingly irritable, immediately becoming 

 swollen and turgid on the slightest puncture, or 

 even touch of a foreign body. The sensations it 

 conveys are probably analogous to those of taste : 

 but the precise nature of its function can only be 

 matter of conjecture.* The larger cartilaginous 

 fishes, as Sharks and Rays, have been supposed 

 by Treviranus to be endowed with a peculiar sense, 

 from their having an organ of a tubular structure 

 on the top of the head, and immediately under the 

 skin. Roux considers it as conveying sensations 

 intermediate between those of touch and hearing ; 

 while De Blainville and Jacobson regard it merely 

 as the organ of a liner touch. 



The perceptive powers of Insects must embrace 

 a very different, and in many respects, more ex- 

 tended sphere than our own. These animals mani- 

 fest by their actions that they perceive and anti- 

 cipate atmospheric changes, of which our senses 

 give us no information. It is evident, indeed, that 

 the impressions made by external objects on their 

 sentient organs must be of a nature widely different 



* Cuvicr, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, i. 352. 



