128 Animal Morphology. 



result of abnormal action from disease, rather than that of 

 normal action in health. 



Again, in pairing off the senses, each pair may be divided 

 into the active and reposing senses, though repose and action 

 are here used merely as comparative terms. Smell and sight 

 are those senses in mammalia chiefly used in the chase and 

 pursuit of food. 



The sense of force is the one chiefly engaged in 

 locomotion, and moving the body from one place to 

 another ; and the sense of want or hunger is the initiatory 

 or prime mover of all the rest, and rouses the other senses 

 to action. 



Taste, hearing, and tactile touch, with softness, smooth- 

 ness, etc., are all more or less brought into use when the 

 range of the active senses is applied to a limited area, and 

 more bound by external conditions. An animal grazes 

 whilst very slowly moving or standing, and man sits and 

 eats. The notes of birds are given when near to each 

 other, to apprise their fellows of distant danger seen, or else 

 to soothe and cheer a mate whilst sitting upon the nest . 

 Sustained notes appear to be rarely used during much 

 motion or intense watching, so that the pleasurable in- 

 dulgence, both in sounds and taste, is only known under 

 circumstances of comparative stillness and inaction. Tactile 

 touch is chiefly in action when more active locomotion has 

 ceased. 



So between all the senses there is a kind of comparative 

 activity in one, and quietude in the other; whilst the sense of 

 hunger, being due to certain states of blood, during repletion, 

 a complete negation is given for a while, to its activity, to be 

 again brought into activity by fasting. 



It is curious to observe that this one sense, having no- 

 proper couplet, and in wild animals is the proper initiative 

 sense to put into action the rest, has in itself a kind of nega- 



