174 PHYSIOLOGY. 



much impaired by the use of alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and 

 highly seasoned food >; so that the spirit-drinker, the tobacco- 

 chewer, and the epicure often lose this sense to such a de- 

 gree that they cannot relish plain dressed food. That man 

 relishes his food best who rarely uses powerful stimulants and 

 narcotics. Majendie says that man would probably excel 

 all the other animals in delicacy of taste, if he did not, at an 

 early period, impair its sensibility by strong drinks, or by 

 the use of spices, and other luxuries. 



14. CThe taste may be improved by cultivation like any 

 of the other senses* Dr. Kitchener states that some epicures 

 are able to tell from what precise part of the Thames a sal. 

 mon had been caught, when presented at table. Many 

 gourmands pretend to be able to pronounce by sipping a few 

 drops of wine, the country whence it comes, as well as its 

 age ; to tell by the taste, whether birds put upon the table 

 are domesticated or wild, &c. Such acuteness of taste is 

 however, by no means desirable, as we are liable, in the 

 " rough and tumble" of life, to meet with so much that de- 

 mands obtuseness rather than refinement of feeling. The 

 epicure with his acuteness and delicacy of taste, is liable to 

 continual annoyances and discomforts, while the man of 

 simple and unsophisticated taste will receive gratification 

 and pleasure from the very same objects which excited dis- 

 gust in the former. 



15. If we examine the lower animals, we shall find that in 

 none of them is the tongue precisely like that of man. The 

 resemblance is the nearest in apes ; but in them, even, it is 

 much elongated. In animals that chew the cud, or ruminants, 

 we find the tongue covered with a dense cuticle, studded 

 over with numerous pointed papillae, especially towards the 

 root. These projections, together with the waving ridges on 

 their palates, are of great use in collecting and swallowing 

 the tender herbage on which they feed. In the cat tribe, 

 the sharp, horny prickles on the tongue, enables them to take 

 a firm hold. In the lion and tiger these prickles are suffi- 



