TASTE. 



85 



The greatest number of this sort are towards the tip 

 and edges of the tongue, where the taste is most acute, 

 and where they are less exposed to injury than they 

 would have been on the surface or middle of the 

 tongue. All of these are covered with a very thin 

 scarf-skin a light, delicate, gauzy membrane, red 

 with blood-vessels. 



An upright section of the nervous Papillae; magnified 400 times. 



These tasters are not, however, confined to the 

 tongue, but may be seen in the inner skin of the lips 

 and cheeks, as well as on the palate or roof of the 

 mouth. It has farther been proved that these are useful 

 in tasting, by the case of a boy whose tongue sloughed 

 off in confluent small pox, and who retained the sense 

 of taste, though not so vividly as before his calamity. 



Now all birds possess a tongue, though in some 

 species, such as the pelican (Onocrotalus pelecanus, 



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