NATURAL THEOLOGY. 143 



I here entreat the reader's permission to step a 

 little out of my way, to consider the parts of the 

 mouth in some of their other properties. It has 

 been said, and that by an eminent physiologist, 

 that, whenever nature attempts to work two or 

 more purposes by one instrument, she does both 

 or all imperfectly. Is this true of the tongue re- 

 garded as an instrument of speech and of taste, 

 or regarded as an instrument of speech, of taste, 

 and of deglutition ? So much otherwise, that 

 many persons, that is to say nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine persons out of a thousand, by the in- 

 strumentality of this one organ, talk, and taste, 

 and sw^ allow very well. In fact, the constant 

 warmth and moisture of the tongue, the thinness 

 of the skin, the papillae upon its surface, qualify 

 this organ for its office of tasting, as much as its 

 inextricable multiplicity of fibres do for the rapid 

 movements which are necessary to speech. Ani- 

 mals which feed upon grass have their tongues 

 covered with a perforated skin, so as to admit the 

 dissolved food to the papillse underneath, which, 

 in the meantime, remain defended from the rough 

 action of the unbruised spiculae. 



There are brought together within the cavity of 

 the mouth more distinct uses, and parts executing 

 more distinct offices, than I think can be found 

 lying so near to one another, or within the same 

 compass, in any other portion of the body: viz., 

 teeth of diffi?rent shape, first for cutting, secondly 

 for grinding; muscles, most artificially disposed 



