242 Notes. I'v. II. 



6. Cf. ii. 17, 7. So also in speaking of fishes elsewhere (//. A. ii. 13, 11) A. says, 

 "They have a hard and spinous tongue, which is so attached to the other parts, that 

 sometimes its presence would not be suspected." 



7. That the sense of taste must be very dull in fishes is admitted by all naturalists 

 (cf. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, i. xvii) ; for, as A. justly observes, they do not chew their food, 

 and thus the juices, which alone can excite true taste, are not expressed. Moreover the 

 inside of the mouth is being constantly washed over with water, which must of itself 

 interfere with the possibility of any delicate gustation. Still they are probably not 

 entirely without this sense, as is elsewhere (H. A. iv. 8, 8) admitted ; for, as there 

 pointed out, they manifest certain preferences for one food rather than another. 



8. '* On which account a certain gourmandiser wished that his throat were longer 

 than a crane's, implying that his pleasure was derived from the sense of touch " {Ethics, 

 iii. 13, 10). The same notion led Spenser, in describing Gluttony, to say, "And like 

 a crane, his neck was long and fyne " {Faery Queen, i. 4, 21). 



A. did not fail to observe a fact which some later writers have passed over, viz. that 

 many sensations called Tastes are in reality compound sensations. True tastes have for 

 their almost exclusive organ the tongue, and are only produced by fluids. So far A. 

 is accurate. But into most so-called Tastes enters a tactile element. By touch, which 

 is not limited to the mouth and tongue, but extends to the gullet, we recognise the 

 temperature, the hardness, the oiliness, etc., of substances. So far also A. is fairly 

 correct ; though the distension of the oesophagus, of which he speaks, would be rather 

 a muscular than a tactile sensation (compare iii. 14, Note 34). But in most so-called 

 Tastes there is still a larger part due to smell, as any one will find if he roll a high- 

 flavoured wine in his mouth while his nose is held closed. This part of the compound 

 taste A., like many modern writers, does not distinguish from true simple taste, which 

 is limited to the perception of acid, sweet, salt, bitter. Still the interlacing of Smell 

 with Taste, in the popular acceptation of the term, could not, and as a matter of fact did 

 not, escape his notice. The same savoury substances, he says {De Sensu, 5, 10), which, 

 when dissolved in fluid and applied to the tongue, cause taste, will, when they act upon 

 the nose through a nameless something (ii. i. Note 12) that is common to air and water, 

 cause smell. Moreover, he recognises the fact {De Sensu, 5, 14) that a smell and a taste, 

 when often experienced simultaneously, become so blended by habitual association that 

 the dual sensation becomes, a single one. For a discussion of the relations of Taste with 

 Smell, see a paper contributed by me to the Royal Med. Chir. Transact. 1870. 



9. That drunkards are small eaters is a well-known fact. The explanation is however 

 more probably injured digestion than deficient sensibility to flavour. The statement is 

 taken from Hippocrates {KUhn^s ed. i. 528). 



10. Cf. H. A. ii. 17, 21. The tongue in Ophidia is bifid, as also it is in one great 

 division of Sauria (hence called Fissilinguia or Leptiglossa), but not in all ; not, for 

 instance, in the chamaeleon nor in the wall gecko, or scarcely so, among species 

 known to Aristotle. In the seal the tongue is deeply notched. See Buffon, Nat. Hist. 

 xiii. pi. 50. 



11. Cf. ii. 17, Note 7. 



12. Cf. iii. I, Note 7. The teeth of Saurian reptiles are usually acutely conical and 

 slightly hooked. In some cases they are blade-like, and occasionally dentated on the 

 edges. Rarely, as in Cyclodus, they have broad crushing crowns. In Chelonia there 

 are no teeth at all. 



13. Cf. ii. 12, Note 2 ; and ii. 13, Note 5. 



14. All reptiles have horny epidermal scales, but not so such Amphibia as the frog and 



