PHYSIOLOGY. 463 



2814. It is merely the epidermis which is concerned 

 in the production of the squamous covering ; but if 

 the former branchial vessels emerge themselves so as to 

 project above the integument and become dried, then 

 hairs originate. 



2815. If these hairs ramify, then there are feathers. 



2816. It is only therefore the Mammalia and Birds 

 who possess a proper external covering or garment. 



2817. The claws or nails are scales upon the extre- 

 mity of the branchial arches, which have become animal 

 in character, or in other words, are digital scales ; they 

 are animal branchial opercula. 



2818. The nails are demi-claws, and therefore leave 

 the points of the digits free. Free digital apices or points 

 constitute the most perfect organ of touch, because this 

 is then divided into two parts and because the nail in- 

 creases the amount of resistance. 



2819. The organs of defence are therefore an append- 

 age of the sense of feeling, as are the bones of the motor 

 system. 



Splanchnic or Visceral Senses. 



2820. These senses will not be found to disown their 

 predecessors ; and just as the latter extracted the quali- 

 ties from terrestrial matter, so also do they. But while 

 the former had to deal with the material, the present 

 set will have to transact business with the spiritual 

 qualities. 



2. Function of the Gustatory Sense. 



2821. Digestion is a chemical process, and one indeed 

 wherein actual mixture and decomposition take place; 

 it is therefore also, and "par excellence/' an aqueous 

 process. For matters that are actually decomposible are 

 alone submitted to digestion, since it is of too coarse a 

 character to perceive the proneness of such bodies to 

 decomposition. 



2822. It belongs only to a higher grade of perfection, 

 or to a nervose condition of the digestive process, to per- 



