PHYSIOLOGY. 465 



2831. As salt is a product of what is inorganic, so will 

 the sapid bodies of this kind be pleasant objects for gusta- 

 tion, provided they do not act chemically nor in excess. 

 Therefore, what is saline, or acid and alkali combined, 

 is agreeable to the taste, even if its action should last 

 a long time. 



2832. On the contrary, the proper organic savours, 

 which admit with difficulty of being reduced to the for- 

 mer or inorganic kinds, if they do not prove at once 

 nauseous or unpleasant, yet become so by lengthened 

 operation, e. g. the Sweet, the Bitter. 



2833. According to these savours has the organ of 

 taste been regulated. It hath in itself also polar rela- 

 tions. The point or tip of the tongue tastes what is 

 acid, its root more readily what is bitter, its dorsum or 

 back what is poignant or moist. 



2834. The matters are not mechanically analyzed 

 upon the tongue ; it does not therefore taste the several 

 component parts, but only their chemical behaviour or 

 relation in the water, in other words, their reaction. 



3. Function of the Olfactory Sense. 



2835. In the lungs the air is materially analyzed and 

 deprived of its oxygen ; but, when these organs have 

 assumed a nervose character, the tension only of the air 

 unto the analysis will be perceived. Now, the action of 

 the air is the electrism. The nose perceives only the 

 electrical condition of the air. 



2836. The sensation of the electrical relations is 

 called Smelling. The olfactory sense is an air-sense. We 

 smell nothing but the electricity, and neither the con- 

 tact, nor the impressions, &c. of the particles that find 

 their way into the nose. These particles would have no 

 effect upon the nasal organ, if they did not stand in an 

 electrical relation unto it. 



2837. Now, the electrical bodies in nature are the 

 resins or Inflammables. What salt is for the gustatory, 

 that is resin for the olfactory sense. The nose is an 

 electrical, a resinous organ. 



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