ANIMALS. 373 



tongue, excite a very powerful sensation, and give us the idea of 

 saltness. Such, on the contrary, as are of a rounder figure, slide 

 Buioothly along the papillae, and are perceived to be sweet." In 

 this manner they have with minute labour, gone through the 

 variety of imagined forms in bodies, and have given them as ima- 

 ginary effects. All we can precisely determine upon the nature 

 of tastes is, that the bodies to be tasted must be either somewhat 

 moistened, or, in some measure, dissolved by the saliva, before 

 they can produce a proper sensation : when both the tongue it- 

 self and the body to be tasted are extremely dry, no taste what- 

 ever ensues. The sensation is then changed ; and the tongue, 

 instead of tasting, can only be said, like any other part of the 

 body, to feel the object. 



It is for this reason that children have a stronger relish of 

 taste than those who are more advanced in life. This organ 

 with them, from the greater moisture of their bodies, is kept in 

 greater perfection ; and is, consequently, better adapted to per- 

 form its functions. Every person remembers how great a plea- 

 sure he found in sweets, while a child ; but his taste growing 

 more obtuse with age, he is obliged to use artificial means to 

 excite it. It is then that he is found to call in the assistance of 

 poignant sauces, and strong relishes of salts and aromatics ; all 

 which the delicacy of his tender organ in childhood was unable 

 to endure. His taste grows callous to the natural relishes, and 

 is artificially formed to others more unnatural ; so that the high- 

 est epicui-e may be said to have the most depraved taste ; as it 

 is owing to the bluntness of his organ, that he is obliged to have 

 recourse to such a variety of expedients to gratify his appetite. 



As smells iu-e often rendered agreeable by habit, so also 

 tastes may be. Tobacco and coffee, so pleasing to many, are 

 yet, at first, very disagreeable to all. It is not without persever- 

 ance that we begin to have a relish for them ; we force nature 

 so long, that what was constraint in the beginning, at last be- 

 comes inclination. 



The grossest, and yet the most useful of all the senses, is that 

 of feeling. We are often seen to survive under the loss of the 

 rest ; but uf tins w c csn never be totally deprived, but with life. 

 Although this sense is diffused over all parts of the body, yet it 

 most frequently hapjn ns that those parts which ai-e most exer- 

 cised in touching, acquire the gieatest degree of accuracy. 



2 I 



