376 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1747". 



gentleman professing surgery in the country; and which he thought, for want 

 of a careful examination, performed the offices proper to the apex; but a little 

 care and circumspection would have informed him, that those appearances are 

 only fragments of the genioglossi muscles, and that on the separation of the 

 sound parts from those mortified, such fragments as had escaped were retracted, 

 and cicatrised down into their present state; nor is it difficult to conceive how the 

 root of the tongue must of necessity sink lower down into the throat, by the loss 

 of these muscles and the proper ligament; which naturally kept it higher than it 

 could remain ever since their destruction. 



If the mortification had reached the os hyoides, it must have reached, and 

 destroyed the muscles of the larynx, and then the voice would have been destroy- 

 ed; and also those of the pharjnx, and then deglutition could never have been 

 performed; the dreadful consequences of which need not be enumerated here; 

 but she swallows well, and her voice is perfect, and therefore it is not very ex- 

 traordinary she should command her voice by the proper muscles which remain 

 untouched. 



The nasal opening was quite exposed, because the uvula which covered it was 

 also destroyed; for one pair of its muscles (the glosso-staphilini) arise from the 

 tongue; by which no doubt the distemper was communicated to this part also. 



She had her taste perfectly, which is hereafter accounted for. 



Some Considerations on the Natural State and Uses of the Tongue. — ^The tongue 

 is a fleshy substance, chiefly made up of muscles; and consists of a basis or roof, 

 a body, and an apex; the basis is the thickest and most substantial part, con- 

 tains the OS hyoides, and is naturally situated very low in the throat: from which 

 the body rises upwards and forwards, and is terminated by the anterior part or 

 apex ; proceeding under the uvula and roof, and lying on the floor (if he might 

 so call it) of the mouth. 



As to its uses, it is said to be the instrument of speaking and tasting. As to 

 the latter, experience shows us the very apex of the tongue is less capable of 

 discerning tastes than the next part to it, and this than the parts yet farther back, 

 all along the body to the root; so that though the taste of any thing is first per- 

 ceived by the apex, yet the gust increases, the more the morsel approaches to 

 deglutition, till it is quite protruded into the gula; because, as the tongue grows 

 more thick backwards it contains more of the nervous papillae than the smaller 

 part, and also because there is a capacity of tasting in the membranes of the 

 back part of the roof to the root; as if nature intended to increase the gust, 

 that deglutition may be the better and more eagerly performed for the service of 

 the animal : hence though the apex and body of the tongue be gone, yet there 

 is not a depravation of taste, which is the case of the person now under consi- 

 ♦leration. 



