VOL. LXXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 219 



tated limbs : but how was it to be managed in the entire and living subject ? It 

 would be necessary to strip off the integuments, to make deep incisions, to 

 remove even a part of the flesh where the metal plates must be applied. Happily 

 it occurred to him that we have, in the tongue, a muscle naked, at least desti- 

 tute of such thick integuments as clothe the exterior parts of the body, a 

 muscle which is easily and voluntarily moveable. On this idea Mr. V. made 

 the following experiment on his own tongue. Having covered the tip of the 

 tongue, and a part of its upper surface to the extent of some lines, with tin- 

 leaf (silver paper is best), he applied the convex part of a silver spoon more 

 advanced on the flat of the tongue, and inclined the spoon till its handle came 

 in contact with the tin-foil. Thus Mr. V. expected to see the trembling of the 

 tongue, and for that purpose had placed himself before a looking-glass. But 

 the expected motions did not take place ; however, he felt instead of it a very 

 unexpected sensation, a pretty sharp taste on the end of the tongue. 



Mr. V. was at first much surprized at the event ; but on a little reflection he 

 easily conceived, that the nerves which terminate at the tip of the tongue, being 

 those destined for the sensations of taste, and not for the motions of this 

 flexible muscle, it was quite natural that the irritation of the electric fluid, moved 

 by the usual artifice, should excite a taste there, and nothing else ; and that to 

 excite in the tongue the motions it is susceptible of, we must apply one of the 

 metallic armings on its root, where the nerves destined for its motions are 

 inserted, as in this following experiment. From a lamb just killed having cut 

 out the tongue near the root, he applied tin- foil to the part cut, and the silver 

 spoon to one of its surfaces ; then forming a communication in the usual way 

 between these two metal armings, he had the pleasure to see the whole tongue 

 briskly agitated, raise the tip, and turn and bend up and down, all the time of 

 the communication. 



Mr. V. repeated this last experiment on a calf's tongue, armed in like manner 

 with the tin-foil and a silver plate, and with the same success. He repeated the 

 same also on the tongues of various small animals, as mice, hens, rabbits, &c. 

 and nearly always with the same effects. 



V. Further Particulars respecting the Observatory at Benares, of which an 



j4ccount was given by Sir Robert Barker, in the 67 ih Fol. of the Philos. 



Trans.* By John Lloyd Williams, Esq., of Benares, p. 45. 



The following is an account of the measurement of the different parts of the 



Benares observatory, called maun-mundel, as taken by myself, with a 2 foot 



rule, and a rod of 10 feet very exactly divided. An account of the use of the 



different instruments, though very imperfect, was given me on the spot, by several 



• See the abridged vol. 14, p. 214. 

 P P 2 



