182 



THE HUMAN SPECIES 



their number is definitely fixed according to the various species, 

 so that animals of a kind possess the same number, while the 

 number increases as the animal stands higher in the zoological 

 scale. Moreover, each species seems to have a definite plan of 

 arrangement for these papillae, differing in the various genera. 

 Oppel contests the accuracy of this statement on the grounds 

 of inadequate series of observations. 



In man, and in the gorilla among Anthropoids, the arrange- 

 ment of the circumvallate papillae is that of a V open to the front. 



FIG. 93. Highly magnified. (Thome, Zoologie.) I., Circumvallate papillae; 

 b, vertical section ; a, surrounding vallum ; e, gland itself; c, taste-bud ; 

 d and f, nerves. II., Individual taste-bud. 



Man and the primates alike share in the extreme variability of 

 the angle at which these papillae are set; but as regards the 

 number of circumvallate papillae and the taste-buds associated 

 with them, man stands easily at the head of the primates 

 (hylobates 4, chimpanzee 4, orang 6, gorilla 5), though by no 

 means above all the Mammalia. Tuckermann 1 gives the 

 following figures : 



Man has 9 circumvallate papillae with 6,000 taste-buds. 



Fox 4 9,500 



1 A. Oppel, loc. cit., Part III., p. 464. 



