SENSES OF TASTE AND TOUCH. 71 



drawn from the fact of their tongue being almost 

 immoveable, often entirely osseous, not seldom 

 beset with teeth or dental plates, and receiving 

 very slender nerves, and these but few in number. 

 Even those species, of which the jaws are so armed 

 as to enable them to cut and bruise their aliments, 

 cannot long retain the latter in their mouths, on 

 account of the position and peculiar play of the 

 respiratory organs. No salivary glands discharge 

 their moisture on the organs of taste. The tongue 

 itself is actually wanting in many species ; and 

 even when it exists in its most distinct and ap- 

 parently fleshy state, it consists merely of a liga- 

 mentous or cellular substance, applied on front of 

 the lingual bone, and is never furnished with 

 muscles capable of producing any movement of ex- 

 tension or retraction, as in quadrupeds. We have, 

 however, frequently seen fishes seize on stale worms 

 and other unsavoury morsels, and almost instan- 

 taneously thereafter spout them from their mouths 

 with violence to the distance of many inches, 

 thereby, we think, exhibiting some sharpness in the 

 sense of taste, and no small bluntness in that of 

 smell. 



SECTION. XL 

 Organs of Touch in Fishes. 



NEITHER can fishes be said to be highly favoured 

 in respect to those organs on which the accurate 

 perception of the sense of touch depends. The fa- 



