TONGUES. 



\V. E. WAT']'. 



THE tongue is said to be the 

 stomach begun. It is the first 

 organ of the digestive system 

 which acts upon the food. It is 

 the source of much of the pleasure of 

 life, particularly to )'oung people. As 

 it stands at the entrance to the alimen-. 

 tary canal it is endowed with powers of 

 detecting the qualities of whatever the 

 hands present to the stomach. 



In early life the system demands 

 abundant supplies of good material to 

 build up growth and maintain activity. 

 The sense of taste is then peculiarly 

 keen, and the appetite for good 

 things is strong. After maturity the de- 

 sires become less and one has not so 

 much pleasure in eating unless by ac- 

 tive labor or from some other cause the 

 digestive organs are kept in a robust 

 condition. 



With the years the tastes change. 

 We wonder how children can possibly 

 eat such quantities in such combination. 

 The food which fairly delighted us long 

 ago has little or no attraction for us, 

 and with many adults there is need for 

 strong seasonmg and condiments which 

 children avoid. 



The child clamors for sweets. The 

 adult is inclined to check the child in 

 eating that which would not digest in 

 the adult's stomach. But Herbert 

 Spencer won the hearty esteem of the 

 youngster when he gave scientific ar- 

 gument showing that growing children 

 need highly concentrated foods to 

 meet the demands of nature, and they 

 may be permitted, in fact encouraged, 

 to eat freely of foods which are un 

 suited to mature people. 



The tongue's special work is tell- 

 ing us whether a given substance is 

 good for us. Like other senses it may 

 be deceived and is not always to be re- 

 lied upon. And when it has told us 

 once correctly we may make a serious 

 mistake in following its advice too ex- 



tensively so as to learn that too much 

 of a good thing is not all good. 



Nearly all substances have taste. 

 That is, the tongue has power to tell us 

 something about almost every sub- 

 stance in nature. Water is about the 

 only substance found in nature that has 

 no taste. But we rarely find water that 

 is pure enough to be entirely without 

 taste. Nearly all solids that can be 

 dissolved in water have taste. So have 

 nearly all liquids. When we say that 

 water tastes good we recognize the 

 mineral in it, or some combination of 

 minerals that the human body needs 

 in its economy. 



The substances that the taste recog- 

 nizes most readily are common salt, 

 vinegar, quinine, pepper, and alcohol. 

 Those least exciting to the tongue are 

 starch, white of egg, and gum. 



The tongue does its work by means 

 of three sorts of papillae which cover 

 its surface. There are many very fine 

 ones all over the tongue, but these are 

 most numerous near the tip. Some 

 larger ones which are not so pointed in 

 form are also more plentiful near the 

 tip of the tongue. And there are from 

 eight to fifteen much larger still that 

 are arranged in rows like the letter V 

 at the base of the tongue. 



Bitter is tasted mainly at the back of 

 the tongue. Sweet is tasted all along, 

 but is most delightful at the base of the 

 tongue, and it is by this cunning ar- 

 rangement that nature gets the tongue 

 to pass the sweet morsel along to the 

 throat where it is seized and hurried 

 downward by the act of swallowing. 



These papillae have within them cap- 

 illary blood vessels and the filaments 

 of nerves. They are the seat of the 

 tongue's sensibility. Whatever is tasted 

 must come into chemical action over 

 these little points. Moderate pressure 

 helps the sensation, so we smack our 

 tongues sometimes when we are not in 



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