taste of things around tnem without the 

 necessity of taking them in at the 

 mouth. 



We give the sense of taste more 

 credit sometimes than it merits. What 

 we regard as tastes are often flavors or 

 only smells. What is taken in at the 

 mouth gets to the nose by the back 

 way if it is of the nature of most spices, 

 and so by^ use of the nose and the im 

 agination we taste things that do not 

 affect the tongue at all. A cold in the 

 head shows us we do not taste cinna- 

 mon, we merely experience its pun- 

 gency as it smarts the tongue while its 

 flavor we enjoy only with the nose. 



With some substances we have a 

 mixed experience that passes for taste, 

 but it is really a combination of taste, 

 smell, and touch. With the nostrils 

 held one can scarcely distinguish be- 

 tween small quantities of pure water 

 and the same with a very little" essence 

 of cloves. The difference is easily ob- 

 served with the nostrils open or after 

 swallowing, for the odor of the mix- 

 ture gets readily into the nose from 

 either direction. 



It is curious to note that, although 

 there are so many varieties of taste, 

 man has but few words to describe 

 them with. We know the taste of a 

 thousand substances, and yet we are in 

 nowise superior to the veriest savage 

 in the matter of speaking about their 

 flavors. We are obliged to speak in 

 the same manner as the wild man of 

 the forest and say that a given taste is 

 like the taste of some other thing, only 

 different. 



One of the lowest forms of tongues 

 is that of the gasteropod. All snails 

 and slugs are gasteropods. They have 

 instead of a regular tongue a strip that 

 is called a lingual ribbon, one end of 

 which is free and the other fastened to 

 the floor of the mouth. Across the 

 ribbon from left to right run rows of 

 hard projections almost like teeth. 

 Whatever the mouth comes against is 

 tested for food qualities by this rasp- 

 ing ribbon which files away at the sub- 

 stance and wears away not only what 

 it works upon but the ribbon itself. 

 This loss of tongue is no serious affair 

 to the gasteropod, for he finds his 

 tongue growing constantly like a finger- 



nail and he needs to work diligently at 

 his trade or suffer from undue propor- 

 tions of the unruly member. Snails in 

 an aquarium gnaw the green slime 

 from the sides of the vessel with their 

 lingual ribbons, and the process may be 

 seen to more or less adv^antage at 

 times. 



Taste is not all confined to tongues. 

 Some people have papillae on the in- 

 side of the cheek. Medusae (Jelly 

 Fish) have no tongues, but the quali- 

 ties of the sea-water are noted by them. 

 As soon as rain begins to fall mto the 

 sea they proceed directly towards the 

 bottom, showing a decided aversion to 

 having their water thinned in any way. 



Leeches show their powers of dis- 

 tinguishing tastes when they take in 

 sweetened water quite freely, but suck 

 at the skin of a sick man much less 

 than at that of one in good health. 



Taste in insects has its probable seat 

 in many instances in a pair of short 

 horns or feelers back of the antennae. 

 These are constantly moving over the 

 parts of that which the insect is feed- 

 ing upon, and so apparently enjoyable 

 is the motion of them that many scien- 

 tists have concluded that these are the 

 taste organs of the insects having them. 

 At the same time it is quite probable 

 that in all insects furnished with sa- 

 livary glands, a proboscis, or a tongue, 

 the power of taste is also or exclu- 

 sively there. 



Fishes seem to do most of their tast- 

 ing somewhere down in the stomach, 

 for they puisue their prey voraciously 

 and frequently swallow it whole. With 

 their gristly gums, in many cases 

 almost of the toughness of leather, 

 there can be but little sensation of 

 taste. Their equally hard tongues, 

 many times fairly bristling with teeth 

 constructed for capturing, but not for 

 chewing, cannot possibly afford much 

 of a taste of what is going down the 

 throat with the rushing water passing 

 through the open mouth and gills. 



Serpents which swallow their food 

 alive can get but little taste of their 

 victims as they pass over the tongue, 

 although they are deliberate in the act 

 and cover them with a profusion of 

 saliva. 



It is quite possible that cattle in 



