OF TASTE. 181 



in the trout l , and many other fish. The grinders and retainers are placed 

 at its base. But in all those whose motion [of the tongue] is considerable, 

 it becomes a very compound instrument : it becomes in them not only the 

 judge of the food brought in by other means, but it becomes the immediate 

 instrument for providing, as in the woodpecker, chameleon, toad, bee, 

 fly, whelk. It is most probably the conductor of the food into the 

 oesophagus in all animals. Indeed, this instrument of taste is extended 

 to various purposes, as in the Hon 2 and cow 3 kind, for scratching; in 

 all quadrupeds and birds, for the modulation of sound. 



Its structure varies equal to the various purposes, but the structure 

 fitted for receiving the impression of taste is pretty similar in them all. 

 The exterior or upper surface is principally the organ of taste, as the 

 skin is the organ of touch. It is in general very villous, but this dif- 

 fers very much in different animals, which arises from animals appear- 

 ing to differ very much in their acuteness and delicacy of taste, some 

 being more obliged to the sense of smell than taste for the formation 

 of their judgment in food. 



The tongue in all animals is most probably covered by a cuticle, at 

 least in all that I am acquainted with. This covering, in those which 

 (we may suppose) have the most acute taste, is very thin, as in the 

 human subject 4 , monkey 3 ; but in many others it is extremely thick 

 and hard, being of the consistence of horn, such as the little claws on 

 the tip of the lion's tongue, the horn on the tip of many birds' tongues. 



The tongue in all animals is a compound instrument ; its uses may 

 be reckoned three : viz. a sense, the voice, and several [mechanical] 

 purposes, as scratching, <fcc. As a sense of taste, or rather with respect 

 to food, it is capable of two uses; first, for taste; and secondly, for 

 catching the food in some animals, and for modulating it in all, or that 

 action which may be called the first operation of deglutition. 



These different uses are not in an equal degree in all animals ; some 

 having one of these uses in a considerable degree, while [the other 

 functions of the tongue may be] weak, and vice versa. In most animals 

 there is but one organ of this kind, as in the human, birds, snakes, 

 fish, &c. ; but there is a class of animals that have a great many such, as 

 the priapism 6 , sea anemone, &c, which may be called the ' polyglotts.' 



The sense of taste is perhaps stronger in the human than in any 

 other animal of the same class ; and most probably this arises from 



1 [Hunt, Preps. Nos. 394, 395.] 2 [lb. Ncs. 1509-1513.] 3 [lb. No. 1594.] 



4 [lb. No. 1524.] 5 [lb. Nos. 1517-1523.] 



6 [lb. No. 1438 : " Part of the priapus showing the tentacles, which in this 

 animal serve the purpose of tongues." The specimen is of the Holothuria tubulosa, 

 Lam. See ' Physiological Catalogue, Mus. Coll. Chir.' 4to. vol. iii. p. 63.] 



