212 
Mr. Home’s Observations on 
If we compare the effects of compression upon a portion 
of the tongue, with those of a similar compression upon the 
haemorrhoidal veins when they form piles, or those of the tes- 
ticle in cases of varicose veins of the spermatic chord, which not 
only produce very violent local inflammation, but also a consi- 
derable degree of symptomatic fever, it is impossible not to be 
surprised that the results should be so very different; since we 
are led to believe, upon a general principle, that parts are sen- 
sible in proportion to their vascularity, and that all the organs 
of sense, when inflamed, are more exquisitely so than any other 
parts of the body. 
The tongue appears to have a power of throwing off its 
sloughs in a shorter time than any other part. Eight or nine 
days is the ordinary time of a slough separating from the com- 
mon parts ; in the boy’s tongue, it was only five. 
Having stated the information we derive from these cases, 
respecting the structure, sensibility, and irritability of the tongue, 
it now remains to mention the advantage to be derived from 
them in a professional view ; and, although this is not directly 
in the line of the pursuits of this learned Society, yet, so strongly 
is it connected with humanity, that it cannot be said to be foreign 
to them, or undeserving their attention. 
The information derived from these cases, enables us to 
attempt with safety, the removal of any part of the tongue 
which may have taken on a disposition to become cancerous. As 
this disease in the tongue always begins in a very small portion 
of that organ, it is, in the early stage, more within the reach of 
removal than when in any other part of the body ; and, as the 
glands of the tongue are independent of each other, the cancerous 
