CARPS. 
209 
ous, are doubtless delicate organs of touch ; and, 
being principally conferred on such species as 
habitually grovel on the bottom, they may be 
intended to compensate for the lack of light 
in such situations, as ah aid for the discovery and 
trial of substances proper for food. The tongue, 
in most fishes, appears not to be an organ of 
taste ; vrhen it projects at all into the mouth, 
it is commonly covered with integuments, which 
are callous and void of sensitive papillae,^ or else 
these are hardened and sharpened into bony teeth, 
studding its surface, and denying the power of 
sensation. The integuments of the palate, 
however, not unfrequently present that degree of 
vascularity, and supply of nerves, w^hich indicate 
some selective sense, analogous to taste. In the 
Carps, the palate is cushioned with a thick, soft 
vascular substance, exuding mucus by numerous 
minute pores, but more remarkable for its irri- 
table, erectile, or contractile property; if you 
prick any part of this in a live Carp, the part 
rises immediately into a cone, which slowly sub- 
sides ; this peculiar tissue is richly supplied by 
branches of the glosso-pharyngeal nerves ;f it 
may assist in the requisite movements of the 
vegetable food, as well as add to it an animalizing 
and solvent mucus, whilst it is undergoing masti- 
cation by the pharyngeal teeth.” J 
These teeth themselves are interesting from 
their position and nature. The lower pharyngeal 
* The minute pimples or wart-like eminences that thickly cover 
the human tongue, and give it its peculiar spongy appearance. 
f The nerves which go off to the gullet, the back of the mouth and 
the tongue. 
+ Owen’s Comp. Anat, ii. 230. 
P 
