TONGUES. 
W. E. WATT. 
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 young 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 seasoning 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, 
j 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 
I of three sorts of papillae which cover 
I 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- 
I rangement that nature gets the tongue 
to pass the sweet morsel along to the 
throat where it is seized and hurried 
J 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 
