Aristotle : On the parts of animals / translated, with introduction and notes by W. Ogle.
- Aristotle
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Aristotle : On the parts of animals / translated, with introduction and notes by W. Ogle. Source: Wellcome Collection.
290/316 page 242
![6. Cf. ii. 17, 7. So also in speaking of fishes elsewhere (//. A. ii. 13, n) A. says, “They have a hard and spinous tongue, which is so attached to the other parts, that sometimes its presence would not be suspected.” 7. That the sense of taste must be very dull in fishes is admitted by all naturalists (cf. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, i. xvii) ; for, as A. justly observes, they do not chew their food, and thus the juices, which alone can excite true taste, are not expressc*d. Moreover ilie inside of the mouth is being constantly washed over with water, which must of itself interfere with the possibility of any delicate gustation. Still they are probably not entirely without this sense, as is elsewhere (//. A. iv. 8, 8) admitted ; for, as there pointed out, they manifest certain preferences for one food rather than another. 8. “ On which account a certain gourmandiser wished that his throat were longer than a crane’s, implying that his pleasure was derived from the sense of touch ” {^Ethics, iii. 13, 10). The same notion led Spenser, in describing Gluttony, to say, “And like a crane, his neck was long and fyne ” {Faery Queen, i. 4, 21). A. did not fail to observe a fact which some later writers have passed over, viz. that many sensations called Tastes are in reality compound sensations. True tastes have for their almost exclusive organ the tongue, and are only produced by fluids. So far A. is accurate. But into most so-called Tastes enters a tactile element. By touch, which is not limited to the mouth and tongue, but extends to the gullet, we recognise the temperature, the hardness, the oiliness, etc., of substances. So far also A. is fairly correct; though the distension of the oesophagus, of which he speaks, would be rather a muscular than a tactile sensation (compare iii. 14, Note 34). But in most so-called Tastes there is still a larger part due to smell, as any one will find if he roll a high- flavoured wine in his mouth while his nose is held closed. This part of the compound taste A., like many modern writers, does not distinguish from true simple taste, which is limited to the perception of acid, sweet, salt, bitter. Still the interlacing of Smell with Taste, in the popular acceptation of the teim, could not, and as a matter of fact did not, escape his notice. The same savoury substances, he says {De Setisu, 5, 10), which, when dissolved in fluid and applied to the tongue, cause taste, wiU, when they act upon the nose through a nameless something (ii. l. Note 12) that is common to air .and water, cause smelt. Moreover, he recognises the fact {De Sensti, 5, 14) that a smeU and a taste, when often experienced simultaneously, become so blended by habitual association that the dual sensation becomes a single one. For a discussion of the relations of Taste with .SmeU, see a paper contributed by me to the Royal Med. Chir. Transact. 1870. 9. That drunkards are smaU eaters is a well-known fact. The explanation is however more probably injured digestion than deficient sensibility to flavour. The statement is taken from Hippocrates {Kuhn’s ed. i. 528). 10. a. a. A. ii. 1], 21. The tongue in Ophidia is bifid, as also it is in one great division of Sauria (hence caUed Fissilinguia or Leptiglossa), but not in all j not, for instance, in the chamseleon nor in the wall gecko, or scarcely so, among species known to Aristotle. In the seal the tongue is deeply notched. See Buffon, Nat. Hist. xiii. pi. 50. ' 11. Cf. ii. 17, Note 7. 12. Cf. iii. I, Note 7. The teeth of Saurian reptUes are usually acutely conical and slightly hooked. In some cases they are blade-like, and occasionally dentated on the edges. Rarely, as in Cyclodus, they have broad crushing crowns. In Chelonia there are no teeth at all. 13. Cf. ii. 12, Note 2 ; and ii. 13, Note 5. 14. All reptiles have horny epidermal scales, but not so such Amphibia as the frog and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24864249_0290.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
