A physical essay on the senses / Translated from the French.

  • Claude-Nicolas Le Cat
Date:
1750
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A physical essay on the senses / Translated from the French. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cular Organs, as on the Skin, and the Tongue. The In others they have a lefs Portion affigned them 5 WfUCH namely, in refpedt of the Nofe, or the Pituitary Membrane, which conftitutes the Organ of Smelling. In fhort, in other Places the Pa¬ pillae feem to have ftill a lefs Share », and the folid nervous Texture almoft fingly compofes the Organ as in the Sight. Thefe Differences proceed from each Organ’s being proportioned to the Objedt whofe Impreffion it receives. It would be very conducive to the Perfection of the Touch, were the Nerves to form fmall fen- fible Eminences : becaufe thefe Sort of fharp pointed Subftances are more eafily irritated by the Surface of Bodies, than an uniform Texture could poffibly be. The Tafte would require nervous Papillæ, that fhould be of a fpungy Nature, and at the fame time fufficiently im¬ pregnated with Moiffure, to dilute and diffolve the Principles of Tafte, and to admit them ea~ lily into their Texture, in order to their making a more lively Impreffion. The pituitary Mem- brane that lines the Organ of the Smell is fur¬ nished with foft, downy, Windings, and little Cells, to confine the odoriferous Vapours \ but, its Gbjedt being fubtile, it would have no Occa- lion either for Papillæ, or fenfible Points. The Choroides, the immediate Organ of Sight, has like wife its foft black Down, to abforb the Ima¬ ges that make its Objedt : but the Bottom of thefe velvet Subftances, formed to receive the B 2 Images
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