FOOTNOTES:
[a] Piece of Ambergrease suspended in a Pair of Scales, that would turn with a very small Part of a Grain, lost nothing of its Weight in 3½ Days; neither did Assa fœtida in 5½ Days; but an Ounce of Nutmegs lost 5½ Grains in 6 Days; and Cloves 7⅘ Grains. Boyl’s Subtil. of Effluv. c. 5.
[] Nares, eò quòd omnis Odor ad superiora fertur, rectè sursum sunt: Et quòd Cibi & Potionis judicium magnum earum est, non sine causâ vicinitatem Oris secutæ sunt. Cicero de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 56.
[c] Had not the Contriver of Animal Bodies been minded that his Work should have all the Signatures of Accuracy, this Sense might have been performed with a bare Aperture of the Nose; but that nothing might go imperfect out of his Hand, he hath made a part of the Nose easily moveable, and given a Set of Muscles to lift up, and open and shut the Nostrils; and so adjust it to every Occasion of this Sense.
[d] Odorem non aliud, quàm infectum Aera, intelligi posse. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 7.
[e] For a further Guard against the Ingress of noxious Things, the Vibrissi, or Hairs placed at the Entrance of the Nostrils serve, which, in some measure, stop the Entrance of Things improper, or however give Warning of them, but at the same Time allow an easy Passage to the Breath and Odours.
[f] Multò præclarius emicat [Olfactus] in brutis animalibus, quàm in homine: ista namque hoc solo indice, herbarum, aliorumque corporum priùs ignotorum virtutes certissimè dignoscunt, quin & victum suum absentem, vel in abstruso positum, Odoratu venantur, ac facillimè investigant. Quòd autem minùs sagaces sunt hominum nares, illud non facultatis hujus abusui (prout nonnulli volunt) ascribi debet, verùm in causâ est ipsius Organi defectus: hoc enim circa victûs humani criteria (ubi ratio, & intellectus adsunt) non ita accuratum requiritur: Proptereà enim inferiores potentiæ in homine, à naturâ minùs perfectæ existunt, ut superiorum cultui & exercitio relinqueretur locus. Willis de Anim. Brut. cap. 13.
[g] Thus the chief Use of Hounds is to hunt; and other Dogs, to be a Watch and Guard to our Houses by Night. For which Services (particularly in Hounds) their Olfactory Nerves are not only remarkably large, (like as they are in other Brutes,) but their Branches and Filaments are, in the Laminæ of the Nostrils, both more and larger than I have seen in any other Creature whatsoever. Also there are more Convulsions of the Laminæ than I ever remember to have found in any other Animal.
The Sagacity of Hounds is prodigious, of which see an Instance in [Book IV. Chap. 11. Note (hhh).]
[h] See [Book VII. Chap. 2. Note (e).]
[] Vid. Plin. Hist. Nat. l. 8. cap. 27. Quæ animalia quas herbas ostenderunt.
CHAP. V.
Of the Taste[a].
In this, as in the last Sense, we have an Apparatus abundantly sufficient to the Sense; Nerves curiously divaricated about the Tongue[], and Mouth, to receive the Impressions of every Gusto; and these Nerves guarded with a firm and proper Tegument to defend them from Harms; but withal, so perforated in the papillary Eminences, as to give a free Admission to Tastes.
But I shall say no more of this Sense; only a Word or two of its Consent with the Smell, and the Situation of them both: Their Situation is in the most convenient Place imaginable, for the Discharge of their Offices; at the first Entrance[c], in the Way to the grand Receptacle of our Food and Nourishment; to survey what is to be admitted therein; to judge between what is wholsome, and fit for Nourishment, and what is unsavoury and pernicious. And for this End, the all-wise Creator seems to have establish’d a great Consent between the Eye, the Nose, and Tongue, by ordering the Branches of the same Nerves[d], to each of those three Parts; as also indeed to divers other Parts of the Body, which I may have occasion to mention in a more proper Place[e]. By which Means, there is all the Guard that can be, against pernicious Food; forasmuch as before it is taken into the Stomach, it is to undergo the Trial of three of the Senses; the Scrutiny of the Eye, the strict Surveyor of its outward Appearance; and the Probation of the Smell and Taste, the two severest Judges of its natural Constitution and Composition.