17. The taste follows; whose generation hath this difference from that of the sight, hearing, and smelling, that by these we have sense of remote objects; whereas, we taste nothing but what is contiguous, and doth immediately touch either the tongue or palate, or both. From whence it is evident, that the cuticles of the tongue and palate, and the nerves inserted into them are the first organ of taste; and (because from the concussion of the parts of these, there followeth necessarily a concussion of the pia mater) that the action communicated to these is propagated to the brain, and from thence to the farthest organ, namely, the heart, in whose reaction consisteth the nature of sense.
Now, that savours, as well as odours, do not only move the brain but the stomach also, as is manifest by the loathings that are caused by them both; they, that consider the organ of both these senses, will not wonder at all; seeing the tongue, the palate and the nostrils, have one and the same continued cuticle, derived from the dura mater.
And that effluvia have nothing to do in the sense of tasting, is manifest from this, that there is no taste where the organ and the object are not contiguous.
By what variety of motions the different kinds of tastes, which are innumerable, may be distinguished, I know not. I might with others derive them from the divers figures of those atoms, of which whatsoever may be tasted consisteth; or from the diverse motions which I might, by way of supposition, attribute to those atoms; conjecturing, not without some likelihood of truth, that such things as taste sweet have their particles moved with slow circular motion, and their figures spherical; which makes them smooth and pleasing to the organ; that bitter things have circular motion, but vehement, and their figures full of angles, by which they trouble the organ; and that sour things have strait and reciprocal motion, and their figures long and small, so that they cut and wound the organ. And in like manner I might assign for the causes of other tastes such several motions and figures of atoms, as might in probability seem to be the true causes. But this would be to revolt from philosophy to divination.
The first organ of feeling; and how we came to the knowledge of such objects as are common to the touch and to other senses.
18. By the touch, we feel what bodies are cold or hot, though they be distant from us. Others, as hard, soft, rough, and smooth, we cannot feel unless they be contiguous. The organ of touch is every one of those membranes, which being continued from the pia mater are so diffused throughout the whole body, as that no part of it can be pressed, but the pia mater is pressed together with it. Whatsoever therefore presseth it, is felt as hard or soft, that is to say, as more or less hard. And as for the sense of rough, it is nothing else but innumerable perceptions of hard and hard succeeding one another by short intervals both of time and place. For we take notice of rough and smooth, as also of magnitude and figure, not only by the touch, but also by memory. For though some things are touched in one point, yet rough and smooth, like quantity and figure, are not perceived but by the flux of a point, that is to say, we have no sense of them without time; and we can have no sense of time without memory.
CHAPTER XXX.
OF GRAVITY.
[1.] A thick body doth not contain more matter, unless also more place, than a thin.—[2.] That the descent of heavy bodies proceeds not from their own appetite, but from some power of the earth.—[3.] The difference of gravities proceedeth from the difference of the impetus with which the elements, whereof heavy bodies are made, do fall upon the earth.—[4.] The cause of the descent of heavy bodies.—[5.] In what proportion the descent of heavy bodies is accelerated.—[6.] Why those that dive do not, when they are under water, feel the weight of the water above them.—[7.] The weight of a body that floateth, is equal to the weight of so much water as would fill the space, which the immersed part of the body takes up within the water.—[8.] If a body be lighter than water, then how big soever that body be, it may float upon any quantity of water, how little soever.—[9.] How water may be lifted up and forced out of a vessel by air.—[10.] Why a bladder is heavier when blown full of air, than when it is empty.—[11.] The cause of the ejection upwards of heavy bodies from a wind-gun.—[12.] The cause of the ascent of water in a weather-glass.—[13.] The cause of motion upwards in living creatures.—[14.] That there is in nature a kind of body heavier than air, which nevertheless is not by sense distinguishable from it.—[15.] Of the cause of magnetical virtue.
A thick body doth not contain more matter, unless also more place, than a thin.