ing, to hear loud or soft, discordant or agreeable sounds.

The passage just behind the drum of the ear is called the vestibulum, being, as it were, the antichamber or entrance to two other cavities. The first of these is called the labyrinth, and consists of certain semicircular canals; and the second is called cochlea, from its resemblance to a snail shell. The labyrinth appears to have something of the mechanism and uses of a hearing trumpet; while the cochlea appears to be destined for the more delicate and refined uses of hearing, such as the forming and modulating of musical and harmonious sounds.

There is one particular contrivance of the nerves ministering to the sense of hearing, that must not be passed over; which is, that the branches of one of the auditory nerves spread partly to the muscles of the ear, partly to the eye, partly to the tongue and instruments of speech, and inosculated with the nerves to go to the head and breast. By these means, there is an admirable and useful consent between the parts of the body; it being natural for most animals, upon the hearing of any uncouth noise, to erect their ears, and prepare them to catch every sound; to open their eyes, those constant faithful centinels, to stand upon the watch; and to be ready with the mouth to cry out, and utter what the present exigency may suggest. And this is, accordingly, usual for most animals, when surprised or terrified by any frightful noise.

Such are the nature and properties of sound, and such the admirable structure and uses of the ear. If it be asked why, when a word is pronounced, it excites a certain idea, and not a simple tone; or how a sound can act upon the soul, and produce so many different notions; we are obliged, in this respect, to confess our absolute ignorance.

6

We know enough, however, to be assured, that the ear is one of the most convincing proofs in nature of the divine wisdom and goodness; and well may we exclaim with the royal Psalmist, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, and I cannot attain unto it. But I will praise thee, O Lord; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.'

No. XLVIII.

ON THE SMELL, TASTE, AND TOUCH.

Next in the nostrils she doth use the Smell,
As God the breath of life in them did give:
So makes He now this power in them to dwell,
To judge all airs whereby we breathe and live.

Taste after Taste upheld with kindliest change.

DAVIES.

MILTON.

By Touch the first pure qualities we learn,
Which quicken all things, hot, cold, moist, and dry;
By Touch, hard, soft, rough, smooth, we do discern;
By Touch, sweet pleasure and sharp pain we try.

DAVIES.

BEFORE I enter into a consideration of the remaining senses, the Smell, Taste, and Touch, I shall make some observations upon the Senses in general. By certain wonderful organs of the body, man is susceptible of a variety of sensations. We have seen, that by the eyes, he can acquire the perception of light and colours; and, by the ears, the perception of different tones. By the smell and taste, moreover, he perceives certain agreeable or disagreeable emanations, savours and odours, sweet

and bitter, and other similar properties in the bodies or substances which approach the nose, or are admitted into the mouth. And finally, by the touch, which is diffused over the whole body, he has the sensations of heat and cold, of moist and dry, of soft and hard, &c.

These five senses thus useful to man, and indeed essential to his happiness, have been the subject of poetical illustration, in one of the earliest periods of English versification. Sir John Davies, who flourished in the reign of queen Elizabeth, thus expresses himself, in his excellent poem on the Immortality of the Soul.

This power is sense, which from abroad doth bring

The colour, taste, and touch, and scent, and sound,
The quantity and shape of every thing

Within earth's centre or heaven's circle found:

And though things sensible be numberless, But only five the sense's organs be;

And in those five all things their forms express, Which we can touch, taste, smell, or hear, or see.

Then is the soul a nature, which contains
The power of sense within a greater power,
Which doth employ and use the sense's pains;
But sits and rules within her private bower.

*

If we had nought but sense, then only they Should have sound minds which have their senses sound; But wisdom grows when senses do decay, And folly most in quickest sense is found.

The sense next in order, after those of sight and hearing, which we have been already describing, is Smell, which is that whereby we become sensible of odorous bodies. The principal organs of this sense are the nostrils and olfactory nerves; the minute ramifications of which latter are distributed throughout the whole concave of the former.

Smelling is performed by the odorous effluvia, flowing in the air, being drawn into the nostrils, by inspiration, and struck with such force against the fibrilla of the olfactory nerves, as to shake them, and give them a vibratory motion; which action being communicated thence to the common sensory, occasions an idea of a sweet, or fetid, or sour, or aromatic, or putrified object, &c. And it is observed by the great Boerhaave, that the matter of animals, vegetables, fossils, &c. which chiefly affects the sense of smelling, is that subtile substance, inherent in the oily parts thereof, called spirits; because, when this is taken away from the moist fragrant bodies, what remains has scarce any smell at all; but this, poured on the most inodorous bodies, will give them a fragrancy.

Brutes have generally the sense of smelling in much greater perfection than man; as by this alone they distinguish the virtues and qualities of bodies unknown before; hunt out their food at a great distance, as hounds and birds of prey; or find it hid among other substances, as hogs and ducks. But man, having other means of judging of his food, does not need so much sagacity in his nose.

Dr. Derham observes, that although the apparatus for smelling be sufficiently grand and admirable, it is not so complicated as that of the eye and ear; it being sufficient in this sense, that the odoriferous effluvia of bodies have a free and easy passage to the olfactory nerves, without the formalities of refractions, and other preparations necessary to the perfection of the two former senses. And, accordingly, the All-wise Creator has made sufficient provision for the reception of smells, by the apertures of the nostrils, which are not made of flesh and bone, but are cartilaginous, the better to be kept open, as well as to be dilated or contracted, as oc

casion may require; for which service they have several curious and proper muscles.

As it is by inspiration, moreover, that the odorous particles are inhaled, and conveyed to the sensory, there is another very wise provision in the lamine with which the upper part of the nose is barricaded, and which serve two excellent purposes; partly to fence out any noxious substances from entering the breathing passages in our sleep, or when not aware of them; and, partly, to receive the divarications of the olfactory nerves. And it is found, that these lamina are always larger, and folded up together in greater numbers, in proportion as the animal has this sense more accurate; their various windings and turnings detaining and fettering a great quantity of the odoriferous particles.

The Taste may be defined to be that sensation which all things, taken into the mouth, give particularly to the tongue, the papillæ of which are the principal instruments thereof. These papillæ are so called from their resemblance to little paps, and, when viewed in the microscope, appear like the pile of velvet. But the greatest writers have differed on this subject. Some consider the palate, the upper part or roof of the mouth, to be the instrument of taste. Of this last opinion is Mr. Locke, who observes, that light and colours come in only by the eyes, all kinds of sounds only by the ears, the several tastes and smells by the nose and palate.' This opinion is ludicrously alluded to by Prior, in his poem of Alma:

By nerves about our palate placed,
She likewise judges of the taste:
Else, dismal thought! our warlike men
Might drink thick port for fine Champagne.

1 Alma, the Mind.