Книга только для ознакомления
.
Even some bloodless animals have an organ that serves for the
perception of savours; and in sanguineous animals such an organ is
invariably variably For even in such of these as would seem to an
ordinary observer to have nothing of the kind, some of the fishes
for example, there is a kind of shabby representative of a tongue,
much like what exists in river crocodiles. In most of these cases
the apparent absence of the part can be rationally explained on some
ground or other. For in the first place the interior of the mouth in
animals of this character is invariably spinous. Secondly, in water
animals there is but short space of time for the perception of
savours, and as the use of this sense is thus of short duration,
shortened also is the separate part which subserves it. The reason for
their food being so rapidly transmitted to the stomach is that they
cannot possibly spend any time in sucking out the juices; for were
they to attempt to do so, the water would make its way in during the
process. Unless therefore one pulls their mouth very widely open,
the projection of this part is quite invisible. The region exposed
by thus opening the mouth is spinous; for it is formed by the close
apposition of the gills, which are of a spinous character.
In crocodiles the immobility of the lower jaw also contributes in
some measure to stunt the development of the tongue. For the
crocodile's tongue is adherent to the lower jaw
|
