Hearing, which, by the motion of the air, informs us of the motion
of sounding or vibrating bodies.

Scent, by means of which we are made aware of the odors bodies
possess.

Taste, which enables us to distinguish all that has a flavor from
that which is insipid.

Touch informs us of the consistency and resistance of bodies.

The last is genesiac or physical love, which attracts the sexes to
each other, and the object of which is the reproduction of the
species.

It is astonishing that, almost to the days of Buffon, so important
a sense was misunderstood, and was confounded with the touch.

Yet the sensation of which it is the seat, has nothing in common
with touch; it resides in an apparatus as complete as the mouth or
the eyes, and what is singular is that each sex has all that is
needed to experience the sensation; it is necessary that the two
should be united to reach nature's object. If the TASTE, the
object of which is the preservation of the individual, be
incontestibly a sense, the same title must indubitably be
preserved on the organs destined to the preservation of the
species.

Let us then assign to the genesiac the sensual place which cannot