confiscated hopelessly, gas, juice and all.

The lips prevent its retrogression. The teeth take possession of
it and crush it. The salva imbibes it; the tongue turns it over
and over, an aspiration forces it to the thorax; the tongue lifts
it up to suffer it to pass. The sense of smell perceives it en
route, and it is precipitated into the stomach to undergo ulterior
transformations, without the most minute fragment during the whole
of this escaping. Every drop every atom has been appreciated.

In consequence of this perfection, gourmandise is the exclusive
apanage of man.

This gourmandise is even contagious, and we impart it without
difficulty to the animals we have appropriated to our use, and
which in a manner associate with us, such as elephants, dogs,
cats, and parrots even.

Besides taste requiring to be estimated only by the value of the
sensation it communicates to the common centre, the impression
received by the animal cannot be compared to that imparted to man.
The latter is more precise and clear, and necessarily supposes a
superior quality in the organ which transmits it.

In fine, what can we desire in a faculty susceptible of such
perfection that the gourmands of Rome were able to distinguish the
flavors of fish taken above and below the bridge? Have we not seen
in our own time, that gourmands can distinguish the flavor of the
thigh on which the partridge lies down from the other? Are we not
surrounded by gourmets who can tell the latitude in which any wine