OK, OK so it doesn't follow that we are headed that way but this is certainly interesting ....

CWS has a summary here .... Historical argument favors Communion on the tongue

... concluding that the early Church quickly developed the practice in which lay people Communion on the tongue while kneeling. Only ordained ministers were allowed to touch the consecrated Host with their hands.

By the 6th century, Bishop Schneider writes, the Church had formed a consensus that Communion should be received on the tongue, of reverence for the Eucharistic Lord. Pope Gregory the Great chastised priests who resisted that consensus, and it was become an "almost universal practice" in the early Church, the author says.

Kneeling to receive Communion was also a pattern established early in Church history, Bishop Schneider reports. That posture, too, was seen as a means of expressing reverence for Jesus in the Eucharist, and "the most typical gesture of adoration is the biblical one of kneeling."

By administering Communion on the tongue, priests were able to foster greater devotion to the Eucharist; Bishop Schneider remarks that that form is "an impressive sign of the profession of faith the in the Real Presence."

He adds the argument that this form of distributing Communion can prevent accidents. The author cites St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who exhorted priests to use extra caution "so that no even a crumb of the Lord's Body could fall to the ground."

I had read this in my research on the early fathers years ago. While it is true, as some commenters have pointed out, that many accidents have occurred with people who DO receive on the tongue, these accidents would be virtually eliminated with altar rails and patens (which to my understanding should be used anyway). Also, in my experience altar rails seem much faster than the way one typically receives today which would reduce the need for extraordinary Eucharistic ministers.

See Te Deum laudamus!: Historical-Liturgical Notes on the Rite of the Eucharist by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

Also a recent email to Fr. Z has prompted him to repost his PODCAzT about Communion in the hand.