Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-09-03
ILLUSIONS OF THE SENSES.


THE little child who watches with de
light the moon scampering wildly through
the clouds of windy night, and wonders
why it does not sooner finish its race, and
come down upon the far-off trees, is not
the only subject of illuded sense. His
brother who is old enough to accompany
their father on a journey, and who, on
crossing a ferry for the first time, sees the
bank strangely moving away from the
boat, and the trees and heavens spinning
around overhead rs the fiat swings down
stream with the current, is another sub
iect of illusion. And so is their father in
many a thing, although, being more
learned in the ways of nature, the decep-
tion under which he labors may not be
quite so palpable.
In truth, scarcely a day passes in the
lives of most people in which, despite all
their intelligence, there is not more OF
less illusion of some of their senses. A
labOring man who had lost leg used Ia
complain bitterly of the itching Of the
missing toes.
MY trouble is, )" saidhe, "that, bad as !
want to, can't scratch 'en."
OF course the feeling excited was VIII ol
ly nervous.
A similar nervous trouble, though of a
more dignitied character, occurred in the
case of young lady who suffered intense
ly from pain in the point of a forefinger
Her physician, erring in his diagnosis of
the case, endeavored, without success, to
relieve it by poulticing, blistering and
applying anodynes. One day a med
ical friend being present whose neurology
cal information was of higher order, he
remarked TO her jocosely;
81 think, Miss M, that you are mis-
taken as to the seat of the pain"
"What, doctor!" she exclaimed, "do
you suppose do not know where it hurts
me?"
81 do" he replied; q and if you will
spine l think you will soon agree with
me-"
The opportunity being afforded, he put
his finger upon one of the vertebrg be-
tween the shoulder-blades and gave it a
! gentle pressure, when she screamed:
doctor, you are right! The pain is in
"Well, now," said he, "having discov.
cred the seat of the pain, think we can
relieve it."
He applied a counter -irritant directly
over the ailing spot, and in the course OF
| few days the finger was we'll.
Among the illusions of the sense Of
feeling we must not forget to mention
| that curious deception, familiar to most
boys, in which they cause one marble to
seem to be two by rolling it in the palm
of one hand by two of the fingers crossed
of the other.
Another deception of this sense is not sc
| generally known. If three tumblers bt
! filled with water-One hot as. the finger
| Il L. Oh
tanned, and the third, the middle one, {
lukewarm mixture of the two-and (
| finger of each hand be held for minute
one in the hot and the other in the cole
tumbler, then both plunged together int
the tepid, the water in this last will seem
at the same moment, hot to one finger ant
cold to the other.
Illusions of the senses of smell and o
taste seldom, if ever, occur, possibly from
the fact, in the first named of the two (tf !
be fact, which no man with faithful
nose can easily believe), that we have NJ
recollection of odOrs. That illusions o
the sense of sight should so greatly out
number those of any other sense or of al
the others combined may be readily &C
counted for by the fact that impressions Ul
the eye are so much more vivid; but thi
reason leaves us at loss TO account TO
the fact that illusions of the sense of hedr
ing are so few in proportion to those G
sight, and especially that they should b
few compared with the usuallY-suppOset
less-vivid sense of feeling, unless we adoI
the opinion held by many that the sens
of feeling, so called, is not one sense, bu
many. Leaving these points, however
without discussion, we proceed with ou
main subject.
We watch the majestic rising and SCI
ting of the sun, and wonder what powe
there is in the atmosphere near the hori
zon to magnify so greatly his apparent d
ameter. We can readily conceive that tn
TefTaction of his rays will render the fac
visible some minutes before the actual riS
ing, and will keep it visible for as man
minutes after the actual setting, but wha
is there TO increase so greatly the genera
diameter? 1t is with almost incredulit
we learn from those who test this PHI
nomenon by careful instrumental mea
urement that the apparent increase {
magnitude is all an illusion, and that th
suns disk subtends no greater angle ,
the horizon than it does when, in miC
heaven, it appears 10 have shrunk TO ont
; half or one-fourth its size. The only e.
PLANTATION offered of this mysterious diffe
ence is that at the horizon the eye make
an unconscious comparison with objec
|, whose dimensions are familiar, while
mid-heaven no such objects are visible
The same is true Of the moon.
, On clOudless evening soon after SUI
set il is not unusual to see the HEAVIER
arched from west to east by alterna
stripes of light and shade, convergent
, their termini, but spread widely apa
overhead, like the seams which divide II
lobes of eantaleup, or the plugs of
peeled orange. When, however, we leaI
, -as, in the course of time, we probably
+ that the dark stripes are caused by sha
, Ows thrown athwart the sky from sma
r clouds intercepting the suns light belo
, the western horizon. we are convinced
having experienced another illusiO
: Those lines are not arched, as they see
J to be, but are in right lines, as are d
other rays of light and shade and they
[, not diverge from the west and converge
! the east to any perceptible degree, but a
, virtually parallel, and their appearance
|, the contrary is attributable TO the effect
! distance.
> No optical illusions are more CONNIE
I than those connected with magnitude al
distance, The magnitude Of objects pc