Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-03-27
The Complex Sense of Touch.

quoted by the thought that Its owner only
cures by fraud what the Senator takes by
divine right.
The Complex Sense of Touch.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.
OF all the senses we possess the sense of touch
is at once the most complex and the least un.
derstoOd. Blindness and deafness are only too
common, and we can all more or less appreci-
ate the nature and extent of these dire affic-
tions- But who ever thinks how he would be
affected by deprivation of the capacity to feel
inability TO distinguish by touch between
smoothness and roughness, heat and cold, or by
an impaired power 10 receive the various sem
saIIons of pain and pleasure which reach us
through the surface of the body? How is it that
the same finger which tells Us that substance
is hard or soft, tells us also that it is hot or
cold" Have We, as some Psychologists aver
sixth sense, that OF temperature? II not how
comes 1T that a single touch OF the finger con-
veys to the brain in the same instant, two dis
tinct impressions, perhaps three, tor the SUBJ
stance in question may be wet, as well as hot or
cold, hard or SOFT: Psychologists cannot tell u.s.
they only know that the sensations conveyed
are separable, and that the ways by which they
reach the brain are not the same. The subject
is by no means new, but fresh light has lately
been thrown on it by the researches of two
Swiss savans, NJ. n. HerZen and Prof. Soret.
The observations of these gentlemen, besides
being highly interesting, psycholOgicalfy as
wen as physioiogicaily, are OF considerable prac
teal Importance in their relation to the train
Pressure on a iimb-as, for instance, when we
fall asleep lying on one of our armS-if con-
I
numb. 1t gradually loses the power of transmit
ting sensations to the brain. According TO the OBJ
Servations OF NJ Herzen the first sense lost is that
OF touch, the second that of cold, the third that
OF pain, the last that of heat. He says that
when one OF his arms is so torpid that he has to
feel for it with the other, and it is imperyious
to pinch or prick, it is still sensible to the
warmth of the other hand. Ii the pressure be
prolonged, the limb ceases TO be affected even by
neat There are people, otherwise healthy,
whose capacity of feeling is so far incom plete
that they never know what it is to be cold so
far as sensations conveyed by the skin are con-
ccrned. Winter Is the same to them summer.
This probably arises from an abnormal condition
OF the spinal cord. NJ. Herzen mentions the
case OF an old woman whose legs, partially par
aiyzed, could feel only pain and cold. At her
autopsy il was found that the spinal cord i'm the
neighDOrhOOd of the nervous centers of the back
was stlrlyeled and otherwise in an unhealthy
state. But NJ. HerZen has not rested content
with observations on his own species; he has
made experiments on the lower animals classi-
fed several of the sensations OF touch and dis
covered their OSCILLATIONS in the organism: and
Proi- Soret, taking up the psychological branch
of the subject has tried to find out how far the
sense of touch may be made to convey to the
sishtless an idea OF the beautiful. For as deaf
musician may enjoy music despite his deaf
ness, may blind man find pleasure in
beauty of form, notwithstanding his blindness.
In the one case the pleasure comes from the
rhythm, or rather from sonorous vibrations in
the air, produced by the playing; in the other
rom the symmetry and regularity OF the object
handled.
Nv hen music is going on feel something
here, said 10 NJ. Soret a deaf mute who enjoyed
operas, putting his hand on his stomach. The
blind, even those born blind, as Prof. Soret has
ascertained by inquiries among the inmates of
the Blind Asylum of Lausanne, hayethe same
love of symmetry as the deaf. The girl embroi-
derers attach much importance to the perfect
regularity OF the designs which they are re-
CURED 10 repeat in their work. The basket
makers insist on the willow withes they use
being all straight and of the same length,
solutions OF continuity in the things they
handle are, TO the blind, indications OF ueli-
ness. They like evenness OF surface, regularity
OF shape; cracked pot a rough table, or q
broken chair causes thelG positive discomfort.
but 10 create in the mind Of a person born blind
an artistic idea involves a measure Of psyche
logical development which it Is very difficult
10 impart, and requires from both teacher and
scholar great patience and ong-sustained effort.
The Needed Reformation OF Charity.
D. o. Kellogg. in April Atlantic.
The theory upon which society has hereto
fore treated human suffering or degradation
| has been very simple. There were two classes
of misery: the one produced, as the old under
writers would express it, "by the hand of God I"
and the other by depravity bearing fruit This
distinction lies patent upon the surface of the
Elizabethan poor-laws, and reappears in the
| workhouse test Of Earl Grey. The whole scheme
OF legislation has aimed at some means to sep
arate those who ought to be punished from
those whose undeseryed caiamities constitute a
title TO sympathy. The claim of the last has
ticipate in the parish poor relief virtually en-
iorcabie oy law. But such classification Is
lHlpractlcapie In the present conditions OF So
ciety, II IL has not always been so. Chalmers
demonstrated not only by his experiment at
| ST. Johns church in Glasgow, but by his APP
peal to the history OF the Scottish peasantry
that natural affection was a sufficient motive
and the generosity of the poor one to another
was SUFFICIENT resource for the sick the
aged, the orphan, the widow, the halt.
the blind, the wayfarer, and the imbecile of all
Caledonia He insisted that the springs of this
lowiy benehcence were concealed by the inter-
| ference OF strangers, and he arraigned compui-
| sorry relief because 1t relaxed natural ties and
dissolved the amenities of kinship and affec-
ton The progress of state relief has been
marked by the abandonment Of wives and
children, by the increase of iiiegitimacy by the
| turning of lettering age to the almshOuse and
| by the consequent degradation OF those in
whom motives of family affection ceased Prof
Fawcett has shown that the legal provision for
| foundiings in England is SO superior, I'm amount
and In the associations created for the child to
what farm hand can supply as to be an en-
ticemept for fathers to abandon their Offspring
an enticement which Is the stronger as The
father Is more reflective, disinteresfed and am
bilious Tor his children. 1t has been abundantly
shown that the poOr-rate operates TO depress
wages, by handicapping the selfsnpporting In
their labor contest with state-aided workmen,
and that the workhouse Is incompatible with
| family relations and with the innocence OF
| childhood. Thus society can corrupt its humble
members.