St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-05-22
SENSE OF TOUCH.
The Most Complex and Least Understood
Of the Human Senses.

| SENSE OF TOUGH.
The Most Complex aud Least Understoo,
| Of the Human Senses.
OF all the senses we possess the sens,
of touch is at once the most compile,
and the least understood. Blindness
and deafness are only too common. an,
we can all more or less appreciate tn,
nature and extent of these dire afflic
tons. But who ever thinks how h,
would be affected by deprivation of the
capacity to feel. inability to dis
tinguished by touch between smooth
ness and roughness, heat and cold. OIL
by an impaired power to receive the
various sensations 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 no,
or cold9 Have we, as some physiolo.
gistS aver, a sixth sense. that of tempera.
ture? If not, how comes it that a
single touch of the finger conveys to
the brain, in the same instant, two
distinct impressions, perhaps three, for
the substance in question may be wet,
as well as hot or cold. hard or soft ?
Psychologists can not tell us; they only
know that the sensations so 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
savants, NJ. A. Herzen and Prof Soret
The observations of these gentlemen.
besides being highly interesting.
psychologically as well as physiolo-
gically, are of considerable practical
importance in their relation to the
training of the blind.
Pressure on limb-as, for instance,
when we fall asleep lying on one of
our arms continued for some time,
makes it more or less numb. 1t grad
ually loses the power of transmitting
sensations to the brain. According to
the observations 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
impervious to pinch or a prick, it is
still sensible to the warmth of the other
hand. If the pressure be prolonged.
the limb ceases to be affected even bv
heat. There are people. otherwise
healthy. whose capacity of feeling is so
far incomplete that they never know
what it is to be cold SO far as sensations
conveyed by the skin are concerned
Winter is the same to them as summer.
This probably arises from an abnormal
condition of the spinal cord. NJ. Her
zen mentions the case of an old woman
whose legs, partially paralyzed, could
feel only pain and cold. At her autopsy
it was found that the spinal cord in the
of the nervous centres of
the back was shriveled and otherwise
in an unhealthy state. But NJ. Herzen
has not rested content with observa-
tions on his own species: he has made
on the lower ami
mails. classified several of the sensations
of touch, and discovered their loca-
tions in the organism; and Prof. 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 sightless an idea of the
beautiful. For as deaf musician NAV
enjoy music, despite his deafness. so
may a blind man find pleasure in
beauty of form, Notwithstanding his
blindness. In the one case the pleas
ure comes from the rhythm, or rather
from sonorous vibrations in the air.
produced by the playing; in. the other
from the symmetry and regularity Of
the object handled.
"When music is going on l feel
here" said to NJ. Soret a
leaf mute who enjoyed operas, putting
MS hand on his stomach. The blind,
wen those born blind, as Prof Soret
las ascertained by inquiries among the
inmates of the Blind Asylum of Lau-
same, have the same love of symme-
nv as the deaf. The girl embroiderers
attach much Importance to the perfect
of the designs which they
ire required to reproduce in their work.
The basket-makers insist on the willow !
yithes they use being all straight and |
# the same length. Solutions of con- |
inuity in the things they handle are,
o the blind. indications of ugliness. |
They like evenness Of surface. regular |
ty of shape; a cracked pot. rough |
able or broken chair causes them |
positive discomfort. But to create in
he mind of person born blind an
lrtistic idea involves measure of psy-
biological development which it is very
lifficult to impart, and requires from
10Th teacher and scholar great pa
fence and long-sustained effort-PaH
Nall Gazette.