The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-03-20
THE SENSE OF TOUCH.
New York Graphical

New York Graphic.
 or all the senses we possess the sense of touch is at once the most complex and the least understood. Blindness and deafness are only too common, and we can all more or less appreciate the nature and extent of these dire sfn ctions But who ever thinks how he would be affected by deprivation of the capacity to feel, in- ability to distinguish by touch between smoothness and roughness, heat and cold, or by an impaired power to receive the various sensations of pain and pleasure which reach us through the surface of the body3 How is it that the same finger which tells us that a substance is hard CT soft tells us also that 1t is hot or cold Have we, as some physiologists aver, a sixth sense, that of temperature? If not, how comes it that 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 cannot tell us, says the London .Sbeekater, they only know that the sensations so conveyed are sep arable, 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, M. A Heizen and Prof. Soret, The obser- vations of these gentlemen, besides being highly interesting, psychologically as we'll as physiologically, are of consider able practical importance in their rela- ton to the training of the blind.
 Pressure on limb-as for instance, when we fall asleep tying on one of our arms-if continued for some time, makes it more or less numb It gradually loses the power of transmitting sensations to the brain. According to the obser- vations of M. 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 prick, it is still sensible to the warmth of the other hand. If the pressure be prolonged the limb ceases to be affected even by heat. There are people, other wise 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 M. Heizen mentions the case of an old woman whose legs, partially paralyzed, could feel only pain and cold. At her autopsy it was found that her spinal cord in the neigh borhood of the nervous centers of the back was shrivelled, and otherwise in an unhealthy state.
 But Nj. HeIzen has not rested content with observations of his own species he has made experiments on the lower ami mals, classified several of the sensations of touch, and discovered their localiza- tions in the organism; and Prof Soret, taking up the psyche ogical branch of the subject, has tried to find out how far the sense of touch may be made to con- vey to the sightless an idea of the beauti- ful. For as a deaf musician may enjoy music despite his deafness so may blind man find pleasure in beauty of form, not withstanding his blindness In the one case the pleasure comes from the rhythm or rather from the sonorous vibrations in the air produced by the playing in the other, from symmetry and regularity of the object handled. "When music is going on feel something here," said to M. Soret 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 Laus- anne, have the same love of symmetry as the deaf The girl embroiderers attach much importance to the perfect regular ity of the designs which they are required to repeat in their work. The basket makers insist on the willow withes they use being all straight and of the same length.
 Prof Soret mentions the case of a blind rustic, accustomed to horses, who without help succeeded in selecting from a number of other designs, in relief the figure of the animal with which he was most familiar. A youth of quick appre. hension and vivid, though undeveloped, imaginative power, he had handled horses in his fathers or his masters sta- ble until he had mentally created an ideal horse that he was able to recognize by his fingers its counterfeit presentiment. Another boy, born blind, but thoroughly educated, was able to pick out bird, yet he admitted that, unless he had previ- ously handled a stuffed specimen, he would have great difficulty in identifying the figure and realizing what the original was Ike. In other words, mere discrip- ton is not enough; blind man cannet mentally see . thing, or even recognize 1t when laid in touchable form before kssr. ,,rl>s~ h~ koa evst favr3Ia~ . v;~>I k1vn