New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-04-18
SENSE OF TOUCH.
The Most Complex and Least Understood
of All the Senses.


The Most Complex and Least Undeyst. cd
of All the Senses.
OF all the senses we possess, the sense
of touch is at once the most complex
and the least understood, says the
Pail Mall Gazette. Blindness and deaf
,,ass are too common, and we can all
6 or less appreciate the nature and
extent OF these dire Affections But
who ever thinks how he would be af-
iected by deprivation OF the capacity
to feel, inability to distinguish by
touch between smoothness and rough
ness, heat and cold, or by an impaired
power to receive the various sensa-
tions OF pain and pleasure which reach
us through the surface of the body?
How is it that the same finger which
tells us that a substance is hard or
soft, tells us also that it is hot or cold?
Have we, as some psychologists aver,
a sixth sense, that OF temper nature? If
not, how comes it that a single touch
OF the finger conveys to the brain, in
the same Instant, two distinct impress
slons, perhaps three, for the substance
in question may be wet, as we'll as hot
OF cold, hard or soft? Psychologists
cannot tell US; they only know that
the sensations SO conveyed are sepa-
rable, 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 sa-
wants, M. A. Herzen and Professor
Soret. The observations Of these two
gentlemen. besides being highly inter-
esting, psychologically as well as phys
iologically, are OF considerable prac-
tical Importance in their retati on to
the training OF the blind.
Pressure on q limb-as. for instance,
when we tall asleep lying on one ofour
armos-if continued for some time,
makes 1t more or less numb 1t grad
ually loses the power Of trans hitting
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 saws
that when one OF his arms is so torpid
that he has to feel for it with the
other, and it is impervious to a pinch
or a prick, it is sensible to the warmth
OF the other hand. Ii the pressure be
prolonged, the limb ceases to be
affected even by heat. There are peo-
pie, otherwise healthy, whose capacity
OF feeling is SO farincompletet that they
never know what it is to be cold so far
as sensations conveyed to the skin are
concerned. Winter is the same to
them as summer. This probably
arises from all abnormal condition Of
the spinal cord. M. Herzen mentions
the case Of an old woman whose legs,
rtially paralyzed, could feel only
pain and cold. At her auto psy it was
found that the spinal cord in the
neighborhooll OF the nervous centres
OF the back was shriveled and other
wise in an unhealthy state. But NJ.
Herzen has not rested content with
observations of his own species; he has
made experiments on the lower ami
mails, classified several of the sensa-
tlons OF the touch, and discovered
their OSCILLATIONS i'll the organism;
and Professor Soret, taking up the
psychological branch OF the subject,
has tried to find outhowfar the sense
OF touch may be made to convey to
the sightless an idea OF the beautiful.
For as a deaf musician may enjoy mu-
SIC, despite his deafness, SO may a
blind man find pleasure in beauty Of
form, Notwithstanding his blindness.
In the one case the pleasure comes
from the rhy Or rather from SON
orous vibrations Of the air, produced
by the playing, in the other from the
symmetry and regularity Of the object
handled. "When music is going
on | feel something here" said to NJ.
Soret a deaf mute who enjoyed operas,
putting his hand on his stomach. The
blind, even those born blind, as Pro-
lessor Soret has ascertained by inqui-
ries among the inmates of the blind
asylum of Lausanne, have the same
love OF symmetry as the deaf The
girl embro :derers attach much import
ance to the perfect regularity OF the
designs which they are required to re-
peat in the 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 ugliness. They like
evenness ofsurface, regularity ofshape;
a cracked pot, a rough table, or a
broken chair causes them positive dis
comfort. But to create in the mind
ola person born blind an artistic idea
involves a measure of psychological
development which it is very difficult
to lmpart and requires from both
teacher and scholar great patience
and long sustained effort.