The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-26

thing to cling to, and form a connection
with other cells which have been aroused
by appeals to corresponding senses.
The sense of touch, or what is known as
general sensation, is the most acute of all
the five senses.
Every one marvels at the brainlike sensi-
bllities OF The hand which can pick out a
counterfeit note from a pile of a hundred
bills when the owner of the hand is blind
folded. The taetile or inner surface of the
hand, where all the sensibility exists, con-
slsts OF an endless number of tacJile cor
puscles, set in rows on the ridges of the
inner ends of the fingers. According to
MelssneT, these corpuscles crepitate or
give forth sound and these sounds differ
at every age of every individual. In the
case OF the blind this sense of touch is so
marvelously developed that if they finger
an object carefully several times they are
able to form with clay correct copy of it.
Discussing the meaning of the term cts
sue habit" DR.. Miller says that the
nervous tissues, which are composed of
cells and connecting fibers, acquire habit
OF the transmission of certain sensations
and the performance of certain thoughts.
What is called tracking the brain" is
due to this condition of affairs. 1t is as if
solitary wayfarer in the woods had
reached point where his path branches
out in half q dozen different directions,
to his destination he is obliged to try each
path in turn in vain, and is at last COM
PEELED to strike out of his own accord
through the woods.
Then it is that sensation (Which did
not sufficiently impress itself originally
upon its sense center) in search OF this
vague memory, runs down this fiber and
down that fruitlessly. and finally is obliged
to absolutely create new pathway of
thought. As Professor Jordan very ap-
propriately suggests, it is not nearly so
important that all the sensations of grow
ing child should be impressed upon it as
that those which it will need in future life
shall be indelibly burned into its brain.
1t is plain that the education of child is
not drawing out" at all, but build
ing up.
Recent experiments have shown the in
telligence of monkeys can be very much
improved by patient education of the va
rious sense and motor centers. The mon
key is docile animal, and far more ready
to receive education than vast majority
of children. Still, the education of mon
keys brain is slow and laborious opera.
ton.
Let us suppose the case of monkey who
is very dirty and slovenly in appearance.
1t has been found that such an animal can
be made to wash itself just as a man does
with water; to comb and brush its hair:
to clean its teeth; to wear clothes and
to show great facility III putting them
on and taking them off. The mon
key is such an imitator that the only
trouble in these cases has been that the
special education given to it runs riot with
its brain, so that 1t is constantly brushing
its hair, or cleaning its teeth, or putting on
AND taking off its clothes. In matters of
fact, the possibilities of the mental develop
ment OF the monkey and of the dog, too,
are absolutely unlimited, and it is not at
all unlikely that the voice center in the
brain of these animals and their vocal
cords can be so developed as to enable
them to use articulate speech.
DR.. Miller appears to regret that the
sense OF smell in man has been allowed to
fall into desuetude, while in the dog it has
always been and is now being carefully
cultivated. If mans sense of smell has
become vestigial, why, asks the doctor,
should the dogs and monkeys speech
centers not be developable New York
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