The San Francisco call., 1897-02-28

Starting from these corpuscie complex
ramitication of nervous filaments spread
in every direction, like twigs in thickly
branched tree. In the ordinary finger a
single nerve extends TO the sip, with a
few branches at the extremity, each OF
which ends in a corpuscle. In the blind
mans finger the branches were past
counting, and they began TO be thrown off
from the main nerve long before the ex-
tremity was reached. 1t was evident that
the sense of touch in the blind mans
finger was kept in such constant en-
ployment that a flow of blood into the
finger was induced, and the growth of the
nerve system was consequently stimu-
lated. DR.. Miller goes so far as to say
that the Pacini corpusces are the blind
mans fnger-tip brain, and he implies,
under some reservations, that the finger
tips are eye and mind to the blind, con-
tanning the same gray matter as the brain.
This theory would imply that the organs
OF perception and reaso soning are not con-
fined exclusively to the interior Of the
skull, but may exist in other parts of
the body, and that Shakespeare may not
have been SO absurd, after all, when he
said that the live, was the seat of love.
We know great deal more about the
blind than our ancestors did in the last
century, and yet we have still muck to
learn. a popular impression prevails
that when the sight IS taken away nature
offers compensation by strengthening the
other bodily and mental powers, so as to
make up for the deficiency. This notion
is unfounded ana probably was conceived
| in order to mitigate the horror of hope
less misfortune. There is no reason for
supposing that the other senses of the
blind-hearing, touch, taste, smell and
com mparison-are more acute than in peo-
pie who see. On the contrary, incurable
blindness is apt to break down both body
and mind, TO destroy hope and spirit and
! to lower its victim below the normal level
of humanity. Among the rich tender
care and affection often mitigate the
misery of the afflicted, but among the
| mass of mankin1 person WHO is hope
! iessly blind is treated as helpless infe-
rIor, thrust into isolation by his intirmity
| He is an incum brance to be neglected and
! INDUCED, so that he grows up TO be little
! better than the lower amin mals-vicious,
! mischievous, lazy, apathetic, crouching
| in moral as well as mental and physical
darkness. Poor blind children ar often
moody, selfish, irritable and discontented
| So far from redeeming their affiiction by
higher development OF the other senses
they seem to be drifting into a condition
in which partial paralysis will overtake
| them all.
OF course there have been signal excep-
tions-Miton, Sanderson, Dandolo, ztsca,
Cover, Moyes, Salinas, Huber, James,
| Stanley, John OF Bohemia, Fielding,
A To
| demonstrates the truth that the loss of
! sight does not necessarily and in all cases
impair the quality of mind. But the vis-
itor to our modern blind asylums cannot
avoid the conclusion that as rule blind
ness impairs all the faculties and that If
there is anything in D.. Miller's theory of
branch brain in the finger tips it ought
| to be studied with view to the develop
ment OF its poss bilities.
| For it must be remembered that in the
| science of mind and the nerves we are
| still cropping in the dark, and those of US
who see best do but see through a glass
dimly.
| Not long ago DR.. Hammond, who knows
more than anybody upon the connection
| between mind and matter, said in a pub
| l:c lecture that he did not know what q
mind was, but he had a vague idea that
| it's manifestations, as embraced in percep-
! ton, intellect, emotions and will were
| dependent upon the operations of cells of
gray nerve tissue, which are chiefly found
in the brain but are likewise present in
! the spinal cord, the heart, stomach, lungs,
| liver and other organs. Not to the brain
alone do we owe the evolution of mind;
the sympa thetic system OF nerves is also
concerned in its production. The prl-
mary manifestion of mind is perception,
which, in the case of things SEEN is per-
formed primarily by the retina of the eye,
| from which it is conveyed by the optic
nerve to the ganglion and thence to the
| gray nerve tissue in the brain. But if
! there is a gray nerve tissue in the finger
| tips and this can receive impressions of
outward objecs through tn. sense OF
touch, mind can be set to work without
assistance from the brain, and the latter
may for the moment abdicate its cogni-
! zance or superintendent of the actions of
the body.
Here is where the theory OF a brain
finger tip may perhaps be turned to prac-
tical account. Blind people acquire ex-
| treme sensitiveness in the ends OF their
fingers mechanically by exerting an in
voluntary instinct. Suppose the faculty
which comes to them almost without ef-
fort were cultivated by education. Micros-
copy has shown US that there is an
extraordinary development of the nervous
system in the fingers of the blind, and
| that the nerves are centers of gray matter.
Would it be possible to cultivate the sem
sitiveness of the skin so as to increase its
perceptive capacity? II that could be
done, the blind might be supplied with a
| pair of eyes at the ends of their fingers,
not rs efficient as natural eyes, but still
capable of seeing much within a limited
sphere, and of arresting she tendency of
their possessor TO degeneracy and torpor.
| We supply the halt and the lame with
artificial limbs which, if they are not an
adequate substitute for the limbs fur
nlshed by nature, still render locomotion
practicable. Why cannot the power of
vision be evolved in a new organ?
JOHN BONNER