The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1903-05-07
MEMS FIVE SENSES.
CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT THEM NOT
GENERALLY KNOWN

For some unknown reason different
parts of the tongue are assigned for
the perception of different tastes.
With the tip we taste sweet substances
and salts, with the back we taste bitter
things and with the sides we taste
acids. The middle part of the tongues
surface has scarcely any sense of taste
at all.
The long named substance parabrom-
benzoic sulphinide produces most re-
markable effect, for it gives a sense Of
sweetness to the point of the tongue
and Of bitterness to the back. Pure
water tastes sweet after sulphate of
magnesia.
We can only taste things in solu-
ton; hence if the tongue were perfect
ly dry it would not be affected by the
strongest favored substance in dry
! state.
The taste nerves are paralyzed by
very hot or very cold liquids. After
drinking very hot or ice cold water
we could not taste even such a sub
stance as Quinine. This fact supplies
a useful hint for consumers of i'll fla
vored medicines.
Smell, though the least useful. is the
most delicate Of all our senses. We
can smell the three-hundred-m illiOnth
part of grain of musk. No chemical
analysis can detect such minute guam
titles. The most powerful microscope
| would not render a particle ten thou
sand times as large visible. We could
not taste it were it many thousand
times as large.
While we taste liquids, we can smell
only gases. Fill your nostrils with eau
de cologne, and you will experience no
odor whatever. Fine as our sense Of
smell is. it has deteriorated immensely
since the time when our forefathers
were wild men. The Calmucks can
smell an encampment twenty miles
away; the Peruvians can distinguish
all the South American races by their
odor.
But smell is a sense highly suscep-
tible of cultivation even by the modern
white man. Dealers in tea, spices. per-
fumes and drugs, in consequence Of
their training. can distinguish the
faintest differences in odors.
The organ of hearing is one Of the
most marvellous pieces Of mechanism
in the body. In animals the external
ear acts as a trumpet to collect the
sound waves; in man it Is little more
than an ornament. hut the internal ear
/ is alike in both. So wOnurI III. it's
construction that we can distinguish
sounds varying from forty to 1000 Vi
brations per second. This feat is per-
formed by a portion of the ear called
the organ of Corti. What wonderful
| organ that is may be understood from
the fact that it consists of 5000 pieces
of apparatus, each piece being made
| up of two rods. one inner hair cell and
four outer hair cells-that is. $4,000
separate parts. In some mysterious
manner the rods, with other things, are
tuned to different notes, and when they
vibrate they cause the hairs to trans
nit an impulse to the nerve of hearing.
TO be musical, therefore, is to have a
good organ of Corti.
Why is it that scratching piece of
glass with metal causes such an un-
pleasant sound? Because it is what is
called the fundamental tone of the ear,
which is very high. What the funda-
mental tone exactly is would take too
much space to explain. but if you blow
across the mouth of bottle, a hollow
globe, etc. you get it's fundamental
tone.
The ear is a deceptive organ, and it
is often matter of guesswork to tell
whence a sound comes. Indeed. if you
place the open hands in front Of your
ears and curve them backward sounds
produced in front will appear to come
from behind.
Human beings and monkeys see most
things with both eyes. Our whole field
Of vision extends over $50 degrees or
half a circle. The middle half of this,
we see with both eyes together, but
the quarter at each side is seen only
with one eye.
All other animals see most things
with one eye only. Scarcely ever can
they fix both eyes on anything at the
! same time. But there are considerable
variat tons. A bulldog. for instance,
somewhat closely approaches the con-
dition of monkey. The larger the pu-
pill the greater the quantity Of light
which enters the eye. Large PUZZLED
people, therefore. see the world in a
brighter and more ciioerful state than
those with small pupils. They can see
things better in the dusk Or at night.
AS every one knows from the optical
illusion pictures. the eyes are easily
deceived. A white square on black
ground appears larger tta4 black
square of the same size Oh 5hite
ground. lieu near green looks redoer5
blue near yellow looks bluer; white
near black looks whittier.
Touch really includes several senses
Thus there are spots on the skin which
feel heat only, spots which feel only
cold, spots which feel only pain, spots
which feel only pressure and spots
which feel tickling. These spots are
supplied with nerves capable of doing
only one particular duty. The sense
tons Of the skin are grouped by physi-l
ologists into three kinds-touch, pain
and temperature. The skin which COW
ers a scar has only one kind of sensa-
ton. 1t can feel neither pressure Couch
proper) nor tempeEa ture, but perceives
pain very acutely. The tongue is the