Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-09
THE. SIXTH SENSE IN ANIMALS. A 'Favorite Hypothesis With Many
 Naturalists. M

Every now and then the papers announce that some scientific man has discovered sixth sense" There Is really not only sixth, but many, others, especially if we take account of, some of those denied to man but possessed by other creatures. Some ! have special sense organs; others arc merely extensions, developments, or subdivisions of the senses familiar to us. Some of the most curious arc described in the Paris Cosmos by E. Herichard.s This writer notes that when we study the literature of this so-called sixth sense'' in animals we find that a large number have been reported by different writers. The hypothesis of an additional sense has, in fact, been favorite one. with many naturalists. He goes on to say: si, M N
 "A sense is defined by the. action of "a certain excitant on, the organs, followed by a phenomenon of con sciousness difficult to define. Vision is s,the action,of light on the eye a we'll defined surface, of analogous constitution in all animals; but even when the eye does not exist, there may still be reaction to light, as in the earthworm. This has been called 'dermatopic' sensation. Ordinary sensitiveness to light may be sub divided into two parts-a luminous and a chromatic sense. Touch may similarly be subdivided into sensa- .stion of contact or pressure and one of temperature. In the path 'ologic condition known as 'syringo- mylia, characterised by the altera- tion of the gray substance of the spinal marrow, this differentiation of touch. is shown spontaneously; the sensations of pain and temperature are abolished, while that of contact remains unaffected. Touch should therefore be divided into three sub-senses, senstitiveness to pressure, heat, and pain.
 x, "Along this line man is not always as we'll endowed as certain animals with special sense organs; thus, the differences of pressure in the medium where he lives manifests themselves to him only more or less vaguely by impressions of well being or disconi- i fort. while the fish, provided with a swimming bladder. feels so precise a sensation, when obliged to rise or s sink in the water, that he is enabled Ito resume his normal position by the action of this organ. On the other , hand, in certain oceanic cephalopods. there have been found, on the caudal fin, special eyes with opaque lenses. ss organs adapted to the percep- tion of heat rays, veritable thermic eyes. $. Senses simply differentiated In man may be found isolated in anil mals. The sensations of hunger. thirst, the reaction of the blood on the brain cells, also constitute sup plementary senses; such, too, IS tho muscular sense, that gives the impression of weight, (and) the 'stereognostic' sense, that furnishes an idea of the shape of bodies. As regards hearing, even when there is no auditive sense, there may exist a sensibility to vibration. residing in the bones. This is very delicate in fish and in certain worms.
 Among special organs of sensa- ton in animals we may note the horny bulbs along the nervures' of mosquitoes, for indicating the perl odicity of wing movements, and tho organ in which resides the sense of yerticality in the medusa-a sort oi pendulum whose contact with one side or the other of the cavity in which it hangs betrays an inclina- ation from the normal upright pos ture.
 Tt is also sixth sense' that in- forms an animal of it's movements by means of the displacement of fluid in the semi-circular canals of the ear This is the cause in man of the dizziness due to rotation; whHn we stop turning we seem to be turn Ing in the opposite direction because the inertia. of this fluid maintains 1t in motion. This phenomenon does not exist in deaf mutes. s."-Literary Digest.
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