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SECT. XIII. 



OF THE EXTERNAL SENSES IN GENERAL, AND OK 

 TOUCH IN PARTICULAR. 



227. ONE office of the nerves we found to consist in 

 communicating to the sensorium the impressions made 

 by external objects. This is accomplished by the exter- 

 nal senses, which are, as it were, the watchmen of the 

 body and the informers of the mind. 



The latter alone belong to our present subject. For 

 to regard, with Gorter, the stimulus which inclines us 

 to relieve the intestines, the sensation of hunger, and 

 other internal calls of nature, as so many distinct 

 senses, is unnecessary minuteness, as Haller long since 

 observed.* 



228. Touch merits our first attention, because it is 

 the first to manifest itself, its organ is most extensively 

 spread over the whole surface, and it is affected by 

 most properties of external objects. 



229. For we perceive not only some qualities, as 

 heat, hardness, weight, &c. by the touch only, but our 

 knowledge obtained by other senses respecting some 

 qualities is rendered more accurate by the touch ; such 

 qualities are figure, distance, &c. 



230. It is less fallacious than the rest of the senses, 

 and by culture capable of such perfection as to supply 

 the defects of others, particularly of vision.f 



* J. De Gortcr, Exercitationcs Medicee. iv. Amst. 1 737. 4to. 

 f Cpnsult Rol. Martin, Schwetf. Abkandl. Vol. xxxix, 1777. 



G. Bcw, 



