NATURAL HISTORY. f > I 



And next in order sad, Old Age we found : 



His board all hoar, his eyes hollow and biuid : 

 With drooping cheer still poring on the ground." SACKVILLX. 



the selection of food. Were they placed in distant paits of the 

 body, they could not so readily give mutual aid. 



155. Why is taste the least deteriorated by age of any of the 

 senses ? 



Because so long as the body exists it must necessarily be fed, 

 and the organ by which this process is primarily accomplished is 

 mercifully spared, while other senses less essential are subjected 

 to decay. 



156. Why is touch considered to be the tr>s>st important of all 

 the senses ? 



Because by touch we are enabled to know with greater certainty 

 the properties of bodies ; our hearing, seeing, and smelling may 

 frequently deceive us and lead us into error, touch seldom does 

 this, and in all cases of doubt when the other senses are engaged, 

 touch steps in as umpire, and resolves the difficulty. 



157. The extreme sensibility of the touch of the blind is well known. A blind 

 person deciphering a book by the aid of touch wi 1 . 1 ., in general, read with fewer 

 mistakes than are made by persons of ordinary intelligence when perusing a book 

 by the aid of their sight. There are many remarkable instances of the intensity 

 with which one portion of the senses may be exercised, and especially that of 

 touch, when others are wanting ; ordinary faculties taking upon themselves 

 extraordinary functions, and thus in a great measure compensating for the 

 deprivation which it has pleased Providence to inflict. A case in point is furnished 

 by the following narrative : 



James Mitchell, the son of a respectable parish minister in the County of Elgin, 

 was deaf, dumb, and blind from birth. As he grew up, he discovered a most 

 extraordinary acuteness in the senses of touch and smell, being very soon able by 

 these to distinguish strangers from the members of his own family, and any little 

 article that was appropriated to himself from what belonged to others. In child- 

 hood the most noticeable circumstance relating to him was an eager desLe to strike 

 upon his fore-teeth ; this he would do for hours. When a stranger arrived, his 

 smell would invariably inform him of the circumstance, and direct him to the place 

 where the stranger was, whom he proceeded to survey by the sense of touch. In the 

 remote situation where he resided male visitors were the most frequent, and 

 therefore the first thing he generally did was to examine whether or not the strangei 

 wore boots ; if such were the case he would immediately quit the stranger and 

 proceed to the stable, accurately examining the whip, and handling the horse with 

 great care aiid the utmost seeming attention. It has occasionally happened that 



