ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



m 



ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. XI 1. 



TH* OBOAN or TOUCH (concluded). 



IT has been shown in tho previous leMon that the MDM of 

 iom-li, in itci wider sense, is of a highly intellectual character. 

 As an informant of tho mind it is second only to the sense 

 of Bight, and in the suggestion of abstraot ideas it in, perhaps, 



r even to vision itself. There is no fundamental con- 

 in relation to matter which it cannot impart. Though 



i of every other sense, a man possessed of this can pursue 

 tho study of every science, if ho will bat surmount tho dilli- 



managed that the eye it completely imposed upon, and it is 

 almost impossible to believe that the surface is flat, A rapid 

 weep of the hand, however, at once dinpels the illusion ; and 

 so effectually that when you move back to gate again, it is difi- 

 cult to retain the impression of an smboseed surface. The 

 unbelieving Thomas, however reprehensible bis soeptidn might 

 be, expressed it both with force and delicacy ; for lie atone* 

 recognised that his own sense of eight might be deceived, and 

 expressed a doubt, not of the truthfulness of the other disciples, 

 but of their correctness of vision. 

 That this sense, when combined with the muscular 



II 



rr. 



I. ORGANS OF TOUCH OF VERTEBRATA : 1, HEAD OF A SNAKE; 2, HEAD OF AN OSSEOUS FISH KOTKLLA ; 3, HBAD OF A FISH GYXXOLABES, 

 SHOWING THE TENTACLES. II. ORGANS OF TOUCH OF MOLLUSCA : 1, AMPULARIA (APPLE-SNAIL), SHOWING TENTACLES; 2, PLUMATKLLA 

 ];i PKN8, SHOWING THE TENTACLES. III. ORGANS OF TOUCH OF ARTICULATA : 1, CARABfS VIOLACKUS (THE VIOLET CARNIVOROUS BEETLE) 

 (a) ANTENNA, (b) MAXILLARY PALPI; 2, ENLARGED VIEW OF UNDER PART OF HEAD, (c) LABI PALPI; 3, ENLARGED VIEW OF LABI PALTI ; 4, 

 LABRUM, OR UPPER LIP ; 5, MANDIBLES, UPPER OR BITING JAW ; C, MAXILLA, WITH ITS PALPUS OB LICIT LOWER JAW WITH m FEELEB. IV. 

 ORGANS OF TOUCH OF COLENTERATA AND PROTOZOA : 1, ANTHEA (SKA-ANEMONE), SHOWING TENTACLES ; 2, ACTINOPHBTS, SHOWING THE 

 PSEUDOPODIA. 



cnltios which oppose themselves to his acquisition of the results 

 of the experience of other men. Thus, blind men have taken 

 to the study of mathematics, and by the aid of the figures of 

 Euclid, conic sections, etc., given in relief, have acquired a 

 knowledge which has placed them in an honourable position in 

 the examinations at Cambridge. Tho very theory of light and 

 all its laws are quite comprehended by such blind students. The 

 sense of touch is absolutely bounded by the surface of the body, 

 but it makes amends for being less far-reaching than other 

 senses by being the most real of all the senses. We make our 

 ultimate appeal to it when tho eye gives false or confusing 

 indications. In tho King's Palace at Amsterdam there is a 

 wainscot painted to express figures as if they projected from, 

 and were carved, upon its surface. Tho shading is BO well 



of a highly intellectual character, does not at all contradict the 

 statement that it is also the simplest and most rudimentary of 

 the senses. That it is simple and rudimentary agrees well with 

 the fact that satisfactory evidence may be found of ite existence 

 in most animals. The possession of this sense reaches far 

 lower down in the animal scale than that of the other special 

 senses. Definite organs of touch are well developed in animals 

 in which no other organs of sense are found ; and the power of 

 extemporising feelers, or prolongations of the body into fingers 

 or filaments, is a character of the very lowest animals with 

 which we are acquainted. Reflection would tell us that this 

 surface sense is almost essential to animal life. How necessary 

 must it be for every animal that moves or feeds to know the 

 exact limits oS its body the confines of the domain over which 



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