490 THE FUNCTIONAL RELATIONS OF THE 



be little use in making such discriminations. The case is 

 altogether different, however, in regard to the sense of 

 Touch, or common sensibility. By means of Smell, Sight, 

 and Hearing we are brought into relation with distant 

 phenomena, but in the exercise of Taste and Touch there 

 is actual contact with different portions of the extended 

 surface of our bodies, and therefore, in the latter case more 

 especially, there ought to be, as there is, a thoroughly 

 independent power of appreciating the impressions im- 

 pinging upon each side of the body, and, indeed, of pretty 

 accurately localizing them. 



This unity of result accompanying the action of a great 

 part of the Sensorial Regions of the two Hemispheres, as 

 well as in those which are subservient to Emotional and 

 Intellectual Activity, is very remarkable, and difficult to 

 understand, especially if we bear in mind the fact that 

 there is not even a perfect symmetry in the naked eye con- 

 formation of many of the homologous Convolutions of the 

 two sides (to say nothing of their microscopical structure) ; 

 that their vascular supply is independent, and therefore 

 subject to variations which may affect one side only ; and 

 that an inequality of working power on the two sides might 

 also easily be brought about by some inherent or acquired 

 differences in the molecular (or functional) activity of 

 the corresponding nerve elements on the two sides of the 

 Brain. 



Notwithstanding our difficulty in comprehending how a 

 double mechanism of this kind can work as it does, so 

 as to lead to a single Consciousness, or so as to enable it 

 to carry on the processes of a single Thinking and Willing 

 personality, the facts of our own Consciousness may assure 

 each one of us that it is so. 



Yet, though it may be the rule for the two Hemisphei 



