THE SPECIAL SENSES. 187 



rated more than two inches before they can be separately 

 felt. Therefore, the sense of touch in the fingers is said to 

 be fifty times more delicate than upon the posterior sur- 

 face of the body. 



26. Exquisite delicacy of touch is attained by practice. 

 This is shown in many of the lighter and more graceful 

 employments of daily life. Without it, the skill of the 

 painter, sculptor, and musician would be rude indeed. By 

 training, also, the physician acquires the tactus eruditus, 

 or discriminating touch ; but among the blind, delicacy of 

 touch is most remarkable, and it here finds its highest 

 value; for its possession, in a measure, compensates the 

 loss of sight by enabling them to read, by means of raised 

 letters, to work with certain tools, and even to play upon 

 musical instruments. A person born without sight, and 

 without hearing or voice, may, by the education of the 

 touch, be rescued from apparent imbecility, and be taught 

 not only to read and write, but even to perform household 

 and other useful labors. 



27. Sensations of Temperature and Weight. 

 Each of these sensations has been described by the physi- 

 ologists as a special sense, and they are rival candidates, so 

 to speak, for the position and title of the sixth sense. In the 

 sensation of temperature, or the thermal sense, touch bears 

 a part, but the two feelings appear to be distinct. In proof 

 of this, we observe, firstly, that they are not alike intense 

 in the same situations ; as, for example,, the skin of the face 

 and elbow, where the sense of touch is feeble, is very sensi- 

 tive to impressions of heat and cold. Secondly, the ability 

 to recognize temperature may be lost by paralysis, while 

 the sensibility of touch remains unaffected. When the 

 skin comes in contact with a very hot substance, the sen- 

 sation felt is that of pain, not of touch. In like manner, a 



26. Exquisite delicacy of touch ? The same among the blind ? 



27. Rival candidates for the sixth sense? Give the two reasons on the sub- 

 ject. 



