128 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. ri. 



whicli lasts for one-millionth of a second is really made up 

 of at least three sub-conscious psychical states, which, if they 

 were severally to rise into consciousness, would be severally 

 cognized as red, green, and violet flashes — these being the 

 primitive elements of which the consciousness of white light 

 is composed. This fact alone shows that the method by 

 which a sensation is formed out of sub-conscious psychical 

 changes is essentially the same in the eye and in the ear. 



No such elaborate investigations have been made with re- 

 ference to the other peripheral sensations. Yet, in the cases 

 of smell and taste, the argument is not essentially different 

 from what it is in the cases of hearing and vision. The 

 physical antecedent, either of smell or taste, is a chemical 

 reaction between particles of the odorous or sapid substance, 

 and the ends of the olfactory or gustatory nerve-fibrils. Now, 

 a chemical reaction implies an enormous number of undu- 

 latory movements by which myriads of molecules are seeking 

 to reach a position of equilibrium. Accordingly, the end of 

 the nerve-fibrils in the olfactory chamber or in the tongue 

 must be rapidly smitten by little molecular waves, just as the 

 auditory filaments are smitten by atmospheric waves ; and 

 thus there is indicated a course of argument similar to that 

 employed in the case of sound. It may be fairly argued that 

 if each wave does not produce some sub-conscious psychical 

 effect, the sum of the waves will not produce a state of 

 consciousness known as smell or taste; so that here too 

 the seemingly primitive sensation is really derivative and 

 compound. 



M. Taine's argument with reference to the tactile sensa- 

 tions is singularly beautiful, but no room is left for more than 

 the briefest allusion to a few of its salient points. All tactile 

 sensations are either dermal or muscular; that is, they are due 

 either to disturbances of nerve-fibrils embedded in the skin, or 

 to disturbances of nerve- fibrils embedded in the extremities of 

 the muscles lying under the skin. In the first case, the sensa- 



