CIASS 1. 2, 5. 7. OF IRRITATION. 129 



been used with advantage by Dr. Darwin of Shrewsbury. See 

 Class IV. 2. 1. 15. 



7. Olfactus imminutus. Inactivity of the sense of smell. 

 From our habits of trusting to the art of cookery, and not exa- 

 mining our food by the smell as other animals do, our sense of 

 smell is less perfect than theirs. See Sect. XVI. 5. Class IV. 

 2. I. 16. 



M. M. Mild errhines. 



8. Gustus imminutus. Want of taste is very common in fevers, 

 owing frequently to the dryness or scurf of the tongue, or exter- 

 nal organ of that sense, rather than to any injury of the nerves of 

 taste. See Class I. 1. 3. 1. IV. 2. 1. 16. 



M. M. Warm subacid liquids taken frequently. 



9. Tactus imminutus. Numbness is frequently complained of 

 in fevers and in epilepsy, and the touch is sometimes impaired 

 by the dryness of the cuticle of the fingers. See Class IV. 2. 1. 16. 



When the sense of touch is impaired by the compression of the 

 nerve, as in sitting long with one thigh crossed over the other, 

 the limb appears larger, when we touch it with our hands, 

 which is to be ascribed to the indistinctness of the sensation of 

 touch, and may be explained in the same manner as the appa- 

 rent largeness of objects seen through a mist. In this last case 

 the minute parts of an object, as suppose of a distant boy, are 

 seen less distinctly, and therefore we instantly conceive them to 

 be further from the eye, and in consequence that the whole sub- 

 tends a larger angle, and thus we believe the boy to be a man. 

 So when any one's fingers are pressed on a benumbed limb, the 

 sensation produced is less than it should be, judging from visible 

 circumstances; we therefore conceive, that something intervened 

 between the object and the sense, for it is felt as if a blanket was 

 put between them; and that not being visibly the case, we judge 

 that the limb is swelled. 



The sense of touch is also liable to be deceived from the ac- 

 quired habits of one part of it acting in the vicinity of another 

 part of it. Thus if the middle finger be crossed over either of 

 the fingers next to it, and a nut be felt by the two ends of the 

 fingers so crossed at the same time, the nut appears as if it was 

 two nuts. And lastly, the sense of touch is liable to be deceived 

 by preconceived ideas; which we believe to be excited by exter- 

 nal objects, even when we are awake. It has happened to me 

 more than once, and I suppose to raost others, to have put my 

 hands into an empty bason, standing in an obscure corner of a 

 room, to wash them, which I believed to contain cold water, and 

 have instantly perceived a sensation of warmth, contrary to that 

 which I expected to have felt. 



VOL. ii. , s 



