SEC. 5. THE MUSCULAR SENSE. 



891. Before we go on to deal with some of the psychical 

 aspects of cutaneous sensations it will be desirable to speak of 

 certain sensations accompanying and belonging to the movements 

 of the body which are carried out by means of the skeletal muscles; 

 for these sensations, often spoken of as constituting a " muscular 

 sense," are in many ways related to or mixed up with cutaneous 

 sensations. 



When we examine our own consciousness we find that we are 

 aware of the position of the several parts, of our body. In this we 

 are under ordinary circumstances assisted by sight ; but sight is 

 not necessary. If for instance, with the eyes shut, we place the 

 arm in any attitude, we are aware of the attitude and can describe, 

 or by movements of the other arm imitate with considerable 

 accuracy the details of the attitude, the relative positions of the 

 upper arm, forearm, hand, fingers and the like. If we change the 

 attitude by moving the arm or part of the arm we can, though the 

 eyes be still shut, tell the amount and characters of the change. 



Again, when we examine our own consciousness we find that 

 we possess a measure of the amount of resistance to our move- 

 ments which we from time to time meet with. When we come 

 into contact with an external object we are conscious not only of 

 the pressure exerted by the object on our skin, but also of the 

 pressure which we exert on the object; we can appreciate the 

 amount of effort which we make to produce by pressure an effect 

 upon the object. A similar appreciation of our own efforts assists 

 us largely in forming a judgment as to the weight of an object. 

 If we place the hand and arm flat on a table, we can estimate the 

 pressure exerted by a body resting on the palm of the hand, and 

 so come to a conclusion as to its weight ; in this case we are 

 conscious only of the pressure exerted by the body on our skin. If 

 however we hold the body in the hand, we not only feel the 

 pressure of the body, but we are also aware of the exertion required 

 to support and lift it. And we find by experience that when we 

 trust to this appreciation of the amount of effort needed to lift 

 an object as well as to sensations of pressure, we can form much 



