ISO THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



senses 1 which have been differentiated from the sense of 

 touch and which, with the original five, make up the mystic 

 number seven, are very untrustworthy guides under certain 

 circumstances. Thus we all know how the sense of heat 

 may be deceived by the old experiment of placing one hand 

 in a bowl of cold water and the other in a bowl of hot 

 water, and then, after a few minutes, placing both hands 

 together in a bowl of tepid water; the hand, which has 

 been in the cold water will feel warm, while that which has 

 just been taken from the hot water, will feel quite cold. 



We have all experienced the deceptions to which the 

 sense of hearing exposes us. Who has not heard sounds 

 which had no existence except in our own sensations ? 

 And every one is familiar with the illusions to which we 

 are liable when under the influence of a skilful ventrilo- 

 quist. 



Even the sense of touch, which most of us regard as 

 infallible, is liable to gross deception. When we have 

 "felt " anything we are always confident as to its shape, 

 number, hardness, etc., but the following very simple ex- 

 periment shows that this confidence may be misplaced : 



Take a large pea or a small marble or bullet and place it 



1 The old and generally recognized list of the senses is as follows : Sight, 

 Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Touch. This is the list enumerated by John 

 Bunyan in his famous work, " The Holie Warre." It has, however, been 

 pointed out that the sense which enables us to recognize heat is not quite 

 the same as that of touch and modern physiologists have therefore set 

 apart, as a distinct sense, the power by which we recognize heat. 



The same had been previously done in the case of the sense of Muscular 

 Resistance but, as the author of " The Natural History of Hell " says, 

 "when we differentiate the ' Sense of Heat,' and the 'Sense of Resistance' 

 from the Sense of Touch, we may set up new signposts, but we do not 

 open up any new ' gateways ' , things still remain as they were of old, and 

 every messenger from the material world around us must enter the ivory 

 palace of the skull through one of the old and well-known ways." 



