VOL. XLII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. QlQ 



A short Account, by James Parsons, M.D. F.R.S. of a Book entitled, Traite 

 des Sens, i^c. By M. le Cat, M. D. F. R. S. Printed at Rouen, 1 740, 6vo, 

 N° 466, p. 264. 



This treatise appears to be a part of a physiological work, which the author 

 says is not likely to be soon published ; and he has therefore exhibited this part 

 for the use of lovers of philosophy, who might not be so agreeably entertained 

 by the rest of the work, as treating chiefly of the human body, and therefore 

 calculated rather for those of the faculty of medicine. 



He says, that he has before established certain general principles of sensation, 

 and that now he proceeds to recount the particular parts with which nature has 

 furnished the animal economy, serving to our different senses ; and then ex- 

 patiates a little on their general utility. 



His first chapter treats of the sense of feeling, in which he has compiled all 

 the different phenomena that regard this sense, as those of heat, cold, and 

 other objects of feeling, with the structure of the skin ; to which he subjoins 

 some curious histories of peculiar and exquisite feelings. 



Tasting is his next subject, where, as in the foregoing chapter, the author 

 has drawn together the several sections relating to it; as, an account of the 

 organs of taste, the mechanism of savours, and the manner of their being varied 

 into compound tastes. 



The sense of smelling is discussed in his 3d chapter, where he observes the 

 same method as in the two former, in describing the mechanism of the organs 

 serving to that sense, and accounting for the conveyance of odours to those 

 organs ; and for the stimulus of some odoriferous particles causing tears to flow, 

 as well as sneezing caused by a glaring light ; and, after making some reflec- 

 tions on the many effects of smells on the human body, and the exquisite 

 sense of smelling in some animals, he recites some curious stories of its peculiar 

 effects. 



He proceeds next to treat of hearing, and brings under that head the whole . 

 mechanism and doctrine of sounds ; the vibrations of all sounding bodies : and 

 from the experiment of holding a candle near any vibrating or sounding body, 

 without the flames being moved or otherwise affected, he argues, that the 

 common air does not produce the sound, but a more subtile fluid better pro- 

 portioned to the organs of hearing. He then comes to his last section, which 

 treats of seeing : including the structure of the eye, and all the phenomena of 

 vision. He begins it with the doctrine of lights and colours, making use 

 of many experiments and explanations of Sir Isaac Newton. 



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