TOUCH. 



over the whole surface, and it is affected by many properties of 

 external objects." 



" It is less fallacious than the rest of the senses, and by culture 

 capable of such perfection as in some measure to supply the 

 deficiency of others, particularly of vision, a 



The direct pleasure of the sense of touch is far more exquisite 

 than of any other sense, and is therefore employed by nature for 

 the raptures of sexual intercourse. 



" The skin, whose structure we formerly examined, is the 

 general organ of touch.e The immediate seat of the sense is the 

 papillae of the corium, of various forms in different parts, com- 

 monly resembling warts f , in some places fungous ff, in others 

 filamentous. 1 ' The extremities of all the cutaneous nerves ter- 

 minate in these under the form of pulpy penieilli." 



The nerves of general sensibility, and as far as we know of 

 touch in particular, are the ganglionic portion of the trigerninum 

 and the ganglionic or posterior spinal nerves and all their ramifi- 

 cations. 



" The hands are the principal organs of touch, properly so 

 called, and regarded as the sense which examines solidity ; and 

 their skin has many peculiarities. In the palms and on each 

 side of the joints of the fingers, it is furrowed and free from 

 hairs, to facilitate the closing of the hand : and the extremities 



d "Consult Rol. Martin, Schwed. Abhqndl, vol. xxxix. 1777. 



G, Bew, Memoirs of the Society of Manchester, vol. i. p. 159. 



Ch. Hutton, Mathematical Dictionary, vol. i. p. 214." 



*' Lecat speaks of a sculptor, Ganibasius de Volterre, who, being blind, felt 

 faces, and then modelled them in clay. The man of Puiseaux, born blind, 

 estimated the distance of the fire by the degree of heat, and of bodies by the 

 action of air upon his face, Saunderson, by exploring a series of medals with 

 his hands, distinguished the genuine from the spurious, although the latter were so 

 well counterfeited as to deceive a connoisseur with good eyes ; and he judged of 

 the accuracy of mathematical instruments by passing the ends of his fingers upon 

 their divisions. Like the blind man of Puiseaux, he was affected by the least 

 vicissitude of the atmosphere, and could perceive, especially in calm weather, the 

 presence of objects not more than some paces distant." Gall, J. 4to. vol. i, p. 222, 

 '.. F. I3e Riet, De Organo Tactus, L.B. 1743. 4to. reprinted in Bailer's 

 Anatomical Collection, t. iv. " 



f " Dav. Corn, de Courcelles, Icones Musculor. Capitis. Tab. i. fig. 2, 3." 



g " B. S. Albinus, Annotat. Acadein. 1. iii. tab. iv. fig. 1,2." 



h Ruysch, TJiesaur. Anat. iii. tab. iv. fig. 1. Thes. vii. tab. ii. fig. 5. 



B. S. Albinus, I.e. L. vi. tab. ii. fig. 3,4." 



