TOUCH. 529 



direction perpendicular to the point at which they impinge on the 

 retina. It may be said, that, if a hair is pulled, we do not conceive 

 it to be pulled perpendicularly whatever be the direction. But 

 Weber replies that we judge here of the direction by the direc- 

 tion of the muscular effort necessary to keep the head steady at 

 the time. If muscles are not called into play, but the head is held 

 steady by one person while another presses firmly around the hair, 

 the direction, whatever it be, in which the hair is pulled, cannot 

 be judged of. 



We have seen that Dr. Spurzheim thought he had established 

 a cerebral organ for judging of these sensations of weight or re- 

 sistance. x 



The varieties of the feelings both of consciousness and sensation in the animal 

 kingdom must be infinite. Brutes probably have sensations from the external 

 world of which we are insusceptible, and those especially which are minute 

 are no doubt sensible to external circumstances, which are far too delicate to 

 produce an impression upon us. Every animal is destined for a certain pecu- 

 liarity and amount of sensation from certain substances and circumstances, in 

 accordance with the destination of its mode of existence. Brutes will feel the 

 approach of changes in the weather long before we are aware of what is coming ; 

 and know even the direction of a coming storm. 



All brutes most probably have the sense of touch : and the more delicate 

 and soft the external parts which come in contact with surrounding substances, 



* Gall is very philosophical and eloquent in overthrowing the doctrine of ex- 

 cellence of touch being the source of superiority of intellect, and of this sense 

 especially rectifying others and giving us a better knowledge of the external 

 world, 11. cc. 4to. p. 208. sqq. 8vo. t. i. p. 85. sqq. Those who have not read both 

 his large and octavo work may not be aware for what absurdities he had to oppose 

 Buflfon, Condillac, Cuvier, Herder, Richerand, Vicq d'Azyr, blind followers of 

 Anaxagoras and Galen. 



As philosophers have ascribed the superiority of man's intellect to his hand, and 

 of the elephant's to its trunk, the constructiveness of the beaver to its tail, and the 

 ferocity of the tiger to its teeth and claws, the poor man may be excused who was 

 lately executed at Chelmsford, and left the following directions : "I, Edward 

 Clarke, now in a few hours expecting to die, do sincerely wish, as my last re- 

 quest, that three of my fingers be given to my three children, as a warning to 

 them, as my fingers were the cause of bringing myself to the gallows and my 

 children to poverty." The request was complied with by the surgeon. Ex- 

 aminer. April 23. 1837. 



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