23. Touch is considered the least liable to error of all the senses; yet, if that part of the skin by which the sense is exercised is removed from its customary position, a false impression may be created in the mind. This is well illustrated by an experiment, which dates from the time of Aristotle. If we cross the middle finger behind the {186} forefinger, and then roll a marble, or some small object, upon the tips of the fingers (see Fig. 45), the impression will be that two marbles are felt. If the fingers, thus transposed, be applied to the end of the tongue, two tongues will be felt. When the nose is accidentally destroyed, the surgeon sometimes performs an operation for the purpose of forming a new one, by transplanting a partially removed piece of the skin of the forehead upon the injured part: then, if the new nose be touched or pinched, the feeling is referred to the forehead. This fact illustrates one important truth, that the nerves will re-unite after they have been cut, and feeling will be restored: if it were otherwise, a succession of slight cuts upon the fingers would seriously impair their tactile sensibility. [Sidenote: 24. The delicacy of touch? Experiments with a pair of compasses?] 24. THE DELICACY OF TOUCH.--Although the hand is the proper organ of this sense, yet it is exercised by various parts of the body, their degree of sensibility being proportional to the number of papillæ they contain. The varying degrees of tactile delicacy of the different parts of the surface have been measured, in an ingenious manner, by means of a pair of compasses, tipped with small pieces of cork. The two points of the compasses are touched at the same moment to the skin, the eyes being closed, and it is found that, in sensitive parts, the distance between the points may be quite slight, and yet each be plainly felt; while, in less sensitive parts, the points of the compasses are felt as a single point, although they are separated one or two inches. [Sidenote: 25. Further experiments and results?] 25. At the tips of the fingers, the distance between the points being one-twentieth of an inch, a double impression is felt. The distance must be twice as great, for the palm; four times as great, for the lips; and, on the forehead, it must be twenty times greater. At the middle of the back, where the touch is least acute, the points must be {187} separated more than two inches before they can be separately felt. Therefore, the sense of touch in the fingers is said to be fifty times more delicate than upon the posterior surface of the body. [Sidenote: 26. Exquisite delicacy of touch? The same among the blind?]