concerning their contact sensations may be believed even when they seem
improbable; there are blind persons who may feel the very color of
fabrics, because the various pigments and their medium give a different
surface-quality to the cloth they color.
In another direction, again, it is the deaf who have especial power. So,
we are assured by Abercrombie that in his medical practice he had
frequently observed how deaf people will perceive the roll of an
approaching wagon, or the approach of a person, long before people with
good hearing do so. For a long time I owned an Angora which, like all
Angoras, was completely deaf, and her deafness had been tested by
physicians. Nevertheless, if the animal was dozing somewhere and anybody
came near it, she would immediately notice his steps, and would
distinguish them, for she would jump up frightened, if the newcomer was
unknown, and would stretch herself with pleasure in the expectation of
petting if she felt a friend coming. She would sense the lightest touch
on the object she occupied, bench, window-seat, sofa, etc., and she was
especially sensitive to very light scratching of the object. Such
sensitivity is duplicated frequently in persons who are hard of hearing,
and whom, therefore, we are likely to doubt.
The sense of touch is, moreover, improved not only by practice, but also
by the training of the muscles. Stricker asserts that he has frequently
noticed that the observational capacity of individuals who make much use
of their muscles is greater than among persons whose habits are
sedentary. This does not contradict the truth established by many
experiments that the educated man is more sensitive in all directions
than the uneducated. Again, women have a better developed sense of touch
than men, the space-sense and the pressure-sense being equivalent in
both sexes. On these special forms of the touch-sense injections of
various kinds have decided influence. The injection of morphine, e.g.,
reduces the space-sense in the skin. _Cannabinum tannicum_ reduces
sensibility and alcohol is swift and considerable in its effects.
According to Reichenbach some sensitives are extreme in their feeling.
The best of them notice immediately the approach and relative position
of people, or the presence of another in a dark room. That very nervous
people frequently feel air pressure, fine vibrations, etc., is perfectly
true. And this and other facts show the great variety of touch
impressions that may be distinguished. The sense of temperature has a
comparatively high development, and more so in women than in men. At the
lips and with the tips of the fingers, differences of two-tenths of a
degree are perceived. But where an absolute valuation and not a
difference is to be perceived, the mean variation, generally, is not
much less than 4 degrees. E.g., a temperature of 19 degrees R. will be
estimated at from 17 to 21 degrees. I believe, however, that the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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