estimation of very common temperatures must be accepted as correct.
E.g., anybody accustomed to have his room in winter 14 degrees R. will
immediately notice, and correctly estimate, the rise or fall of one
degree. Again, anybody who takes cold baths in summer will observe a
change of one degree in temperature. It will, therefore, be possible to
believe the pronouncements of witnesses concerning a narrow range of
temperatures, but all the conditions of perception must be noted for the
differences are extreme. It has been shown, e.g., that the whole hand
finds water of 29 degrees R. warmer than water of 32 degrees R. which is
merely tested with the finger. Further, Weber points out,[186] “If we
put two adjacent fingers into two different warm fluids the sensations
flow together in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish
differences. But if we use two hands in this test, it is especially
successful when we change the hands from one fluid to another. The
closer the points on the skin which receive contemporary impressions,
and perhaps, the closer the portions of the brain to which these
impressions are sent, the more easily these sensations flow together;
while again, the further they are from one another the less frequently
does this occur.” In the practice of criminal law such matters will
rarely arise, but estimations of temperature are frequently required and
their reliability must be established.
It is important to know what a wounded man and his enemy feel in the
first instant of the crime and in what degree their testimonies are
reliable. First of all, we have to thank the excellent observations of
Weber, for the knowledge that we find it very difficult to discover with
closed eyes the angle made by a dagger thrust against the body. It is
equally difficult to determine the direction from which a push or blow
has come. On the other hand we can tell very accurately in what
direction a handful of hair is pulled.
With regard to the time it takes to feel contact and pain, it is
asserted that a short powerful blow on a corn is felt immediately, but
the pain of it one to two seconds later. It may be that corns have an
especial constitution, but otherwise the time assigned before feeling
pain is far too long. Helmholtz made 1850 measurements which proved that
the nervous current moves 90 feet a second. If, then, you prick your
finger, you feel it a thirtieth of a second later. The easiest
experiments which may be made in that regard are insufficient to
establish anything definite. We can only say that the perception of a
peripheral pain occurs an observable period after the shock, i.e., about
a third of a second later than its cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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