1. It is well known that the portion of the skin which covers a bone and
which is then so pulled away that it covers a fleshy part, can not
easily identify the point of stimulation. Such transpositions may be
made intentionally in this experiment, but they occur frequently through
vigorous twists of the body. When the upper part of the body is drawn
backwards, while one is sitting down, a collection of such
transpositions occur and it is very hard then to localize a blow or
stab. So, too, when an arm is held backward in such a way as to turn the
flat of the hand uppermost. It is still more difficult to locate a wound
when one part of the body is held by another person and the skin pulled
aside.
2. The sensation of wetness is composed of that of cold and easy
movement over surface. Hence, when we touch without warning a cold
smooth piece of metal, we think that we are touching something wet. But
the converse is true for we believe that we are touching something cold
and smooth when it is only wet. Hence the numerous mistakes about
bleeding after wounds. The wounded man or his companions believe that
they have felt blood when they have only felt some smooth metal, or they
have really felt blood and have taken it for something smooth and cold.
Mistakes about whether there was blood or not have led to frequent
confusion.
3. Repetition, and hence summation, intensifies and clarifies the
sensation of touch. As a consequence, whenever we want to test anything
by touching it we do so repeatedly, drawing the finger up and down and
holding the object between the fingers; for the same reason we
repeatedly feel objects with pleasant exteriors. We like to move our
hands up and down smooth or soft furry surfaces, in order to sense them
more clearly, or to make the sensation different because of its duration
and continuance. Hence it is important, every time something has to be
determined through touch, to ask whether the touch occurred once only or
was repeated. The relation is not the same in this case as between a
hasty glance and accurate survey, for in touching, essential differences
may appear.
4. It is very difficult to determine merely by touch whether a thing is
straight or crooked, flat, convex or concave. Weber has shown that a
glass plate drawn before the finger in such wise as to be held weakly at
first, then more powerfully, then again more powerfully seems to be
convex and when the reverse is done, concave. Flatness is given when the
distance is kept constant.
5. According to Vierordt,[188] the motion of a point at a constant rate
over a sizable piece of skin, e.g., the back of the hand from the wrist
to the finger tips, gives, if not looked at, the definite impression of
increasing rapidity. In the opposite direction, the definiteness is less
but increases with the extent of skin covered. This indicates that
mistakes may be made in such wounds as cuts, scratches, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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