Zoonomia Volume I Part 9

So that though our visible ideas resemble in miniature the outline of the figure of coloured bodies, in other respects they serve only as a language, which by acquired a.s.sociations introduce the tangible ideas of bodies.

Hence it is, that this sense is so readily deceived by the art of the painter to our amus.e.m.e.nt and instruction. The reader will find much very curious knowledge on this subject in Bishop Berkley's Essay on Vision, a work of great ingenuity.

The immediate object however of the sense of vision is light; this fluid, though its velocity is so great, appears to have no perceptible mechanical impulse, as was mentioned in the third Section, but seems to stimulate the retina into animal motion by its transmission through this part of the sensorium: for though the eyes of cats or other animals appear luminous in obscure places; yet it is probable, that none of the light, which falls on the retina, is reflected from it, but adheres to or enters into combination with the choroide coat behind it.

The combination of the particles of light with opake bodies, and therefore with the choroide coat of the eye, is evinced from the heat, which is given out, as in other chemical combinations. For the sunbeams communicate no heat in their pa.s.sage through transparent bodies, with which they do not combine, as the air continues cool even in the focus of the largest burning-gla.s.ses, which in a moment vitrifies a particle of opaque matter.

IV. _Of the Organ of Hearing._

It is generally believed, that the tympanum of the ear vibrates mechanically, when exposed to audible sounds, like the strings of one musical instrument, when the same notes are struck upon another. Nor is this opinion improbable, as the muscles and cartilages of the larynx are employed in producing variety of tones by mechanical vibration: so the muscles and bones of the ear seem adapted to increase or diminish the tension of the tympanum for the purposes of similar mechanical vibrations.

But it appears from dissection, that the tympanum is not the immediate organ of hearing, but that like the humours and cornea of the eye, it is only of use to prepare the object for the immediate organ. For the portio mollis of the auditory nerve is not spread upon the tympanum, but upon the vestibulum, and cochlea, and semicircular ca.n.a.ls of the ear; while between the tympanum and the expansion of the auditory nerve the cavity is said by Dr. Cotunnus and Dr. Meckel to be filled with water; as they had frequently observed by freezing the heads of dead animals before they dissected them; and water being a more dense fluid than air is much better adapted to the propagation of vibrations. We may add, that even the external opening of the ear is not absolutely necessary for the perception of sound: for some people, who from these defects would have been completely deaf, have distinguished acute or grave sounds by the tremours of a stick held between their teeth propagated along the bones of the head, (Haller. Phys. T. V. p.

295).

Hence it appears, that the immediate organ of hearing is not affected by the particles of the air themselves, but is stimulated into animal motion by the vibrations of them. And it is probable from the loose bones, which are found in the heads of some fishes, that the vibrations of water are sensible to the inhabitants of that element by a similar organ.

The motions of the atmosphere, which we become acquainted with by the sense of touch, are combined with its solidity, weight, or vis intertiae; whereas those, that are perceived by this organ, depend alone on its elasticity.

But though the vibration of the air is the immediate object of the sense of hearing, yet the ideas, we receive by this sense, like those received from light, are only as a language, which by acquired a.s.sociations acquaints us with those motions of tangible bodies, which depend on their elasticity; and which we had before learned by our sense of touch.

V. _Of Smell and of Taste._

The objects of smell are dissolved in the fluid atmosphere, and those of taste in the saliva, or other aqueous fluid, for the better diffusing them on their respective organs, which seem to be stimulated into animal motion perhaps by the chemical affinities of these particles, which const.i.tute the sapidity and odorosity of bodies with the nerves of sense, which perceive them.

Mr. Volta has lately observed a curious circ.u.mstance relative to our sense of taste. If a bit of clean lead and a bit of clean silver be separately applied to the tongue and palate no taste is perceived; but by applying them in contact in respect to the parts out of the mouth, and nearly so in respect to the parts, which are immediately applied to the tongue and palate, a saline or acidulous taste is perceived, as of a fluid like a stream of electricity pa.s.sing from one of them to the other. This new application of the sense of taste deserves further investigation, as it may acquaint us with new properties of matter.

From the experiments above mentioned of Galvani, Volta, Fowler, and others, it appears, that a plate of zinc and a plate of silver have greater effect than lead and silver. If one edge of a plate of silver about the size of half a crown-piece be placed upon the tongue, and one edge of a plate of zinc about the same size beneath the tongue, and if their opposite edges are then brought into contact before the point of the tongue, a taste is perceived at the moment of their coming into contact; secondly, if one of the above plates be put between the upper lip and the gum of the fore-teeth, and the other be placed under the tongue, and their exterior edges be then brought into contact in a darkish room, a flash of light is perceived in the eyes.

These effects I imagine only shew the sensibility of our nerves of sense to very small quant.i.ties of the electric fluid, as it pa.s.ses through them; for I suppose these sensations are occasioned by slight electric shocks produced in the following manner. By the experiments published by Mr.

Bennet, with his ingenious doubler of electricity, which is the greatest discovery made in that science since the coated jar, and the eduction of lightning from the skies, it appears that zinc was always found minus, and silver was always found plus, when both of them were in their separate state. Hence, when they are placed in the manner above described, as soon as their exterior edges come nearly into contact, so near as to have an extremely thin plate of air between them, that plate of air becomes charged in the same manner as a plate of coated gla.s.s; and is at the same instant discharged through the nerves of taste or of sight, and gives the sensations, as above described, of light or of saporocity; and only shews the great sensibility of these organs of sense to the stimulus of the electric fluid in suddenly pa.s.sing through them.

VI. _Of the Sense of Heat._

There are many experiments in chemical writers, that evince the existence of heat as a fluid element, which covers and pervades all bodies, and is attracted by the solutions of some of them, and is detruded from the combination of others. Thus from the combinations of metals with acids, and from those combinations of animal fluids, which are termed secretions, this fluid matter of heat is given out amongst the neighbouring bodies; and in the solutions of salts in water, or of water in air, it is absorbed from the bodies, that surround them; whilst in its facility in pa.s.sing through metallic bodies, and its difficulty in pervading resins and gla.s.s, it resembles the properties of the electric aura; and is like that excited by friction, and seems like that to gravitate amongst other bodies in its uncombined state, and to find its equilibrium.

There is no circ.u.mstance of more consequence in the animal economy than a due proportion of this fluid of heat; for the digestion of our nutriment in the stomach and bowels, and the proper qualities of all our secreted fluids, as they are produced or prepared partly by animal and partly by chemical processes, depend much on the quant.i.ty of heat; the excess of which, or its deficiency, alike gives us pain, and induces us to avoid the circ.u.mstances that occasion them. And in this the perception of heat essentially differs from the perceptions of the sense of touch, as we receive pain from too great pressure of solid bodies, but none from the absence of it. It is hence probable, that nature has provided us with a set of nerves for the perception of this fluid, which anatomists have not yet attended to.

There may be some difficulty in the proof of this a.s.sertion; if we look at a hot fire, we experience no pain of the optic nerve, though the heat along with the light must be concentrated upon it. Nor does warm water or warm oil poured into the ear give pain to the organ of hearing; and hence as these organs of sense do not perceive small excesses or deficiences of heat; and as heat has no greater a.n.a.logy to the solidity or to the figures of bodies, than it has to their colours or vibrations; there seems no sufficient reason for our ascribing the perception of heat and cold to the sense of touch; to which it has generally been attributed, either because it is diffused beneath the whole skin like the sense of touch, or owing to the inaccuracy of our observations, or the defect of our languages.

There is another circ.u.mstance would induce us to believe, that the perceptions of heat and cold do not belong to the organ of touch; since the teeth, which are the least adapted for the perceptions of solidity or figure, are the most sensible to heat or cold; whence we are forewarned from swallowing those materials, whose degree of coldness or of heat would injure our stomachs.

The following is an extract from a letter of Dr. R.W. Darwin, of Shrewsbury, when he was a student at Edinburgh. "I made an experiment yesterday in our hospital, which much favours your opinion, that the sensation of heat and of touch depend on different sets of nerves. A man who had lately recovered from a fever, and was still weak, was seized with violent cramps in his legs and feet; which were removed by opiates, except that one of his feet remained insensible. Mr. Ewart p.r.i.c.ked him with a pin in five or six places, and the patient declared he did not feel it in the least, nor was he sensible of a very smart pinch. I then held a red-hot poker at some distance, and brought it gradually nearer till it came within three inches, when he a.s.serted that he felt it quite distinctly. I suppose some violent irritation on the nerves of touch had caused the cramps, and had left them paralytic; while the nerves of heat, having suffered no increased stimulus, retained their irritability."

Add to this, that the lungs, though easily stimulated into inflammation, are not sensible to heat. See Cla.s.s. III. 1. 1. 10.

VII. _Of the Sense of Extension._

The organ of touch is properly the sense of pressure, but the muscular fibres themselves const.i.tute the organ of sense, that feels extension. The sense of pressure is always attended with the ideas of the figure and solidity of the object, neither of which accompany our perception of extension. The whole set of muscles, whether they are hollow ones, as the heart, arteries, and intestines, or longitudinal ones attached to bones, contract themselves, whenever they are stimulated by forcible elongation; and it is observable, that the white muscles, which const.i.tute the arterial system, seem to be excited into contraction from no other kinds of stimulus, according to the experiments of Haller. And hence the violent pain in some inflammations, as in the paronychia, obtains immediate relief by cutting the membrane, that was stretched by the tumour of the subjacent parts.

Hence the whole muscular system may be considered as one organ of sense, and the various att.i.tudes of the body, as ideas belonging to this organ, of many of which we are hourly conscious, while many others, like the irritative ideas of the other senses, are performed without our attention.

When the muscles of the heart cease to act, the refluent blood again distends or elongates them; and thus irritated they contract as before. The same happens to the arterial system, and I suppose to the capillaries, intestines, and various glands of the body.

When the quant.i.ty of urine, or of excrement, distends the bladder, or r.e.c.t.u.m, those parts contract, and exclude their contents, and many other muscles by a.s.sociation act along with them; but if these evacuations are not soon complied with, pain is produced by a little further extension of the muscular fibres: a similar pain is caused in the muscles, when a limb is much extended for the reduction of dislocated bones; and in the punishment of the rack: and in the painful cramps of the calf of the leg, or of other muscles, for a greater degree of contraction of a muscle, than the movement of the two bones, to which its ends are affixed, will admit of, must give similar pain to that, which is produced by extending it beyond its due length. And the pain from punctures or incisions arises from the distention of the fibres, as the knife pa.s.ses through them; for it nearly ceases as soon as the division is completed.

All these motions of the muscles, that are thus naturally excited by the stimulus of distending bodies, are also liable to be called into strong action by their catenation, with the irritations or sensations produced by the momentum of the progressive particles of blood in the arteries, as in inflammatory fevers, or by acrid substances on other sensible organs, as in the strangury, or tenesmus, or cholera.

We shall conclude this account of the sense of extension by observing, that the want of its object is attended with a disagreeable sensation, as well as the excess of it. In those hollow muscles, which have been accustomed to it, this disagreeable sensation is called faintness, emptiness, and sinking; and, when it arises to a certain degree, is attended with syncope, or a total quiescence of all motions, but the internal irritative ones, as happens from sudden loss of blood, or in the operation of tapping in the dropsy.

VIII. _Of the Appet.i.tes of Hunger, Thirst, Heat, Extension, the want of fresh Air, animal Love, and the Suckling of Children._

Hunger is most probably perceived by those numerous ramifications of nerves that are seen about the upper opening of the stomach; and thirst by the nerves about the fauces, and the top of the gula. The ideas of these senses are few in the generality of mankind, but are more numerous in those, who by disease, or indulgence, desire particular kinds of foods or liquids.

A sense of heat has already been spoken of, which may with propriety be called an appet.i.te, as we painfully desire it, when it is deficient in quant.i.ty.

The sense of extension may be ranked amongst these appet.i.tes, since the deficiency of its object gives disagreeable sensation; when this happens in the arterial system, it is called faintness, and seems to bear some a.n.a.logy to hunger and to cold; which like it are attended with emptiness of a part of the vascular system.

The sense of want of fresh air has not been attended to, but is as distinct as the others, and the first perhaps that we experience after our nativity; from the want of the object of this sense many diseases are produced, as the jail-fever, plague, and other epidemic maladies. Animal love is another appet.i.te, which occurs later in life, and the females of lactiferous animals have another natural inlet of pleasure or pain from the suckling their offspring. The want of which either owing to the death of their progeny, or to the fas.h.i.+on of their country, has been fatal to many of the s.e.x. The males have also pectoral glands, which are frequently turgid with a thin milk at their nativity, and are furnished with nipples, which erect on t.i.tillation like those of the female; but which seem now to be of no further use, owing perhaps to some change which these animals have undergone in the gradual progression of the formation of the earth, and of all that it inhabit.

These seven last mentioned senses may properly be termed appet.i.tes, as they differ from those of touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell, in this respect; that they are affected with pain as well by the defect of their objects as by the excess of them, which is not so in the latter. Thus cold and hunger give us pain, as well as an excess of heat or satiety; but it is not so with darkness and silence.

IX. Before we conclude this Section on the organs of sense, we must observe, that, as far as we know, there are many more senses, than have been here mentioned, as every gland seems to be influenced to separate from the blood, or to absorb from the cavities of the body, or from the atmosphere, its appropriated fluid, by the stimulus of that fluid on the living gland; and not by mechanical capillary absorption, nor by chemical affinity. Hence it appears, that each of these glands must have a peculiar organ to perceive these irritations, but as these irritations are not succeeded by sensation, they have not acquired the names of senses.

However when these glands are excited into motions stronger than usual, either by the acrimony of their fluids, or by their own irritability being much increased, then the sensation of pain is produced in them as in all the other senses of the body; and these pains are all of different kinds, and hence the glands at this time really become each a different organ of sense, though these different kinds of pain have acquired no names.

Thus a great excess of light does not give the idea of light but of pain; as in forcibly opening the eye when it is much inflamed. The great excess of pressure or distention, as when the point of a pin is pressed upon our skin, produces pain, (and when this pain of the sense of distention is slighter, it is termed itching, or tickling), without any idea of solidity or of figure: an excess of heat produces smarting, of cold another kind of pain; it is probable by this sense of heat the pain produced by caustic bodies is perceived, and of electricity, as all these are fluids, that permeate, distend, or decompose the parts that feel them.

SECT. XV.

OF THE CLa.s.sES OF IDEAS.

I. 1. _Ideas received in tribes._ 2. _We combine them further, or abstract from these tribes._ 3. _Complex ideas._ 4. _Compounded ideas._ 5. _Simple ideas, modes, substances, relations, general ideas._ 6.

_Ideas of reflexion._ 7. _Memory and imagination imperfectly defined.

Ideal presence. Memorandum-rings._ II. 1. _Irritative ideas.

Perception._ 2. _Sensitive ideas, imagination._ 3. _Voluntary ideas, recollection._ 4. _a.s.sociated ideas, suggestion._ III. 1. _Definitions of perception, memory._ 2. _Reasoning, judgment, doubting, distinguis.h.i.+ng, comparing._ 3. _Invention._ 4. _Consciousness._ 5.

_Ident.i.ty._ 6. _Lapse of time._ 7. _Free-will._

I. 1. As the const.i.tuent elements of the material world are only perceptible to our organs of sense in a state of combination; it follows, that the ideas or sensual motions excited by them, are never received singly, but ever with a greater or less degree of combination. So the colours of bodies or their hardnesses occur with their figures: every smell and taste has its degree of pungency as well as its peculiar flavour: and each note in music is combined with the tone of some instrument. It appears from hence, that we can be sensible of a number of ideas at the same time, such as the whiteness, hardness, and coldness, of a snow-ball, and can experience at the same time many irritative ideas of surrounding bodies, which we do not attend to, as mentioned in Section VII. 3. 2. But those ideas which belong to the same sense, seem to be more easily combined into synchronous tribes, than those which were not received by the same sense, as we can more easily think of the whiteness and figure of a lump of sugar at the same time, than the whiteness and sweetness of it.

2. As these ideas, or sensual motions, are thus excited with greater or less degrees of combination; so we have a power, when we repeat them either by our volition or sensation, to increase or diminish this degree of combination, that is, to form compounded ideas from those, which were more simple; and abstract ones from those, which were more complex, when they were first excited; that is, we can repeat a part or the whole of those sensual motions, which did const.i.tute our ideas of perception; and the repet.i.tion of which now const.i.tutes our ideas of recollection, or of imagination.

3. Those ideas, which we repeat without change of the quant.i.ty of that combination, with which we first received them, are called complex ideas, as when you recollect Westminster Abbey, or the planet Saturn: but it must be observed, that these complex ideas, thus re-excited by volition, sensation, or a.s.sociation, are seldom perfect copies of their correspondent perceptions, except in our dreams, where other external objects do not detract our attention.

4. Those ideas, which are more complex than the natural objects that first excited them, have been called compounded ideas, as when we think of a sphinx, or griffin.

5. And those that are less complex than the correspondent natural objects, have been termed abstracted ideas: thus sweetness, and whiteness, and solidity, are received at the same time from a lump of sugar, yet I can recollect any of these qualities without thinking of the others, that were excited along with them.

When ideas are so far abstracted as in the above example, they have been termed simple by the writers of metaphysics, and seem indeed to be more complete repet.i.tions of the ideas or sensual motions, originally excited by external objects.