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f > e brought in contact with it ; while the -eye , the ear , the nose and palate being differently organized , but still deriving ^ their sensitive powers from the nerves , yet by their regular structure they are enabled to receive different kinds of impressions , each
according to its properties and conformation : thus the eye is impressed by rays of light , the ear by sound , the nose by smell , the palate by taste . Hence the varied and extensive knowledge acquired by the human mind from impressions made on the brain by external objects .
From what has been said it is evident that the brain , spinal marrow and nerves , constitute the sentient or feeling part of the human system , and that all other parts are capable of feeling only in proportion as they receive the branches of nerves : and
hence it has been inferred that there is a kind of gradation of feeling throughout the whole body , each of its organs and parts being endowed with that particular degree of sense , which is just sufficient for the performance of its function in the living machine .
The cellular membrane , for instance , whose use is to connect and unite into one whole all the moving parts of the system is without feeling : so also are the coverings of the brain , the coats of the nerves , the sheaths of muscles , tendons , and ligaments ,
and the apparatus of joints , with the substance of the tendons and ligaments themselves ; for these parts performing only subservient offices to living orgaris would derange the whole
system by being possessed 01 sensibility , wliich would leaye them no longer capable of bearing the friction , blows , &c . which they now endure without injury in the different move * ments of the frame .
The feeling of the bones is doubtful , but the muscles are all endowed with this sense by a distribution of the nervous fibres every where throughout their substance ; this is necessary to their office : as agents of voluntary motion they must be capable of receiving and obeying the commands of the will : hence the
mind no sooner wills an act , than the nerve is ready- to obey the * implied command , and . the action is instantly performed : this dispatch is well illustrated in the rapid movement * of an
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opera dancer , every one of which are received in the mind , before they can be executed by the hands and feet : and also in the organs of speech , by
which it is said 2000 letters can be distinctly pronounced in a minute every one of which requires a distinct and successive contraction of many muscles .
"The skin , " says Mr . Burke , in his popular Compendium of Anatomy " possesses a finer degree of sense than the flesh , being fuller of nervous branches , and rising in the scale of sensibility , may be said to form the lowest of the organs of the senses .
Feeling is the property and use of the skin of the human body , which enjoys it over its whole surface , but more exquisitely in some parts than in others : thus whife . the greater ^ part of the skin possesses it in a degree sufficient only to guard the body
from danger , by warning it of the contact of substances , which being too hot , too cold , too sharp or rough , might be injurious ; there are other parts , as the palm of the hands , ^ aiid the sole of the foot , which are endowed with a greater sensibility , so as on a slight friction , to create k
tickling kind of pleasure , and in some persons , involuntary laughter . But it is most perfect in the points of the fingers , which from their convexity ; are particularly adapted to be the organs of touch , and from the nice discrimination with which our fingers enable us to examine the surfaces , and
exterior properties of bodies , this sense has got the denomination of feeling . The tongue , the organ of taste , possesses this sensibility in a higher degree still ; for though it judges of the substances which constitute our food , hy the same process
as that used by the fingers , namely , contact ; yet the latter with their finest feeling would be inadequate to discover bodies by their flavour . A step higher may be ranked the organ of smelling ; the nose is so acute in its sense , as to be impressed by the
light and volatile effluvia rising from bodies , and floating in the air , and consequently distinguishes substances at a considerable distance . Higher * again stands the sensitive faculty of the ear ; this organ is qualified to be acted upon by the mere vibrations of the air , which striking against thia delicate part of our mechanism , p > o
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Natural Theology * No . XII . *~~ Ofthe Brain and Nerves . f 1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/21/
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