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the most interesting anomalies in the natural history of the human species.

Having appeared to distinguish, by feeling, a horse which his mother had sold a few weeks before, the rider dismounted to put his knowledge to the test, As the materials of all human thought and reasonand Mitchell immediately led the horse to his mother's ing enter the mind, or arise in it at a period which is stable, took off his saddle and bridle, put corn before prior to the operation of memory, and under the sihim, and then withdrew, locking the door, and put-multaneous action of all the senses, it is extremely ting the key in his pocket. He knew the use of most ordinary utensils; and was pleased with every addition which he made to this sort of knowledge. One of his amusements was, to visit the shops of carpenters and other mechanics, obviously with a view to understand the nature of their tools and operations. He assisted the farm servants, to whom he was attached, in their work, particularly in cleaning the stable. He himself endeavoured to repair breaches in the farm houses, and even attempted to build small houses with turf, leaving little openings like windows. Means were used to teach him to make baskets, but he seemed to want the perseverance necessary to finish his work.

His sister devised some means for establishing that communication between him and other beings, from which nature seemed for ever to have cut him off. By various modifications of touch, she conveyed to him her satisfaction or displeasure at his conduct. Touching his head with her hand was her principal method. This she did with various degrees of force, and in various manners; and he readily understood the intimation intended to be conveyed. When she signified her highest approbation, she patted him much, and cordially, on the head, back, or hand. This expression more sparingly used, signified simple assent; and she only refused him these signs of her approbation entirely, and repelled him gently, to convey to him in the most effectual manner the notice of her displeasure. In this manner she contrived a language of touch, which was not only the means of communication, but the instrument of some moral discipline. To supply its obvious and great defects she had recourse to a language of action, representing those ideas which none of the simple natural signs cognizable by the sense of touch could convey. When his mother was from home, his sister allayed his anxiety for her return, by laying his head gently down on a pillow once for each night that his mother was to be absent; implying that he would sleep so many times before her return. It was once signified to him that he must wait two days for a suit of new clothes, and this also was effectually done by shutting his eyes and bending down his head twice. In the mode of communicating his ideas to others, there was a very remarkable peculiarity. When he wished for meat, he pointed to the place where he knew it to be and when he was desirous of informing his friends that he was going to a shoemaker's shop, he imitated the action of making shoes. But though no information was intentionally communicated to him without touching some part of his body, he did not attempt, in any of these cases, to touch that of others. To say that he addressed these signs to their sight would be incorrect; but he must have been conscious that they were endowed with some means of interpreting signs without contact, by an incomprehensible faculty which Nature had refused to him."

that violent anger to which his situation rendered

difficult to ascertain what perceptions belong origi nally and exclusively to each of the organs of external sense. Our notion of every object is made up of the impressions which it makes on all the organs. Whatever may be thought of the mental act which originally unites these various impressions, it seems eviden that, in the actual state of every human understanding, the labour is to disunite them. Every common man thinks of them, and employs them in their compound state. To analyze them is an operation suggested by philosophy; and which, in the usual state of things, must always be most imperfectly performed. A man who, from the beginning, bad all his senses complete, must have had all these impressions; and never can banish any of them from his mind. He can indeed attend to some of them so much more than to others, that he may seem to himself to exclude altogether that which he neglects. But to the perceptions of which he is conscious much will adhere, composed of ingredients so minute and subtle, as to elude the power of will, and to escape the grasp of consciousness. He can approach analysis only by efforts of attention very imperfectly successful, and by suppositions often precarious; and when pressed to their ultimate consequences, often also repugnant and inconceivable. For such purposes some philosophers have imagined intelligent beings with no other sense but that of vision; and others have represented their own hypothesis respecting the origin and progress of perception under the history of a statue successively endowed with the various organs of sense. It is evident, however, that such suppositions can do no more than illustrate the peculiar opinions of the supposer, and cannot prove that which, in the nature of things, they presuppose. But when one inlet of perception is entirely blocked up, we then really see the variation in the state of the compound, produced by the absence of part of its ingredients; and hence it has happened, that the cure and education of the deaf and blind, besides their higher character among the triumphs of civilized benevolence, acquire a considerable though subordinate value, as almost the only great experiments which metaphysical philosophy can perform. Even these experiments are incomplete. Knowledge, opinion, and prejudice are infused into the blind through the ear; and when they are accustomed to employ the mechanism of language, they learn the use of words as signs of things unknown, and speak with coherence and propriety on subjects where they may have no ideas. To fix the limits of the thoughts of a blind man who hears and speaks, is a problem beyond the reach of our present attainments in philosophy.

CHAP. IX.

OF SMELLING, FEELING, AND TASTING.

He seems to have had no conception of any beings superior to human, and was consequently without any appearance of those religious feelings which are among the most general characteristics of our species. His only attempts at utterance were the uncouth AN animal may be said to fill up that sphere bellowings by which he sometimes laboured to vent which he can reach by his senses; and is actually His tears were most commonly shed large in proportion to the sphere to which its from disappointment in his wishes; but they some-organ extends. By sight, man's enjoyments are times flowed from affectionate sorrow. No account of any being, doomed from birth to a privation so nearly complete both of sight and hearing, has hither to been discovered on the records of science. The case of Mitchell must therefore be regarded as among

him prone.

diffused into a wide circle; that of hearing, though less widely diffused, nevertheless extends his powers; the sense of smelling is more contracted still; and the taste and touch are the

Each sense, however, the more it acts at a distance, the more capable it is of making combinations; and is, consequently, the more improveable. Refined imaginations, and men of strong minds, take more pleasure, therefore, in improving the distant senses, than in enjoying such as are scarce capable of improvement.

most confined of all. Thus man enjoys very dis- | deed, but little attended to. In fact, the sense tant objects but with one sense only; more nearly of smelling gives us very often false intelligence. he brings two senses at once to bear upon them; Many things that have a disagreeable odour, are, his sense of smelling assists the other two at its nevertheless, wholesome and pleasant to the own distance; and of such objects, as a man, he taste; and such as make eating an art, seldom may be said to be in perfect possession. think a meal fit to please the appetite, till it begins to offend the nose. On the other hand, there are many things that smell most gratefully, and yet are noxious, or fatal to the constitution. Some physicians think that perfumes in general are unwholesome; that they relax the nerves, produce headaches, and even retard digestion. The manchineel apple, which is known to be deadly poison, is possessed of the most grateful odour. Some of those mineral vapours that are often found fatal in the stomach, smell like the sweetest flowers, and continue thus to flatter till they destroy. This sense, therefore, as it should seem, was never meant to direct us in the choice of food, but appears rather as an attendant than a necessary pleasure.

By combining the objects of the extensive senses, all the arts of poetry, painting, and harmony, have been discovered; but the closer senses, if I may so call them, such as smelling, tasting, and touching, are, in some measure, as simple as they are limited, and admit of little variety. The man of imagination makes a great and an artificial happiness by the pleasure of altering and combining; the sensualist just stops where he began, and cultivates only those pleasures which he cannot improve. The sensualist is contented with those enjoyments that are already made to his hand; but the man of pleasure is best pleased with growing happiness.

Of all the senses, perhaps, there is not one in which man is more inferior to other animals than in that of smelling. With man, it is a sense that acts in a narrow sphere, and disgusts almost as frequently as it gives him pleasure. With many other animals it is diffused to a very great extent; and never seems to offend them. Dogs not only trace the steps of other animals, but also discover them by the scent at a very great distance; and while they are thus exquisitely sensible of all smells, they seem no way disgusted by any.

But, although this sense is, in general, so very inferior in man, it is much stronger in those nations that abstain from animal food than among Europeans. The Bramins of India have a power of smelling, as I am informed, equal to what it is in most other creatures. They can smell the water which they drink, that to us seems quite inodorous; and have a word, in their language, which denotes a country of fine water. We are told also, that the negroes of the Antilles, by the smell alone, can distinguish between the footsteps of a Frenchman and a negro. It is possible, therefore, that we may dull this organ by our luxurious way of living; and sacrifice to the pleasures of taste those which might be received from perfume.

However, it is a sense that we can, in some measure, dispense with; and I have known many that wanted it entirely, with but very little inconvenience from its loss. In a state of nature it is said to be useful in guiding us to proper nourishment, and deterring us from that which is unwholesome; but, in our present situation, such information is but little wanted; and, in

Indeed, if we examine the natives of different countries, or even different natives of the same, we shall find no pleasure in which they differ so widely as in that of smelling. Some persons are pleased with the smell of a rose: while I have known others that could not abide to have it approach them. The savage nations are highly delighted with the smell of assafoetida, which is to us the most nauseous stink in nature. It would in a manner seem that our delight in perfumes was made by habit; and that a very little industry could bring us totally to invert the perception of odours.

Thus much is certain, that many bodies which at one distance are an agreeable perfume, when nearer are a most ungrateful odour. Musk and ambergris, in small quantities, are considered by most persons as highly fragrant; and yet when in larger masses, their scent is insufferable. From a mixture of two bodies, each whereof is, of itself, void of all smell, a very powerful smell may be drawn Thus, by grinding quick-lime with sal-ammoniac, may be produced a very fœtid mixture. On the contrary, from a mixture of two bodies, that are separately disagreeable, a very pleasant aromatic odour may be gained. A mixture of aqua-fortis with spirit of wine produces this effect. But not only the alterations of bodies by each other, but the smallest change in us, makes a very great alteration in this sense, and frequently deprives us of it totally. A slight cold often hinders us from smelling; and as often changes the nature of odours. from disorder, retain an incurable aversion to those smells which most pleased them before: and many have been known to have an antipathy to some animals, whose presence they instantly perceived by the smell. From all this, therefore, the sense of smelling appears to be an uncertain monitor, easily disordered, and not much missed when totally wanting.

Some persons,

The sense most nearly allied to smelling is

P

LANE UBRARY STANFORD UNIVERSITY

being furnished with a great quantity of nerves, that the fingers are thus perfectly qualified to judge of forms. Blind men, who are obliged to use them much oftener, have this sense much finer; so that the delicacy of the touch arises rather from the habit of constantly employing the fingers, than from any fancied nervousness in their conformation.

that of tasting. This some have been willing to | It is from this habit, therefore, and their pecuconsider merely as a nicer kind of touch, and | liar formation, and not, as is supposed, from their have undertaken to account, in a very mechanical manner, for the difference of savours. "Such bodies," say they, "as are pointed, happening to be applied to the papillæ of the tongue, excite a very powerful sensation, and give us the idea of saltness. Such, on the contrary, as are of a rounder figure, slide smoothly along the papillæ, and are perceived to be sweet." In this manner, they have with minute labour, gone through the variety of imagined forms in bodies, and have given them as imaginary effects. All we can precisely determine upon the nature of tastes is, that the bodies to be tasted must be either somewhat moistened, or, in some measure, dissolved by the saliva, before they can produce a proper sensation when both the tongue itself and the body to be tasted are extremely dry, no taste whatever ensues. The sensation is then changed; and the tongue, instead of tasting, can only be said, like any other parts of the body, to feel the object. It is for this reason that children have a stronger relish of taste than those who are more advanced in life. This organ with them, from the greater moisture of their bodies, is kept in greater perfection; and is, consequently, better adapted to perform its functions. Every person remembers how great a pleasure he found in sweets, while a child; and his taste growing more obtuse with age, he is obliged to use artificial means to excite it. It is then that he is found to call in the assistance of poignant sauces, and strong relishes of salts and aromatics; all which the delicacy of his tender organ in child- The feeling, therefore, is the guardian, the hood was unable to endure. His taste grows cal-judge, and the examiner of all the rest of the lous to the natural relishes, and is artificially senses. It establishes their information, and formed to others more unnatural; so that the detects their errors. All the other senses are highest epicure may be said to have the most de-altered by time, and contradict their former praved taste; as it is owing to the bluntness of evidence; but the touch still continues the same; his organs, that he is obliged to have recourse to such a variety of expedients to gratify his appetite.

As smells are often rendered agreeable by habit, so also tastes may be. Tobacco and coffee, so pleasing to many, are yet, at first, very disagreeable to all. It is not without perseverance that we begin to have a relish for them; we force nature so long, that what was constraint in the beginning, at last becomes inclination.

All animals that are furnished with hands? seem to have more understanding than others. Monkeys have so many actions like those of men, that they appear to have similar ideas of the form of bodies. All other creatures, deprived of hands, can have no distinct ideas of the shape of the objects by which they are surrounded, as they want this organ, which serves to examine and measure their forms, their risings, and depressions. A quadruped, probably, conceives as erroneous an idea of any thing near him, as a child would of a rock or a mountain that it beheld at a distance. It may be for this reason, that we often see them frighted at things with which they ought to be better acquainted. Fishes, whose bodies are covered with scales, and who have no organs for feeling, must be the most stupid of all animals. Serpents, that are likewise destitute, are yet, by winding round several bodies, better capable of judging of their form. All these, however, can have but very imperfect ideas from feeling; and we have already seen, when deprived of this sense, how little the rest of the senses are to be relied on.

and, though extremely confined in its operations, yet it is never found to deceive. The universe, to a man who had only used the rest of his senses, would be but a scene of illusion; every object misrepresented, and all its properties unknown. Mr. Buffon has imagined a man just newly brought into existence, describing the allusion of his first sensations, and pointing out the steps by which he arrived at reality. He considers him as just created, and awaking amidst the proThe grossest, and yet the most useful of all the ductions of nature; and, to animate the narrasenses, is that of feeling. We are often seen to tive still more strongly, has made his philosophical survive under the loss of the rest; but of this man a speaker. The reader will no doubt recolwe can never totally be deprived, but with life. lect Adam's speech in Milton as being similar. Although this sense is diffused over all parts All that I can say to obviate the imputation of of the body, yet it most frequently happens plagiarism is, that the one treats the subject more that those parts which are most exercised in as a poet, the other more as a philosopher. The touching, acquire the greatest degree of ac-philosopher's man describes his first sensations in curacy. Thus the fingers, by long habit, become the following manner: 3 greater masters in the art than any others, even where the sensation is more delicate and fine.1

1 Buffon, vol. vi. p. 80.

"I well remember that joyful anxious moment when I first became acquainted with my own ex

2 Buffon, vol. vi. p. 82. 3 Ibid. vol. vi. p. 83.

which I had in the beginning supposed spread over all the objects I saw.

istence. I was quite ignorant of what I was, how I was produced, or from whence I came. I opened my eyes; what an addition to my sur- "Upon casting my eyes upon my body, and prise! the light of the day, the azure vault of surveying my own form, I thought it greater heaven, the verdure of the earth, the crystal of | than all the objects that surrounded me. I gazed the waters, all employed me at once, and animat- upon my person with pleasure; I examined the ed and filled me with inexpressible delight. I at formation of my hand, and all its motions; it first imagined that all those objects were within seemed to me large or little in proportion as I me, and made a part of myself. approached it to my eyes; I brought it very near, and it then hid almost every other object from my sight. I began soon, however, to find that my sight gave me uncertain information, and resolved to depend upon my feeling for redress.

"Impressed with this idea, I turned my eyes to the sun; its splendour dazzled and overpowered me; I shut them once more; and, to my great concern, I supposed that during this short interval of darkness, I was again returning to nothing.

"Afflicted, seized with astonishment, I pondered a moment on this great change, when I heard a variety of unexpected sounds. The whistling of the wind, and the melody of the grove, formed a concert, the soft cadence of which sunk upon my soul. I listened for some time, and was persuaded that all this music was within me.

"Quite occupied with this new kind of existence, I had already forgotten the light, which was my first inlet into life; when I once more opened my eyes, and found myself again in possession of my former happiness. The gratification of the two senses at once, was a pleasure too great for utterance.

"I turned my eyes upon a thousand various objects; I soon found that I could lose them, and restore them at will; and amused myself more at leisure with a repetition of this new-made power.

"I now began to gaze without emotion, and to hearken with tranquillity, when a light breeze, the freshness of which charmed me, wafted its perfumes to my sense of smelling, and gave me such satisfaction as even increased my self-love. "Agitated, roused by the various pleasures of my new existence, I instantly arose, and perceived myself moving along, as if by some unknown and secret power.

"I had scarcely proceeded forward, when the novelty of my situation once more rendered me immoveable. My surprise returned; I supposed that every object around me had been in motion: I gave to them that agitation which I produced by changing place; and the whole creation seemed once more in disorder.

"I lifted my hand to my head; I touched my forehead; I felt my whole frame: I then supposed that my hand was the principal organ of my existence; all its informations were distinct and perfect, and so superior to the senses I had yet experienced, that I employed myself for some time in repeating its enjoyments; every part of my person I touched, seemed to touch my hand in turn; and gave back sensation for sensation.

"I soon found that this faculty was expanded over the whole surface of my body; and I now first began to perceive the limits of my existence,

"This precaution was of the utmost service; I renewed my motions, and walked forward with my face turned towards the heavens. I happened to strike lightly against a palm-tree, and this renewed my surprise; I laid my hand on this strange body; it seemed replete with new wonders, for it did not return me sensation for sensation, as my former feelings had done. I perceived that there was something external, and which did not make a part of my own existence.

"I now, therefore, resolved to touch whatever I saw, and vainly attempted to touch the sun; I stretched forth my arm, and felt only yielding air: at every effort, I fell from one surprise into another, for every object appeared equally near me; and it was not till after an infinity of trials, that I found some objects farther removed than the rest.

"Amazed with the illusions, and the uncertainty of my state, I sat down beneath a tree; the most beautiful fruits hung upon it within my reach; I stretched forth my hand, and they instantly separated from the branch. I was proud of being able to grasp a substance without me; I held them up, and their weight appeared to me like an animated power, that endeavoured to draw them to the earth. I found a pleasure in conquering their resistance.

"I held them near my eye; I considered their form and beauty; their fragrance still more allured me to bring them nearer; I approached them to my lips, and drank in their odours; the perfume invited my sense of tasting, and I soon tried a new sense-How new! how exquisite ! Hitherto I had tasted only of pleasure; but now it was luxury. The power of tasting gave me the idea of possession.

"Flattered with this new acquisition, I continued its exercise, till an agreeable languor stealing upon my mind, I felt all my limbs become heavy, and all my desires suspended. My sensations were now no longer vivid and distinct; but seemed to lose every object, and presented only feeble images, confusedly marked. At that instant I sunk upon the flowery bank, and slumber seized me. All now seemed once more lost to It was then as if I was returning into my former nothing. How long my sleep continued, I cannot tell; as I yet had no perception of time. My awaking appeared like a second birth; and

me.

I then perceived that I had ceased for a time to exist. This produced a new sensation of fear; and from this interruption in life, I began to conclude that I was not formed to exist for ever. "In this state of doubt and perplexity, I began to harbour new suspicions; and to fear that sleep had robbed me of some of my late powers; when turning on one side, to resolve my doubts, what was my amazement, to behold another being like myself stretched by my side! New ideas now began to arise; new passions, as yet unperceived, with fears and pleasures, all took possession of my mind, and prompted my curiosity: love served to complete that happiness which was begun in the individual; and every sense was gratified in all its varieties."

CHAP. X.

OF OLD AGE AND DEATH.1

EVERY thing in nature has its improvement and decay. The human form is no sooner arrived at its state of perfection, than it begins to decline. The alteration is at first insensible; and often several years are clapsed before we find ourselves grown old. The news of this disagreeable change too generally comes from without; and we learn from others that we grow old, before we are willing to believe the report.

their bones tinctured with alternate layers, in conformity to their manner of living. From all this he naturally concluded, that the blood circulated through the bones, as it does through every other part of the body; and that, how solid soever they seemed, yet like the softest parts, they were furnished through all their substance with their proper canals. Nevertheless, these canals are of very different capacities, during the dif ferent stages of life. In infancy they are capacious; and the blood flows almost as freely through the bones as through any other part of the body; in manhood their size is greatly diminished; the vessels are almost imperceptible; and the circulation through them is proportionably slow. But, in the decline of life, the blood which flows through the bones, no longer contributing to their growth, must necessarily serve to increase their hardness. The channels that everywhere run through the human frame, may be compared to those pipes that we everywhere see crusted on the inside, by the water for a long continuance running through them. Both every day grow less and less, by the small rigid particles which are deposited within them. Thus as the vessels are by degrees diminished, the juices also, which were necessary for the circulation through them are diminished in proportion; till at length, in old age, those props of the human frame are not only more solid, but more brittle.

The cartilages, or gristles, which may be considered as bones beginning to be formed, grow also more rigid. The juices circulating through them, for there is a circulation through all parts of the body, every day contribute to render them harder; so that these substances, which in youth are elastic and pliant, in age become hard and

When the body has come to its full height, and is extended into its just dimensions, it then also begins to receive an additional bulk which rather loads than assists it. This is formed from fat; which generally at the age of thirty-five, or forty, covers all the muscles, and interrupts their ac-bony. As these cartilages are generally placed tivity. Every action is then performed with greater labour, and the increase of size only serves as a forerunner of decay.

The bones also become every day more solid. In the embryo they are as soft almost as the muscles of the flesh; but by degrees they harden, and acquire their natural vigour; but still, however, the circulation is carried on through them, and how hard soever the bones may seem, yet the blood holds its current through them, as through all other parts of the body. Of this we may be convinced by an experiment, which was first accidentally discovered by our ingenious countryman, Mr. Belcher. Perceiving at a friend's house, that the bones of hogs, which were fed upon madder, were red, he tried it upon various animals by mixing this root with their usual food; and he found that it tinctured the bones in all; an evident demonstration that the juices of the body had a circulation through the bones. He fed some animals alternately upon madder and their common food, for some time, and he found

near the joints, the motion of the joints also must of consequence become more difficult. Thus, in old age, every action of the body is performed with labour; and the cartilages, formerly so supple, will now sooner break than bend.

"As the cartilages acquire hardness, and unfit the joints for motion, so also that mucous liquor, which is always separated between the joints, and which serves, like oil to a hinge, to give them an easy and ready play, is now grown more scanty. It becomes thicker and more clammy, more unfit for answering the purposes of motion; and from thence, in old age, every joint is not only stiff, but awkward. At every motion this clammy liquor is heard to crack; and it is not without the greatest effort of the muscles that its resistance is overcome. I have seen an old person, who never moved a single joint, that did not thus give notice of the violence done to it."

The membranes that cover the bones, the joints, and the rest of the body, become, as we grow old, more dense and more dry. Those which surround the bones, soon cease to be ductile. The fibres,

1 This chapter is taken from Mr. Buffon, except of which the muscles or flesh is composed, bewhere it is marked by inverted commas. come every day more rigid; and while to the

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