Section 43. (f) The Sense of Touch.
I combine, for the sake of simplicity, the senses of location,
pressure,
temperature, etc., under the general expression: sense of touch.
The problem this sense raises is no light one because many witnesses
tell of perceptions made in the dark or when they were otherwise
unable to see, and because much is perceived by means of this sense
in assaults, wounds, and other contacts. In most cases such witnesses
have been unable to regard the touched parts of their bodies,
so that we have to depend upon this touch-sense alone. Full certainty
is possible only when sight and touch have worked together
and rectified one another. It has been shown that the conception
of the third dimension can not be obtained through the sense of
sight. At the beginning we owe the perception of this dimension
only to touch and later on to experience and habit. The truth of
this statement is confirmed by the reports of persons who, born
blind, have gained sight. Some were unable to distinguish by
means of mere sight a silver pencil-holder from a large key. They
could only tell them to be different things, and recognized their
nature only after they had felt them. On the other hand, the deceptive
possibilities in touch are seen in the well-known mistakes
to which one is subjected in blind touching. At the same time
practice leads to considerable accuracy in touch and on many occasions
the sense is trusted more than sight—e. g., whenever we
test the delicacy of an object with our finger-tips. The fineness
of paper, leather, the smoothness of a surface, the presence of points,
are always tested with the fingers. So that if a witness assures us
that this or that was very smooth, or that this surface was very
raw, we must regularly ask him whether he had tested the quality
by touching it with his fingers, and we are certain only if he says
yes. Whoever has to depend much on the sense of touch increases
its field of perception, as we know from the delicacy of the sense
in blind people. The statements of the blind concerning their
contact sensations may be believed even when they seem improbable;
there are blind persons who may feel the very color of fabrics, because
the various pigments and their medium give a different surface-quality
to the cloth they color.
In another direction, again, it is the deaf who have especial power.
So, we are assured by Abercrombie that in his medical practice
he had frequently observed how deaf people will perceive the roll of
an approaching wagon, or the approach of a person, long before people
with good hearing do so. For a long time I owned an Angora which,
like all Angoras, was completely deaf, and her deafness had been
tested by physicians. Nevertheless, if the animal was dozing somewhere
and anybody came near it, she would immediately notice his
steps, and would distinguish them, for she would jump up frightened,
if the newcomer was unknown, and would stretch herself with
pleasure in the expectation of petting if she felt a friend coming.
She would sense the lightest touch on the object she occupied,
bench, window-seat, sofa, etc., and she was especially sensitive to
very light scratching of the object. Such sensitivity is duplicated
frequently in persons who are hard of hearing, and whom, therefore,
we are likely to doubt.
The sense of touch is, moreover, improved not only by practice,
but also by the training of the muscles. Stricker asserts that he
has frequently noticed that the observational capacity of individuals
who make much use of their muscles is greater than among persons
whose habits are sedentary. This does not contradict the truth
established by many experiments that the educated man is more
sensitive in all directions than the uneducated. Again, women
have a better developed sense of touch than men, the space-sense
and the pressure-sense being equivalent in both sexes. On these
special forms of the touch-sense injections of various kinds have
decided influence. The injection of morphine, e. g., reduces the
space-sense in the skin. Cannabinum tannicum reduces sensibility
and alcohol is swift and considerable in its effects. According to
Reichenbach some sensitives are extreme in their feeling. The
best of them notice immediately the approach and relative position
of people, or the presence of another in a dark room. That very
nervous people frequently feel air pressure, fine vibrations, etc., is
perfectly true. And this and other facts show the great variety of
touch impressions that may be distinguished. The sense of temperature
has a comparatively high development, and more so in women
than in men. At the lips and with the tips of the fingers, differences
of two-tenths of a degree are perceived. But where an absolute
valuation and not a difference is to be perceived, the mean variation,
generally, is not much less than 4 degrees. E. g., a temperature of
19 degrees R. will be estimated at from 17 to 21 degrees. I believe,
however, that the 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,
[1] "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.
The sensation of a stab is often identified as contact with a hot
object, and it is further asserted that the wounded person feels close
to the pain which accompanies the push or the cut, the cold of the
blade and its presence in the depths of his body. So far as I have
been able to learn from wounded people, these assertions are not
confirmed. Setting aside individuals who exaggerate intentionally
and want to make themselves interesting or to indicate considerable
damage, all answers point to the fact that stabs, shots, and blows
are sensed as pushes. In addition, the rising of the blood is felt
almost immediately, but nothing else; pain comes much later. It is
asserted by
couleur-students[2] who
have occasion to have a considerable
number of duels behind them, that "sitting thrusts," even when
they are made with the sharpest swords, are sensed only as painless,
or almost painless, blows or pushes. Curiously enough all say that
the sensation is felt as if caused by some very broad dull tool: a
falling shingle, perhaps. But not one has felt the cold of the entering
blade.
Soldiers whose shot wounds were inquired into, often just a few
minutes after their being wounded, have said unanimously that
they had felt only a hard push.
It is quite different with the man who causes the wound. Lotze
has rightly called attention to the fact that in mounting a ladder
with elastic rungs one perceives clearly the points at which the rungs
are fastened to the sides. The points at which an elastic trellis is
fastened is felt when it is shaken, and the resistance of the wood when
an axe is used on it. In the same way the soldier senses clearly
the entrance of his sword-point or blade into the body of his enemy.
The last fact is confirmed by the students. One can clearly distinguish
whether the sword has merely beaten through the skin or
has sunk deeply and reached the bone. And this sensation of touch
is concentrated in the
right thumb, which is
barely under the hilt
of the sword at the point where the grip rests.
The importance of the fact that the wounder feels his success
lies in the possibility it gives him, when he wants to tell the truth,
to indicate reliably whether and how far he has wounded his opponent.
The importance of the testimony of the wounded man
lies in its influence on determining, in cases where there were more
than one concerned in the assault, which wound is to be assigned
to which man. We often hear from the victim who really desires
to tell the truth, "I was quite convinced that X dealt me the deep
stab in the shoulder, but he has only pushed and not stabbed me—
I did not perceive a stab." Just the same, it was X who stabbed
him, and if the examining judge explains the matter to the victim,
his testimony will be yet more honest.
There are still a few other significant facts.
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,[3] 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.
6. The problem may arise of the reliability of impressions of
habitual pressure. Weber made the earliest experiments, later
verified by Fechner, showing that the sensation of weight differs a
great deal on different portions of the skin. The most sensitive
are the forehead, the temples, the eyelids, the inside of the forearm.
The most insensitive are the lips, the trunk and the finger-nails.
If piles of six silver dollars are laid on various parts of the body, and
then removed, one at a time, the differences are variously felt. In
order to notice a removal the following number must be taken away:
One dollar from the top of the finger,
One dollar from the sole of the foot,
Two dollars from the flat of the hand,
Two dollars from the shoulder blade,
Three dollars from the heel,
Four dollars from the back of the head,
Four dollars from the breast,
Five dollars from the middle of the back,
Five dollars from the abdomen.
Further examinations have revealed nothing new. Successful
experiments to determine differences between men and women,
educated and uneducated, in the acuteness of the sense of pressure,
have not been made. The facts they involve may be of use in cases
of assault, choking, etc.
[[ id="n43.1"]]
E. H. Weber: Die Lehre vom Tastsinn u. Gemeingefühl. Braunschweig
1851.
[[ id="n43.2"]]
Students who are members of student societies distinguished by particular
colors.
[[ id="n43.3"]]
K. Vierordt: Der Zeitsinn nach Versuchen. Tübingen 1868.