312. The Functions of the Brain Center in the Perception of an Impression. Sensation is really the result of a change which occurs in a nerve center in the brain, and yet we refer impressions to the various terminal organs. Thus, when the skin is pinched, the sensation is referred to the skin, although the perception is in the brain. We may think it is the eyes that see objects; in reality, it is only the brain that takes note of them.
This is largely the result of education and habit. From a blow on the head one sees flashes of light as vividly as if torches actually dance before the eyes. Impressions have reached the seeing-center in the brain from irritation of the optic nerve, producing the same effect as real lights would cause. In this case, however, knowing the cause of the colors, the person is able to correct the erroneous conclusion.
As a result of a depraved condition of blood, the seeing-center itself may be unduly stimulated, and a person may see objects which appear real. Thus in an attack of delirium tremens, the victim of alcoholic poisoning sees horrible and fantastic creatures. The diseased brain refers them as usual to the external world; hence they appear real. As the sufferer’s judgment is warped by the alcoholic liquor, he cannot correct the impressions, and is therefore deceived by them.
313. Organs of Special Sense. The organs of special sense, the means by which we are brought into relation with surrounding objects, are usually classed as five in number. They are sometimes fancifully called “the five gateways of knowledge”—the skin, the organ of touch; the tongue, of taste; the nose, of smell; the eye, of sight; and the ear, of hearing.
Fig. 124.—Magnified View of a Papilla of the Skin, with a Touch Corpuscle.
314. The Organ of Touch. The organ of touch, or tactile sensibility, is the most widely extended of all the special senses, and perhaps the simplest. It is certainly the most precise and certain in its results. It is this sense to which we instinctively appeal to escape from the illusions into which the other senses may mislead us. It has its seat in the skin all over the body, and in the mucous membrane of the nostrils. All parts of the body, however, do not have this sense in an equal degree.
In [Chapter IX.] we learned that the superficial layers of the skin covers and dips in between the papillæ. We also learned that these papillæ are richly provided with blood-vessels and sensory nerve fibers (sec. 234). Now these nerve fibers terminate in a peculiar way in those parts of the body which are endowed with a very delicate sense of touch. In every papilla are oval-shaped bodies about 1/300 of an inch long, around which the nerve fibers wind, and which they finally enter. These are called touch-bodies, or tactile corpuscles, and are found in great numbers on the feet and toes, and more scantily in other places, as on the edges of the eyelids.
Again, many of the nerve fibers terminate in corpuscles, the largest about 1/20 of an inch long, called Pacinian corpuscles. These are most numerous in the palm of the hand and the sole of the foot. In the papillæ of the red border of the lips the nerves end in capsules which enclose one or more fibers, and are called end-bulbs.