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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- Divisions of Natural Science
- CHAP. I Division of Natural Objects into Organised and Inorganic. The Chain of Being
- CHAP. II Peculiar Characters of Organised Bodies
- CHAP. III Distinguishing Characters of Animals and Vegetables
- CHAP. IV On the Polity of Nature
- CHAP. V On the Substances which enter into the Composition of the Bodies of Animals
- CHAP. VI Cutaneous System
- CHAP. VII Osseous System
- CHAP. VIII Muscular System
- CHAP. IX Nervous System
- CHAP. X Organs of Perception
- CHAP. XI Faculties of the Mind
- CHAP. XII Digestive System
- CHAP. XIII Circulating System
- CHAP. XIV Peculiar Secretions
- CHAP. XV Reproductive System
CHAP. X - Organs of Perception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- Divisions of Natural Science
- CHAP. I Division of Natural Objects into Organised and Inorganic. The Chain of Being
- CHAP. II Peculiar Characters of Organised Bodies
- CHAP. III Distinguishing Characters of Animals and Vegetables
- CHAP. IV On the Polity of Nature
- CHAP. V On the Substances which enter into the Composition of the Bodies of Animals
- CHAP. VI Cutaneous System
- CHAP. VII Osseous System
- CHAP. VIII Muscular System
- CHAP. IX Nervous System
- CHAP. X Organs of Perception
- CHAP. XI Faculties of the Mind
- CHAP. XII Digestive System
- CHAP. XIII Circulating System
- CHAP. XIV Peculiar Secretions
- CHAP. XV Reproductive System
Summary
In the numerous references which we have hitherto made to the faculty of Sensation, as a display of the operation of the nervous system, we have considered it as indicating merely the presence of bodies, and as giving no information respecting their character. If we attend more minutely to this faculty, we shall find, that all the sensitive parts of the body, are not equally capable of warning us of the presence of the same kind of objects. The rays of light make no im pression upon the tongue or the fingers, indicating their presence, while they act with energy on the eye. The vibrations of the air make no impression on the eye, the mouth, or the nose, while they instantly act upon the ear. Sensation, therefore, is a generic term, intimating the capability of the nervous system to receive impressions of external objects; and it includes as many species as there are impressions calculated to act on one organ, and not upon another, distinguished by this common property, that they intimate the presence of objects.
The number of impressions which may be regarded as distinct species, is more extensive than is generally imagined, and would justify us in considering the term Sensation as the index of an order or class, rather than of a subordinate division. Philosophers, however, have agreed to reduce our sensations to five kinds, namely, those of Touch, Sight, Hearing, Taste, and Smell, to which I have ventured to add Heat.
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- Information
- The Philosophy of ZoologyOr a General View of the Structure, Functions, and Classification of Animals, pp. 164 - 212Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1822