Hearing evolved in due time from the rudimentary feeling of
vibrations. Sight, the highest of the senses, came last, and was an
evolution of the elementary sensitiveness to light.
But, you see, all these senses are but modifications of the original sense
of feeling or touch. The eye records the touch or feeling of the
light-waves which strike upon it. The ear records the touch or feeling of
the sound-waves or vibrations of the air, which reach it. The tongue and
other seats of taste record the chemical touch of the particles of food,
or other substances, coming in contact with the taste-buds. The nose
records the chemical touch of the gases or fine particles of material
which touch its mucous membrane. The sensory-nerves record the presence of
outer objects coming in contact with the nerve ends in various parts of
the skin of the body. You see that all of these senses merely record the
contact or "touch" of outside objects.
But the sense organs, themselves, do not do the knowing of the presence of
the objects. They are but pieces of delicate apparatus serving to record
or to receive primary impressions from outside. Wonderful as they are,
they have their counterparts in the works of man, as for instance: the
camera, or artificial eye; the phonograph, or, artificial ear; the
delicate chemical apparatus, or artificial taster and smeller; the
telegraph, or artificial nerves.
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