Account of some new experiments on the sensibility of the skin / by Dr. Weber.

  • Thomson, Allen, 1809-1884
Date:
[1833]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of some new experiments on the sensibility of the skin / by Dr. Weber. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    J Account of some .New Experiments on the Sen- sibility of the Skin, Dr Weber, Professor of Anatomy at Leipzig. By Allen Thomson, M. D. (From the Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, No. I16.J IT is a fact well known to physiologists, that there is a consi¬ derable difficulty in pointing out with certainty, when unaided by sight, any spot on the skin that has been touched, and in distinguishing how much of the common feelings of touch is due to the sensibility of the skin, and how much is derived from the muscular sensation produced by the motion of our limbs. It is also well ascertained that some parts of the skin are better adapt¬ ed than others, either from their original structure, or in con¬ sequence of their being more exercised, to convey to the mind an exact impression of the physical qualities of the bodies with which they are brought in contact. It must be allowed, however, that our knowledge respecting this part of the physiology of the sense of touch is by no means definite. Professor Weber of Leipzig has lately performed a very simple and ingenious set of experiments which illustrate the subject of the sense of touch, and furnish us with a mode of measuring with considerable accuracy, the relative acuteness of this sense in different parts of the skin of the same or of different individuals. These experiments consist in placing the two points of a pair of compasses at different distances from one another, and in various directions, upon different parts of the skin of an in¬ dividual who is not permitted to see the bodies touching him.* * The sharp points of the common compasses may be blunted with a little sealing- wax, which will have the effect also of taking away the cold feeling of the metal.