Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1877 — The Extension of Sense. [ARTICLE]

The Extension of Sense.

£mm% :^fd- wftjTthe bero ofLockaley flail* that the thoughts- of mes are widened with l the process of the »s«SSS?IS!!; Mozart, Michael Angsfa, And other men of great genius enjoyed shall be the coms£stwQ&SfaSSß highest men of to-stay itt moral and intellectual Mksrfts the hrturfflo the lowett savages or,tha.mQptbrutal qf our prehistoric anuefitorsIn hfa-tauggepfave address before the Ameridbt OimlfidL Society,, fly. Draper touched another aspect of the question, the extension of naan's faculties of settee. Referring to the two well-known classes of nerrotfc. fibers-—tbo*e which gather ,the impression* of external things andcoavey them to” the nerve centers; and: those whichdictates of the will from vi&hia outwards—he obsenred that, in the improvement of the capabilities of one of m 6 furtnelr by telescopes,’ microscropes ,sod other sight-aid big contrivances, we hare an earnest Qf what may hereafter be done at respects the four other special organs of sense; While as. concerns the second class, die increase of man’s pant Is ant lbs* remarkable. The resolve#* fig l ' file will may, already be transmfttedbeypnd ua w;ih seven a greater velocity ttsia in the living system itself, and thdtjtchose vast terrestrikl distances and beiffifcth Jfiie s pa, /“ Telegraphic wires are, stactfy>i.«peakiitg, continuations of the centrifugal nerves, aqd we are not without retajtoh for belying that it is the same ihStufoce which is active in both cases.”;: ■ j-‘- » w The learned lecturer tnjght have added that the’elf tension or sight by no means exhausts the improvements of special sense already arrived at. In range and delicacy of action, the aural apparatus of the skilled musician surpasses that of the savage even- mere than his VigUal organs do; while the extension of sight by means of lenses is all but paralleled in hearing by means of modem acoustic apparatus. Already we may hear by telegraph the intonation pf a speaker, or the notes of an instrument many miles away; the entanglements of sound are Analyzed by the inventions of Helmholtz at completely as those of light are by means of the prism; while by Koenig's apparatus the eye is constrained to do toe work of the ear, sounds iqaudihleby the ear are,, so to speak, heard by the eye, and the range of human knowledge ana capacity lor Investigating oattfpe are thereby vastly extended. In a scientific point of view, Dr. Draper goes on to say, such improvements iotho capabilities of the organs for receiving exthmyi impressions, such extensions of the distances to which the results of Intellectual acts and the dictates of the willjSuety be conveyed, constitute a true development, an evolution' none ths less real plough if may be of an artificial kind. “If we reflect carefully on these things,” S6~tadd§-, 11 bearing In mina what is now known pf .the ‘course qf development iu the aaimaft series, we shall not fail to remark what a singular interest gathers rouhd ' these artificial developmeats—artificial they ; can scarcely be oalled, since th6y themselves' have' arisen interiorly.' 11 They afe'the results of intellectual acts. Man has been developing himself.’He) so far as the earth is concerned, is* becoming - ohmipresent. The electrical itefves of HotJfety are Spread to a plexus all over Europe and" America; their commissiiral strands run under the Atlantic and Pacific.*’' 1 ; 1 When shall this line of development have an end? ImhiSp-eifchjo&Bejlfe-per-ception, his mastwy-fir time ana spade, his ability to foresee and oontrolthe course ding, tha min iEf gods of yesterday. Who shall, say what the man of to-morrow 1 Inky hot bet. degeneracy Those who spend their , lives among, the dreams oPtheanOlentif, knhtving -hothlng of the powers and achievements of modem man, «f*y pvdolilmr ing their Own iriferibrity: but they have no call to' speak for the real' men of the real world aboui 'them) the nfan Who are doing the'world’b work,'at the same time steadily ItftmgA humanity'to higher and yet higher planes of capacity and power. In spite df ,J thdse 4 'Whb'persistlh facing backwards; 3 denying that scientific progress is any measure of human 'evolution, the progressive development of human force and faculty is a reality. Where the ancient athlijtooOanid Striae* blow- of a hundred fhq jnqdern mechanic can deal one of as many tuns; the steam hammer, the rifled .crnin am the rock-rand-ing as arUMimter as tie muscle on*m» snomder: wealing them man has added to his personal power as truly as if he had incrcased by so much the forces flight arm. The tele^ scope, the .flafopsqppaaud the Bpoctroscope are of his eye. The resoqator, the m,ai>9,metric C4’il,w»d the electric sounder am Additional ear*. .The to be and to act in a thousand places afonce rt Indeed all that science and art have done to make man master of the conditions and farces of Nature ffS3fijjirtLJaS.u£2y extensions of his organic endowments. Yet, muofi as has been accomplished in this dircottab, touch tas the fcivliized man excels the unhgn in scope and reach of faculty andifewee, the amentific development of hnmab capabilities has but just begun. As Dr. Draper happiiy espresbee it, we havoita«rtfl(*as bfcdi done merely an earnest .of what the future has in store. Properly disciplined and aided by mechanical and other meqaa oWnpawing their range and acutenbsi), mSe senses may prove as efficient in die exploration shamKalß^ as either sight or hearing. Already we quisito lacjyyiq,sensibility of some blind and even held out by sa pi d odorry ujj» produced bv,, drugs as -dmastiespectaltyj that condition Of* ’••dfchtWfi *Sebgft,mty known as hyperesthesia. And it is quite

pQWibfa that, as . the microsospe, acting externally, increases the natural aooUmess qf vision, no the range and sentences of the senses exalted by contact may be eorrottpondiiigly increased by substances acting interiorly through the nervous system. ,Jt is true that such exaltations of sense Exception are apt to be attended with ental disturbances more or less disqualifying the subject for logical thinking; bat we cannot pronounce it impossible for chemistry to discover or prodnoe compounds capable of bringing about the one state unattended by the other; in other words, capable of heightening in any dasired degred * the acuteness Of any sense without deranging at the same time the proper balance of the purely mental faculties. Besides, a telescope or a microscope in the hands of an untrained savage is quite as puzzling in its notion, as con fusing; in ito results, as the direct'testimony 6f our senses is under hyperpsthesia. And it seems not less reasonable to suppose that the mind may learn to adjust itself to (the new conditions of perception as readuy in the one case a# in the other. In eithM’ event—the discovery of other means of exalted sense, or the fcdhcation of the tnind to act normally under such neW conditions—an enormous extension of human faculty must result; and the coming man ’ may find therein tha means of surpassing u# te sitoftlly as we do (he most bhitfsh Of barbarians iq our power of penetrating the secrets of nature, and turning them to our advantage.— American.