This page needs to be proofread.
A Human Experiment in Nerve Division
365

But, as soon as the second point was placed upon the skin a fraction of a second later than the first, H. at once recognized that he was being touched in two places.

When the compasses were 3 cm. apart, he called every simultaneous contact "one," whilst four out of five stimulations with two points successively were recognized and the fifth was said to be doubtful:—

Even at a distance of 1·5 cm. H. was surprisingly often right in his answers provided stimulation was successive:—

On the sound side the formula was as follows:—

And in every case where a right answer was given, H. recognized whether the two points were applied simultaneously or successively.

Thus it is evident that the presence of deep sensibility alone does not make it possible to discriminate two points applied simultaneously.


(6) Appreciation of Size and Shape.

All appreciation of size was lost over the affected area endowed with deep sensibility only. Even the flat and the edge of a knife could not be distinguished from one another. H. seemed to have no power of telling the relative size of a series of wax figures, although he at once recognized the relative pressure with which they were applied.

A small square of 1 cm. was placed on the skin with considerable pressure and compared with another figure 4 cm. in diameter applied with little pressure. H. made no statement with regard to the relative size of the objects, but said the first gave a sense of greater pressure. This was repeated many times on different occasions with the same result.

All power of telling the head from the point of a pin was entirely absent over the affected parts.