EDUCATION OF THE SENSES.
Improving the senses. Examples of improvement. SEC. 1. Hearing--how
injured--how improved.--SEC. 2. Seeing--how injured.--SEC. 3. Tasting
and smelling--how benumbed--how preserved.--SEC. 4. Feeling. The blind.
Hints to parents. Education of both hands.
Man is much less useful and happy in this world than he would be, if
more pains were taken by parents and teachers, as well as by himself, to
cultivate his senses--hearing, seeing, feeling; tasting, and
smelling--and to preserve their rectitude.
The extent to which the senses can be improved or exalted, can best be
understood by observing how perfect they become when we are compelled to
cultivate them. Thus the blind, who are obliged to cultivate hearing,
feeling, and smelling, often astonish us by the keenness of these
senses. They will distinguish sounds--especially voices--which others
cannot; and with so much accuracy, as to remember for several years the
voice of a person in a large company, which they hear but once. They
will also distinguish small pieces of money, different fabrics and
qualities of cloth, &c.; and, in walking, often ascertain, by the
feeling of the air, or by other sensations, when they approach a
building, or any other considerable body. So the North American Indian,
whose habits of life seem to require it, can hear the footsteps of an
approaching enemy at distances which astonish us. So also the deaf and
dumb are very keen-sighted, and generally make very accurate
observations. Any reader who is sceptical in regard to the cultivation
of the senses, would do well to consult the account of Julia Brace, the
deaf and dumb and blind girl, as published in some of the early volumes
of the "Annals of Education."
But it is hardly necessary to resort to the blind, or to savages, or to
the deaf and dumb, in order to prove man's susceptibility in this
respect. We may be reminded of the same fact by observing with what
accuracy the merchant tailor can distinguish, by feeling, the quality of
his goods; how quick a painter, an engraver, or a printer, will discover
errors in painting or printing, which wholly escape ordinary readers or
observers; and how quick the ear of a good musician will discover the
existence and origin of a discordant sound in his choir.
Now I do not undertake to say or prove, that mankind would be better or
happier for having their senses all cultivated in the highest possible
degree; though I am not sure that this would not be the case. But so
long as a large proportion of our ideas enter our minds through the
medium of the five senses, it is desirable that something should be done
to perfect them, instead of overlooking the whole subject. What mothers
ought to do in this matter, deserves, therefore, a brief consideration.
SEC. 1. _Hearing._
The suggestion, in another place, to keep away caps from the child's
head, if duly attended to, is one means of perfecting, or at least of
preserving, the sense of hearing. For caps, by the heat they produce to
a part which cannot safely endure an increase of temperature, greatly
expose children to catarrhal affections; and many a catarrh has laid the
foundation for dulness of hearing, if not of actual deafness.
The ears should be kept clean. If washed sufficiently often, and
syringed once a week with warm milk and water, or with very weak
soap-suds, gently warmed, the cerumen or ear wax will hardly be found
accumulated in such masses as to produce deafness. And yet such
accumulations, with such consequences, are by no means uncommon. It is
not long since a young man with whom I am acquainted, applied to an
eminent surgeon of Boston, on account of deafness in one ear, which had
become quite troublesome, and as it was feared, incurable. Syringing
with a large and strong syringe disengaged a large mass of cerumen, and
hearing was immediately restored.
Children should be taught to distinguish sounds with closed eyes, or
blindfolded. We may strike on various objects, and ask them to tell what
we struck, &c. This will lead them to _observe_ sounds; and will perfect
their hearing in a remarkable degree.
There are also advantages to be derived from accustoming a child to a
great variety of sounds; both as regards their strength and character.
But this must only be occasional; for if the ear be constantly
accustomed to sounds of any kind, and more especially those which are
harsh or loud, the organ of hearing is liable to sustain injury. Music,
as it is now beginning to be taught to children in our schools, will do
much, I think, to improve the faculty of hearing.
SEC. 2. _Seeing._
The sight, says Addison, is the most perfect of all our senses; and this
is unquestionably true. But it is more or less perfect, in different
individuals, according to the early education they have received.
Sometimes, it is true, we are born near-or dim-sighted; but such cases
are comparatively rare.
The question is sometimes asked why there are so many persons,
now-a-days, who lose their sight, become near-sighted, &c. very young.
It may be difficult to answer this question fully; yet I cannot help
thinking that the following are some of the causes.
1. The great heat of our apartments, which, together with late hours and
much lamp light, affects the eyes unpleasantly, is believed to be among
the more prominent causes of early decay of sight. Formerly, our
apartments were neither so steadily nor so generally heated; and we rose
earlier, and consequently went to bed earlier.
2. The fine print of a large proportion of our books, especially our
school books, has done immense injury. I do not believe that reading
fine print, occasionally, for a few moments at a time, or reading by a
very strong or very weak light in the same way, does harm. On the
contrary, I think it may strengthen and improve the sight. It is the
long continuance of these things that does the mischief; and the
mischief thus done is immense. I rejoice that printers and publishers
are beginning of late to use much larger type than they have done for
some years past.
3. The early use of spectacles does mischief--I mean before they are
needed. After they begin to be needed, there is no advantage in delaying
to use them, as some do, for fear they shall wear them too soon. This is
about as wise as the practice of going cold to harden ourselves.
4. Reading when we are fatigued, or ill, or have a very full stomach, is
another way to injure the sight.
5. Rubbing the eyes with the fingers, or with anything else, does
inevitable mischief. The Germans have a proverb which says--"Never touch
your eye, except with your elbow." There is much of good sense in it.
In short, there are a thousand ways in which that delicate organ, the
human eye, may sustain injury; and nearly as many in which it may be
strengthened, cultivated, and improved. But my limits merely permit me
to add, that the frequent but gentle application of water to the eye,
several times a day, at such a temperature as is most agreeable--but
cold, when it can be borne--is one of the best preservatives of sight
which the world affords.
Connected alike with physical and intellectual education, is the
practice of measuring by the eye heights, distances, superfices,
weights, and solids. It is not difficult to train the eye to an accuracy
in this matter which would astonish the uninstructed.
SEC. 3. _Tasting and Smelling._
I do not know that it is worth our while to take pains, by any direct
methods, to cultivate the organs of taste or smell; but I think it
proper, at the least, to preserve their original rectitude.
Many, I know, undertake to say, that were it not for our errors in
regard to food and drink, and were it not, in particular, for the
multitude of strange mixtures which tend to benumb those two senses, we
might determine the qualities of food and drink--whether they are
favorable or adverse--by means of taste and smell, like the animals. But
I do not believe this. The Creator has substituted reason, in us, for
instinct in the brute animals. It is not necessary that we should
possess the latter, when the former is so manifestly superior to it; and
accordingly I do not believe that it is given us, or any of that
acuteness of sensation which exists in the dog, the tiger, the vulture,
&c.--and which so closely resembles it.
There can be no doubt--no reasonable doubt, certainly--that the wretched
customs of modern cookery benumb the senses of taste and smell, more or
less, and that high-seasoned food, condiments, and stimulating drinks do
the same; and should for this reason, were it for no other, be
studiously avoided.
Closely connected with the organ of taste are the TEETH. A volume might
profitably be written on these--as on the eye. But I will only say that
they should be kept perfectly clean, either by rinsing or brushing, or
both, especially after eating; that they should be permitted to chew all
our food, instead of merely standing by as silent spectators to the
passage of that which is mashed, soaked, chopped, &c.; that they should
not be picked or cleaned with pins, or other equally hard instruments;
that they should not be used to crack nuts or other hard, indigestible
substances; and that the stomach, with which they are apt to sympathize
very strongly, should also be kept in a good and healthy condition.
SEC. 4. _Feeling._
Corpulence and slovenliness are generally among the more prolific
sources of a want of acuteness in feeling. The first is a disease, and
may be avoided by a proper diet, and by active mental and bodily
employment. Slovenliness we may of course avoid, whenever there is a
wish to do so, and an abundance of water.
But the sense of feeling, or especially that accumulation of it which we
call TOUCH, and which seems to be specially located in the balls of the
fingers and on the palm of the hand, is susceptible of a degree of
improvement far beyond what would be the natural result of cleanliness,
and freedom from plethora or corpulence.
I have already alluded, in my general remarks at the head of this
chapter, to the acuteness of this sense in the blind, as well as in the
dealer in cloths. I might add many more illustrations, but a single one,
in relation to the blind, which was accidentally omitted in that place,
will be sufficient.
The blind at the Institution in this city, as well as in other similar
institutions, are now taught to read and write with considerable
facility. But how? Most of my readers may have heard how they read, but
I will describe the process as well as I can. A description of their
method of writing is more difficult.
The letters are formed by pressing the paper, while quite moist, upon
rather large type, which raises a ridge in the line of every letter, and
which remains prominent after the paper is dry. In order to read, the
pupil has to feel out these ridges. A circular ridge on the paper he is
told is O; a perpendicular one, I; a crooked one, S; &c. They read music
and arithmetic printed in a similar manner. A few months of practice, in
this way, will enable an ingenious youth to read with considerable ease
and despatch.
Now if nothing is wanting but a little training to render the touch so
accurate, would it not be useful to train every child to judge
frequently of the properties of bodies by this sense? And cannot every
one recall to his mind a thousand situations in which a greater accuracy
of this sense would have saved him much inconvenience, as well as
afforded him no little pleasure?
I shall conclude this section with a few remarks on the HAND. The custom
of neglecting, or almost neglecting the left hand, though nearly
universal, in this country at least, appears to me to be
wrong--decidedly so. For although more blood may be sent to the right
arm than to the left, as physiologists say, yet the difference is not as
great at birth as it is afterward; so that education either weakens the
one or strengthens the other.
Besides this, we occasionally find a person who is left-handed, as it is
called; that is, his left hand and arm are as much larger and stronger
than the right, as the right is usually stronger than the left. How is
this? Do we find a corresponding change in the internal structure? But
suppose it could be ascertained that such a change did exist, which I
believe has never been done, the question would still arise whether the
difference was the same at birth, or whether the more frequent use of
the left hand has not, in part, produced it.
I do not mean, here, to intimate that a more frequent use of the left
hand than the right would make new blood-vessels grow where there were
none before. But it would certainly do one thing; it would make the same
vessels carry more blood than they did before, which is, in effect,
nearly the same thing:--for the more blood in the limb, as a general
rule, the more strength--provided the limb is in due health and
exercise.
The inference which I wish the reader to make from all this is, that
since the left hand and arm, by due cultivation, and without essential
difference or change of structure to begin with, can occasionally be
made stronger than the right, it is fair to conclude that it may, if
found desirable, be always rendered more nearly equal to it than, in
adult years, we usually find it.
The question is now fairly before us--Is such a result desirable? I
maintain that it is; and shall endeavor to show my reasons.
How often is one hand injured by an accident, or rendered nearly useless
by disease? But if it should be the right, how helpless it makes us! The
man who is accustomed to shave himself, must now resort to a barber. If
he is a barber himself, or almost any other mechanic, his business must
be discontinued. Or if he is a clerk, he cannot use his left hand, and
must consequently lose his time. Or if amputation chances to be
performed on a favorite arm, how entirely useless to society we are,
till we have learned to use the other! It not only takes up a great deal
of valuable time to acquire a facility of using it, but if we are
already arrived at maturity, we can never use it so well as the other,
during our whole lives; because it is too late in life to increase its
size and strength much by constant exercise. Whereas in youth, it might
have been done easily.
Is it not then important--for these and many more reasons--to teach a
child to use with nearly equal readiness, both of his hands? But if so,
who can do it better than the mother? And when can it be better done
than in the earliest infancy? When is the time which would be devoted to
it worth less than at this period?