Mr. W. H. Levy, who is blind, says in his book, “Blindness and
the Blind,” that he can tell when he is opposite an object, and
can perceive whether it is tall or short, slender or bulky.
He can also determine whether it be a solitary object or a
continuous fence; whether a close fence or an open one, and
sometimes whether a wooden fence, a stone wall, or a hedge.
None of the five senses has anything to do with this perceptive
power, but the impressions are made on the skin of his face,
and by it transmitted to the brain. He therefore names this
unrecognized sense facial perception. The presence of a fog
interferes with facial perception, and makes the impressions
faint and untrustworthy; but darkness is no impediment. A noise
which distracts the attention interferes with the impressions.
In passing along the street he can distinguish stores from
private houses, and doors from windows, if the windows consist
of a number of panes, and not of a single sheet of glass. A
remarkable fact, bearing on the subject of an unrecognized sense
is mentioned by Mr. Levy. A naturalist extracted the eyes of
several bats and covered the empty sockets with leather. In
this condition the bats flew about the room, avoiding the sides
and flying out of the door without touching the door-case. In
flying through a sewer which made a right angle, they turned
at the proper point. They flew through threads suspended
from the ceiling without touching them, tho they were only
far enough apart to admit the passage of the bats’ extended
wings.--_Youth’s Companion._
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