Deception Of The Senses

The senses are snbject to illuslons In proportion to the remoteness of tbe Information that tbey give from the Immediate necessities of the organism Touch, the most immediate and least In f prential of the senses. is least subject to illusions; while sight la so very mnch so that the blind often say they have an advantage over the seeing in being free from visual illusions The illusions of bodily motion are mucb nearer to those of touch than to those of sight, and yet they can under certain conditlons be induced throngh visual Impressions. Of this the writer has recently had two interesting examples. He was standing upon the flooi of a railroad depot, the boards of which were laid with a cousid erable open space between them; and thO shadow of an electric light was moving up and down, by tlie swinging of the light in the wind lxokiiig at the floor, it seemed as tbough the shadow were statiouary, and the Hoor boards moving From this it followed that the person on It was moving too, and the writer dia tinctly feit the swinging sensation; in fact. his attention was called to the phenomeuon by this feeling of motion. The other observation was as follows: While riding iu the cara and looking out of the window, the trees and all are seen to move in the oppositc direction. IÍ, now, one looks in a mirror so situated that it reflecta the passing landscape, which, however. must not be visible except in the mirror, one bas the Ilusión of moving in the opposite to the real direction of motion, owiug to the reversal of the Image in the glass In both these cases an immediate bodily sensation is Induced by a more or les unconscious tnference thronfirh visual sensations.