Salt Lake Telegram | 1921-04-24 | Page 42 | The Sense of Sight Discovered in the Skin

she he SENSE of SIGHT Discovered in the SKIN OF LOUIS fellow of the University of France announces that he has I discovered the existence in the human epi- epi is of microscopic organs of vision and has hu loped in certain blind subjects a latent sup- sup sense of sight termed by the pro- pro or r vision by which they were end en- en n- n d to distinguish the form and color of objects c results of Prof experiments Described in a small brochure La ULa Vision tra t which perhaps largely owing astonishing character of the claims made fed d to be taken with the seriousness ss which to tol layman it appeared to deserve e. Critics of l French scientists scientist's book who are expert in medical pr profession declared that he ho had haded Jei ed false hopes which were doomed to Since ince ce then another French Investigator agh at first he entirely failed to obtain any ny n results as those described by z J achieved achieved similar though not equal success of is now receiving inquiries on i subject of his investigations from America many lany other parts of the world and by way these thesa he has authorized publication he e following Kin In n order to understand how the discovery of sense was possible and to see it in roper proper relation to biological science as a ai al l i we must first grasp what is meant by the thes ti s latent function and regime of conscious- conscious r I. I Ye e e all 1111 know that man map at the present day ees ies- ies very little use of his sense of smell com- com primitive man or the dog he is in respect a defective This is c explained not t my my y spontaneous degeneration of the sense of Ul iii but by the fact that civilized man has been end and d less compelled to use his sense of smell t to give attention to its indications in his e. e i can an easily imagine man after a hundred buries uries entirely losing the habit of using the thee thel l e of small and being compelled in order to g an odor to mako a considerable effort fe of attention and even being unable to do so without without without with with- out a special re The sense of smell would have fallen to the level of a latent function in his hia case which does not mean at all an that the physiological organs of smell would have become atrophied On this point the evolutionist biology of the century has made more than one mistake A comparison will now help us to see what is meant by the regime of consciousness Imagine a cotton mill containing 12 different looms that looms that thatis is to say each turning out a special kind of thread Owing to lack tacit of ot power only seven looms can be running at a tim time say Nos 1 1 2 3 5 7 9 and 11 pr orl l 2 24 4 C S 10 and 12 and so on for a a. a large number of different combinations Each Eath of these combinations might be called a regime of the mill regime A regime B regime C and so forth It might be also that one of these combinations would meet the ordinary needs of the tho firm the firm the first for S everyday example ex ex- ample and ample and if so then regime A would be bespoken spoken of as the ordinary regime of the mill mm Our psychological consciousness may be compared to such a mill mil Only a certain number of the mental functions possessed by us are working at atthe atthe atthe the same time The others remain latent And each regime of consciousness is almost always in one of these regimes which may therefore be called the tho ordinary regime but which I call can regime A to show that ic is is only the first in a series Thus even if we have in our bodies all the organs and Imd nd instruments necessary for the functioning functioning functioning of a sense for example that is not enough to enable us to make use uso of it nor even to make mako makous us aware that we possess it Indeed anatomy is led to seek for and to identify such cuch organs only if it knows that sense already to exist If man had lost the sense of centuries ago anatomists would anatomists would be writing writing writ writ- ing beautiful descriptions of the mucous membrane membrane membrane mem mem- brane of the nose without in the least suspecting that it might serve to furnish sensations of smell The of vision independently independently inde inde- sense or sense gense o of or the retina is a case absolutely in point Man at the present moment does docs not suspect suspect suspect sus sus- that he possesses possess's it and in consequence has never been led to look for its organs and to study its