NERVE CENTRES
THEIR SENSITIVENESS The nerves of touch are distributed differently in varying parts of the body. For example, our fingers are much more sensitive to touch than are our toes. This can be proved by two simple experiments. Shut your eyes, hold out your hand, and ask a friend to touch one of your fingers. It is easy to know which one he touches, though you cannot see. If you remove a stocking, extend a foot, and ask a friend to touch one of your toes, keeping your eyes shut all the time, you will probably be unable to say which toe * was touched. The reason is that the toes have fewer nerves and are less sensitive than the fingers. The tongue is the most sensitive part of the body. The two points of a pair of compasses can be felt separately, even when they are only onetwentieth of an inch apart. To be detected by the tip of the finger they must be a twelfth of an inch apart, and on the tip of the nose a quarter • of an inch apart.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 23330, 23 October 1937, Page 18
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184NERVE CENTRES Otago Daily Times, Issue 23330, 23 October 1937, Page 18
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