Chap. 166. Of Touch.
TOuch is the general sense of the whole body, which the other senses are not; for though every part of the body is of a several touch, yet it is all touch; When sight onely be∣longs to the eyes; sound onely to the ears; scent onely to the nostrils; and taste onely to the tongue; besides the loss of any of these senses, nay all of them, may be wanting, as if they were not belonging to life, as indeed they are not, but onely as con∣veniencies to the life, but not of necessity; whereas touch is as it were the life of the figure, for when this sense is generally wanting in the animal figure, it is as we say dead; that is, the natural motion belonging thereto, is generally altered, or quite changed, as we say.
This sense is received through the pores of the flesh, and the nerves are the instrumental strings whereon motion playes, either a harmony of pleasure, or a discord of pain, for as their strings are struck, so is pain or pleasure felt, but I have treated sufficiently of this sense in my chapter of numb'd palsies.