But in the case of touch the obscurity remains.
There must be such a naturally attached 'medium' as flesh, for no
living body could be constructed of air or water; it must be something
solid. Consequently it must be composed of earth along with these,
which is just what flesh and its analogue in animals which have no
true flesh tend to be. Hence of necessity the medium through which are
transmitted the manifoldly contrasted tactual qualities must be a body
naturally attached to the organism. That they are manifold is clear
when we consider touching with the tongue; we apprehend at the
tongue all tangible qualities as well as flavour. Suppose all the rest
of our flesh was, like the tongue, sensitive to flavour, we should
have identified the sense of taste and the sense of touch; what
saves us from this identification is the fact that touch and taste are
not always found together in the same part of the body. The
following problem might be raised. Let us assume that every body has
depth, i.e. has three dimensions, and that if two bodies have a
third body between them they cannot be in contact with one another;
let us remember that what is liquid is a body and must be or contain
water, and that if two bodies touch one another under water, their
touching surfaces cannot be dry, but must have water between, viz. the
water which wets their bounding surfaces; from all this it follows
that in water two bodies cannot be in contact with one another.
Pages:
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85