ABSTRACT
In continuation of the results arrived at in the preceding chapter we have now to examine the nature of the different coexistences in the several fields of sensation together with their relation to the gates of stimulation.
Tactile sensations.—We experience the components of a side-by-sideness to be mutually related in a manner corresponding with the gates of stimulation. Moreover, each component in addition to its specific quality of sensation is also always accompanied by the special awareness that a particular part of the body is undergoing stimulation.
Visual sensations.—Here again the components of a side-by-sideness are in a relation to one another which corresponds to the position of the gates of stimulation. But as a rule the particular sensational element showing the affected portion of the body is wanting. Nevertheless, the relation between the gates of stimulation and side-by-sideness in sight is sharply defined; and with the addition to the latter of co-existent tactile sensations a common image of space comes into being.
Sensations of sound.—Again there is correspondence between the components of a side-by-sideness and the position of the gates of stimulation, but, as with sight, there is lacking the special element of sensation which tells of a particular part of the body being stimulated. The relation between side-by-sideness, so far as it goes, and the different gates of stimulation reduces itself to a linear arrangement of sensation. There is no awareness 100either of the shape of this line, whether straight or spiral, or of its direction. And there are no connecting links between side-by-sideness of sound-sensations, or pitch, and side-by-sideness of tactile and visual sensations.
Olfactory sensations.—One cannot speak of side-by-sideness of sensations in regard to smell. It is true that we distinguish certain peculiarities which remind us of one scent or of another, but there is no simultaneous, clear side-by-sideness of different components. When we analyse complicated mixtures of smells we do so successively not simultaneously, for, as Valentin 1 and Aronsohn 2 remark, first one scent and then the other gains the upper hand.
