— Joseph Henry (1797 – 1878), letter to his brother-in-law.
Electricity may act
simultaneously on all the organs of sense — all are sensible to its action; but
the nerve of each is affected in a different way, becomes the seat of a different
sensation; in one, the sensation of light is produced; in another, that of sound;
in a third, taste; while in a fourth, pain and the sensation of shock are felt.
— Johannes Peter Müller (1801 – 1858).
Concepts without factual
content are empty; sense data without concepts are blind …
— Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804), Critique of
Pure Reason.
Most of the known
pheromones are small, simple molecules, active in exceedingly small concentrations.
Eight or ten carbon atoms in a chain are all that are needed to generate precise,
unequivocal directions about all kinds of matters — when and where to cluster in
crowds, when to disperse, how to behave to the opposite sex, how to ascertain what
is the opposite sex, how to organize members
of a society in the proper ranking orders of dominance, how to mark out exact boundaries
of real estate, and how to establish, beyond argument, one’s self. Trails can be
laid and followed, antagonists frightened and confused, friends attracted and enchanted.
— Lewis Thomas (1913 – 1993), The Lives of
a Cell, Penguin Books, 1978, 16-17
Moreover, this animal
[a dog] can smell the identity of identical twins, and will follow the tracks of
one or the other as though they had been made by the same man.
— Lewis Thomas (1913 – 1993), The Lives of
a Cell, Penguin Books, 1978, 37
De gustibus non est disputandum. [There is no point in arguing about taste.]
— Latin proverb
Take care of the sense,
and the sounds will take care of themselves.
— Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898) Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland.
If it is for mind
that we are searching the brain, then we are supposing the brain to be much more
than a telephone-exchange. We are supposing it a telephone-exchange along with the
subscribers as well.
— Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952), Man
on his Nature.
Of all animals, man
has the largest brain in proportion to his size.
— Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE), The Parts of
Animals.
What’s in a name?
that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
— William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Romeo
and Juliet, II, ii, 43
Our sensation of time
is somehow more elementary than our sensation, of say, spatial orientation or matter.
It is an internal, rather than a bodily experience. Specifically, we feel the passage of time — a sensation which is so
pronounced that it constitutes the most elementary aspect of our experience. It
is a kinetic backdrop against which all our thoughts and activity are perceived.
— Paul Davies, God and the New Physics,
Penguin Books, 1990, 125.
By the pricking of
my thumbs,
Something evil this way comes
— William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Macbeth,
IV, i, 44.
When senses contact
sense objects, a person experiences cold or heat, pleasure or pain. These experiences
are fleeting …
— Bhagavad Gita, 2:14, in the translation
of Eknath Easwaran, Arkana Books, 1985.
Gentlemen, this is
no humbug.
— John Collins Warren, October 1846, after performing the first operation under
anaesthetic.
They took not the
least notice of the shrill notes from a metal whistle … nor did they of the deepest
and loudest tones of a bassoon… When the pots containing two worms which had remained
indifferent to the sound of the piano were placed on this instrument, and the note
C in the bass clef was struck, both instantly retreated into their burrows.
— Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882), The formation
of vegetable mould through the action of worms (1881).
‘It is programmed
to strike only if the target is emitting heat, is made of steel, and is moving,’
said Moir. ‘Target must emit enough heat to be a tank, not a car, a truck or a train.
It won’t hit a bonfire, a heated house or a parked vehicle because they ain’t moving.
It won’t hit angle reflectors for the same reason, or brick, timber or rubber because
they are not steel… .
— Frederick Forsyth, The Negotiator, Bantam
Books, 1989, 52.
You will find an index to this blog at the foot of this link. Please be patient: I am pedalling as fast as I can.
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