Feeling

(feeling.) [From Eng. feel.] (Physiol. and Philos.) One of the 5 physical senses, by which we obtain the ideas of solid, hard, soft, rough, hot, cold, wet, dry, and other tangible qualities. This sense is the coarsest, but at the same time it is the surest of the 5; it is, besides, the most universal. We see and hear with small portions of our body, but we feel with all. Nature has bestowed that general sensation wherever there are nerves, and they are everywhere where there is life. All the nervous solids, while animated by their fluids, have their general sensation; but the pa pillæ in the skin, those of the fingers in particular, have it in a more exquisite degree. [s. 358]