The subject matter of this paper is an account of my experiments, under the auspices of the National Research Council, in which a finger tip is made to do the work of an ear. It is a provoking question how far the primitive organs of touch, the mother of all our senses, can go vicariously toward providing what corresponds to hearing. The problem with which I am concerned falls within the scope of general psychology; particularly within the sections on the sensitivity of the skin, on identification and on the development of fixed concepts and meanings. It runs along to the problem of the substitution of one function for another, namely, of touch for hearing. Can one "hear" through the skin? If so, can one interpret what one "hears?" I am asking these questions in relation to speech.
To make an iron-clad test, I have had to select those