Note 105 — ON SENSATIONS OF ORIENTATION.[93]

Perhaps the discussion concerning the peculiarity of cats always falling on their feet, which occupied the Parisian Academy, and, incidentally, Parisian society a few years ago, will be remembered here. I believe that the questions which arose are disposed of by the considerations advanced in my Bewegungsempfindungen (1875). I also partly gave, as early as 1866, the apparatus conceived by the Parisian scientists to illustrate the phenomena in question. One difficulty was left untouched in the Parisian debate. The otolith apparatus of the cat can render it no service in free descent. The cat, however, while at rest, doubtless knows its position in space and is instinctively conscious of the amount of movement which will put it on its feet.