"All animals respond to being touched, stroked, poked in some way, and, in any case, life itself could not have evolved at all without touch-- that is, without chemicals touching one another and forming liasons. In the absence of touching and being touched, people of all ages can sicken and grow touch-starved. In fetuses, touch is the first sense to develop, and in newborns it's automatic before the eyes open or the baby begins to make sense of the world. Soon after we're born, though we can't see or speak, we instinctively begin touching. Touch cells in the lips make nursing possible, clutch mechanisms in the hands begin to reach out for warmth. Among other things, touch teaches us the difference between I and other, that there can be someone outside of ourselves, the mother. Mothers and infants do an enormous amount of touching. The first emotional comfort touching and being touched by our mother, remains the ultimate memory of selfless love, which stays with us life long."
-Diane Ackerman from "A Natural History of the Senses
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