Credit: Getty Images This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on the power of touch in the clinical medical environment. In Part 2, we will resume our interview with Stephen W. Russell, MD, co-president of the Society of Bedside Medicine and professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. According to Aristotle, the first and most important sensation that human beings share with the animal kingdom is touch. Without touch, he posited, animals cannot exist. 1 The philosopher took these theories a step further, linking sensory perception with the soul; the sensitive soul, in particular, renders animals capable of feeling pleasure and pain, and of the senses governed by this soul, touch or tactility was considered the âmost pervasive and intelligent.â