Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-07-15
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN.

I 1HE PhlhUSUPhI UE PAIN.
Sir Humphrey Davy, when a boy,
with the defiant constancy of youth
which had as vet suffered nothing, held
the opinion that pain was no evil. He
was refuted by crab which bit his toe
when he was bathing, and made him
rear loud enoug to be heard half mile
off. If he had maintained, instead, that
pain was a good, his doctrine would have
been unimpeachable. Unless the whole
constitution Of the world were altered,
our existence depends upon our sensibi-
lity to suffering. An anecdote, which is
quoted by DR.. Carpenter, in IS " Prin-
ciples of Human Physiology" from the
" Journal of Naturalist" shows the
fatal effects Of temporary suspension
of this law of our nature.
A drover went TO sleep on a winters
evening upon the platform Of a lime
kiln, with one leg resting upon the stones
which had been piled u to burn through
the night. That which was gentle
warmth when he lay down became
a conauming fire before he rose up. His
foot was burned off above the ancle, and
when reused in the morning by the man
who superintended the lime-kiln, he put
his stump, unconscious of his misfortune,
to the ground, the extremity crumbled
into fragments. Whether he had been
lulled into torpor by the carbonic acid
driven off from the limestone, or what
ever else may have been the cause OF
his insensibility, he felt no pain, and,
through his very exemption from this
10. % l.sa.a,,ity. expired in a fortnight
afterwards in Bristol Hospital.
Without the warning voice of pain
life would be a series Of similar disasters
The crab, to the lasting detriment o.
chemistry, might have eaten Off the fu.
{ ture Sir Humphreys foot while he wa.
swimming, without his entertaining the
slightest suspicion Of the ravages whicl
. were going on. Had he survived the
injuries from the crab, he would yet have
been cut off in the morning Of his ia
c nous career, if, when experimenting
Is upon the gases, the terrible oppression
l. at his chest had not warned him to ceas'
Is inhaling the carburetted hydrogen, nor
> after long struggle for life, would h,
'o have recovered to say to his alarmed as
ie sistant. " do not think 1 shall die
'' Without physical pain. infancy woul'
j. be manned or perish, before eXperienc.
le could inform it Of its dangers. Lor'
h' Kaimes advised parents to cut the fin
ss gers of their children cunningly" wit
s. knife, that the little innocerts Nigh
OF associate suffering with the glitterin
le blade before they could DO themselves
- worse injury but if no smart accompa
1T MED the wound, they would cut up thei
y own fingers with the same glee that the
p cut stick. and burn them in a candl
80 with the same delight that they burn
y" piece of paper in the fire. Withou
'e pain, we could not proportion our action
y to the strength of our frame, or our e1
ertions to its power Of endurance.
er In the impetuosity Of youth We shouI
Isl strike blows that would crash our hand
ny and break our arms; we should tax
IS leaps that would dislocate our limbs an
he no longer taught by fatigue that the mu
cd cles needed repose, we should continu
er our sports and our walking tours till "
u had worn out the living tissue with tL
hs same unconsciousness that we now wes
= out our coats and shoes. The very nj
OF triment which is the support Of Ii
n- would frequently prove our death. n
'er rabeau said, Of man who was as i'd
'h' as be was corpulent, that bis only a,
m- was to show how far the skin wou
m stretch without bursting. Without pai
ne this limit would be constantly exceede
p'' and epieures, experiencing no uneai
y sensations, would continue their festis
eh ties until they met with the fate Of ii
frog in the fable, who was ambitious
me emulating the size Of the OK.
he Sir Charles Bell mentions the case
re- a patient who had lost the sense Of he
tre ir his right hand, and who, unconseio
D that the cover Of a pan which had fall
,rn into the IRE was burning boz, took il 0
Of and deliberately returned il 70 is prop
len place, to tie destruction u the SKIN