New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-03-22
The Philosophy of Pain.

Sir Humphrey Davy, when boy, with the defiant
constancy OF youth which had as yet suffered nothing,
holds the opinion that pain was no evil. He was re-
futed by a crab who bit his toe when he was bathing
and made him roar loud enough to be heard a mile
of. II he had maintained, instead, that pain was a
good, his doctrine would have been unimpeaohahe.
Unless the whole constitution of the world were
altered, our very existence depends upon our sensible
ity TO suffering An anecdote which is quoted by Dr.
Carpenter in his " Principles of Human Physiology
from the Journal of Naturalist shows the fatal
effects OF temporary suspension OF this law oil our
nature.
droyer went to sleep on winters evening, upon
the platform of lime. kiln. with one leg resting on
the stones which had been piled up to burn through
the night. That which was gentle warmth when he
lay down, became consuming hre before ne rose up.
| His foot was burnt off above the ANGLE, and when,
reused in the morning by the man who superintend-
ed the limekn, he put his stump, Unconscious OF his
misfortune to the ground, the extremity crumbed
into Fragments Whether he had been ulled into tor
DOR by the carbonic acid driven off from the lime.
Stone, or whatever else may have been the cause of
his insensbity, he felt no pain, and through his very
exemption from this lot Of humanity, expired fort
night afterwards in Bristol hospital.
Without the warning voice of pain, life would be a
series OF similar disasters. The crab, to the lasting
detriment Of chemistry, might have eaten off the fu-
ture Sir Humphreys foot while be was swimming
without his entertaining the slightest suspicion OF
the ravages which were going on. Had he survived
the injuries from the crab, he would yet have been
cnt off in the morning of his famous career it, when
experimenting upon the gases the terrible oppression
at his chest had not warned him to cease inhaling
the earburetted hydrogen, nor, after long struggle
for life would he have recovered to say to his alarmed
assistants, 81 do not think shall dien
Without physical pain, infancy would he manned
or perish, before experience could inform it of It's
dangers Lord kaimes advised parents to cut the
fingers Of their children "cunningly" with a knife
that the little nnoeents might associate suffering with
the gltterng blade before they could do themselves
worse injury; bnt if no smart accompanied the
wound, they would cut up their own fingers with the
same gee that they cut a stick, and burn them in
the candle with the same delight that they barn
piece Of paper in the fire. Without pain, we could
not proportion actions 10 the strength of onl
frame or our exertions to its powers of endurance
In the mpetuosity Of youth we should strike blows
that would crush our hands and break arms we
should take leaps that would dslocate our limbs and
no longer taught by fatigue that the muscles needed
repose we should continue our sports and Ouf walk
ing tours till we had worn out the living tissue with
the same Inconsistencies that we now wear out our
coats and our shoes. The very nutrment which is
the support of life would frequently prove our death
Mirabeau said of man who was as idle as he was
corpuent, that his only use to show how far the
skin would stretch without bursting Without pain,
this limit would be constantly exceeded, and epcures
experiencing no uneasy sensations, would continue
their festivities until they met with the fate of the
frog in the fable, who was ambitious of emuating
the size of the OK
Sir Charles Bell mentions the case of patient who
bad lost the sense of heat in his right hand and who
unconscious that the cover of pan which had fallen
into the fire was burning hot took it out and deber
atey returned it to its proper place to the destruction
of the skin of the palm AMI fingers. This OF itse
would be accident Of incessant occurrence if the
monitor were wanting which makes us drop such ma
terials more hastily than we pick them up. Pain il
the grand preserver of existence the sleepless sen
mel that watches over our safety, aud makes both
start away from the injury that is present. and guart
agai INST it carefully in the time to come.
[London Quarterly Review.