Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-12-31
The Philosophy of Pain.


SIR HUMPHREY DAVY, when boy,
wish the defiant constancy of youth
which had as yet suffered nothing, held
fkG opinion that pain was no evil. lie
wag rcfuted by a crab who bit his toe
whcn lie was bathing, and made him roar
loud enough to be heard half mile off.
Ii he had maintained, instead, that pain
waS q good his doctrine would have
bfcu usimpe8cbable Unless the whole
constitution of the world were altered,
0ur very existence depends upon our
scHsi1lluy to suffering. AD anecdote,
which il quoted by DR.. Carpenter in his
$ Principles of Human Physiology" from
5hc '' journal OF a Naturalist" shows
1h0 fatal effects of temporary suspen-
SION OF this law of our nature.
a drovcr 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 up to burn through
lhc night That which was gentle
warmth when he lay down, became con-
zUming fire before he rose up. His foot
was burnt off above the ankle, and when,
rolsed ia the morning 10y the man who
superintendent the lime-kiln, he put his
stamp, unconscious of his misfortune, to
6hG ground, the extremity crxmbled into
fragments. Whether he had been Iulled
into torpor by the carbonic acid driven
of from the limestone, or whatever else
mAy have been the cause of his insensi-
biGty, he felt no pain, and through his
very exemption from this lot of human
iiy expired fortnight afterward in Bris-
tog hospital.
Without the warning voice of pain life
SouId be series of similar disasters
The crab, to the lasting detriment of
caenislry, might have eaten off the flu
taro Sir Humphreys foot while he was
swimming, without his entertaining the
slightest suspicion of the ravages which
were going on. Had he survived the in
5uries from the crab he would yet have
been cut off in the morning of his IA
aaOUs career If, when experimenting
uEp0n the gases, the terrible oppression
al his chest had not warned him to cease
Tnhaling the carburetted hydrogen, nos,
after long struggle for life, would he
hays recovered to say to his alarmed as
y5ssaDt, q do not think I shall die"
Without physical pain infancy would
be manned or perish before experience
could inform it of its danger. Lord
Kaimcs advised parents to cut the fin,
gera of their children cunningly" with
a knife, that the little innocents might
associate suffering with the glitteCine
blade before they could do themselves a
worse injury; but if no smart accorlpa'
picd the wound they would cut up theil
cwn fingers with the same glee that hey
GUS up stick, ana burn them in aan
6se with the same delight that they urr
a piece of paper in the fire. Wit out
paED we could not proportion our &C, on!
bo the strength of our frames, or ouy ex
evtious TO its powers Of endurance.
In the impetuosity of youth we should
strike blows that would crush our hands
aud break our arms; we should tax,
leaps that would dislocate our limbs
and, no longer taught by fatigue that thu
muscles needed repOse, we should con
tinuc our sports and our walking tour
ill We had worn out the living tisSu
with the same Inconsistencies that W