CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1899-03-02
A RECORDER OF PAIN.
Interesting Particulars Of an In
gsnious Invention.



Prof. Arthur Macdonald, specialist
in the United States bureau of educa-
ton. is carrying on series Of investiga-
tions for the purpose of finding out h 1w
sensitive the ordinary person is to pain
Under the direction of Prof. Mac
Donald, school-teachers all over the
country have been testing school chill
dren and adults, and the result, aver
aged up - date, contains some very
curious and unlooked-for information
concerning pain. Prof. Macdonald
first made tests on 1,412 persons, and
from them drew the following conclu-
sions:
Women are more sensitive to pain
than men.
American professional men are more
sensitive to pain than American busi-
ness Inen. and also more sensitive than
either English or German professional
men. The laboring classes are much
less sensitive to pain than the nom
lnboring classes.
The women of the poorer classes are
much less sensitive to pain than those
In more comfortable conditions.
Young men of the wealthy classes are
much more sensitive to pain than men
of the working classes
Young women of the wealthy classes
are much more sensitive to pain than
young men of the wealthy classes As
to pain, il is true, in general. that wom-
en- are more sensitive than men, but it
does not necessarily follow that women
cannot endure more pain than men,
,,
tained in preliminary series of in
vestigations, but they promised SO
much that Prof. Macdonald determined
to extend his operations SO as to gain
information of much more special
character.
Prof. Macdonald, therefore, invented
a little instrument which was designed
to be used as a recorder of pain. he
calls it the algometer- 1t looks like an
immense hypodermic syringe. but the
principle of its operation is that of the
ordinary spring scale reversed In
short. it is : simple barrel and piston
affair. Inside the barrel is coiled
spring. When the piston is pushed into
tie barrel it necessarily congresses the
spring, which collapses according to
the pressure put upon it.
A scale in the side of the barrel re-
cords the amount of pressure Now.
this affair was held against the temple
of each person examined As ii was
pushed against the temple, of course,
the piston receded into the barrel.
When the pressure of the spring made
the affair uncomfortable, the subject
under examination would describe his
or her sensations. That is, whether
the instrument hurt, or not Of course
the moment it grew uncomfortable the
instrument was removed, as it was the
greatest amount of sensitiveness to
pain that was to be tested
The instruments were used in tests
all over the country. They were tried
on the pupils of public and private
schools They were tried on business
men, business women. laborers, wash
women, professional men and universi-
" women. They were tried on various
and differences of ages were noted.
Out of the mass of statistics received
the following facts were obtained.
Generally speaking. sensibihty to
pain decreases as person advances in
age. The left temple is more sensitive
than the right temple. The left hand
IL more sensitive than the right hand
Children between ten and eleven years
old exhibit quite an obtuss ssness TO pain.
which. however. diminishes between
the ages OF IL and fe. That is. they
can stand less general pain when IL
years old than they could just prior to
II years. But they become more obtuse
again when between I2 and I3 years
Between the ages of 1s and II the
right temple increases in obtuseness,
while the left temple increases in acute
ness OF course there are variations
hut the above was culled from the ma
jority of examples.
Girls in private schools. the children
in which generally come of wealthy
Parents. are found to be much more
sensitive to pain than girls of public
schools Thus in the language of Prof.
Macdonald, lit would appear that re-
finenisnts and luxuries tend to increase
>ensi;iveness to pain. The hardihood
which the great majority must expert
cnce seems advantageous"
This also accords with the result of
previous measurements to the effect
Ii the non-laboring classes are more
Sc ,itive to pain than laboring classes,
BY "iaboring classes" is meant artisans
and unskilled laborers; by non-iabor-
ing classes is meant professional and
mercantile men.
II is found. as far as differences be-
tween sexes are concerned. that girls
in public schools are more sensitive at
all ages than boys This, of course,
corresponds to the previous measure
ments. which showed that women are
more sensitive to pain than men. Eight
hundred and ninetynine women and
children were tested in getting at the
above fActs.-Boston Globe.