Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-07-21
A RECORDER OF PAIN
SOME PARTICULARS OF AN IN
GENiOUS INVENTION.

By Its Aid It Has Been Ascertained that Wo
men Suffer More Than Men--The Difference
In Classes--what Next in Scientific Dis.
covery7
Boston Globe
Prof. Arthur Macdonald, specialist
Ill the United States bureau OF educa-
ton, is carrying on series OF investi-
cations for the purpose of finding cut
how 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 to 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 men, and also more sensitive than
either English or German professional
men. The laboring classes are much
less sensitive to pain than the non-la.
boring 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
young 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, it is true, in general, that
women are more sensitive than men,
but it does not necessarily follow that
women cannot endure more pain than
men.
Those quite general results were OBJ
tanned in q preliminary series of in.
ve'tigations, but they promised so
much that Prof. Macdonald deter
mined to extend his operations so as
to gain information of q much more
special character.
Prof. Macdonald, therefore, invent.
ed little instrument which was de-
signed to be used as 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 re-
versed. In short, it is a simple barrel
and piston affair. Inside the barrel is
a coiled spring. When the piston is
pushed into the 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 it 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 uncom-
Portable the instrument was removed,
as it was the greatest amount of sensi-
tiveness 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 univer-
sity women. They were tried on vari-
Gus parts OF the bodies of these per-
sons. and differences of ages were
noted. Out of the mass of statistics
received the following facts were OBJ
tanned:
Generally speaking, sensibility to
pain decreases as a person advances in
age. The left temple is more sensitive
than the right temple. The left hand
is more sensitive than the right hand
Children between ten and eleven years
old exhibit quite an obtuseness to
pain, which, however, diminishes be.
tween the ages of IL and II. That is
they can stand less general pain when
IL years old than they could just prior
to IL years. But they become more
obtuse again when between l2 and Il
years.
Between the ages OF 13 and II the
right temple increases in obtuseness
while the left temple increases in
acuteness. Of course there are varia.
tions, but the above was culled from
the majority 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 oI
Prof. Macdonald, ait would appear
that retinements and luxuries tend to
increase sensitiveness to pain. The
hardihood which the great majority
must experience seems advantageous. u
This also accords with the result oil