The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-11-16
(Medicel Pecord)

WITHOUT pain, Sdyo m"A ANOiudu, OuI
lives would not endure, for we should
be unable to recognize danger symp-
toms and to guard against them. Pain,
says another writer, is not itself alb.
normal, but is natures protest against
the abnormal. 1t is not the sufferer
from pain who is in evil case, so much
as he who has lost his ability to feel
it. Insensibility of this kind is often
a grave symptom. DIR. j. II. Dempster,
of Detroit, in paper on Pain and It's
Significance" gives us these citations,
and also quotes recent experimenter,
Mr.. w. w. Norman, as asserting that
the phenomena of pain are evidence of
high nervous organization, as they do
not appear until we ascend rather
high in the scale of vertebrates. Many
movements in the lower animals, sup
posed to indicate pain, as the writh.
ing of mutilated worm, are in fact,
according to Norman, mere mechanic
al responses to stimuli, DR.. Dempster
says:
"The pain-sense, like the special
senses, is largely matter Of mental
and racial development. The self
mutilations Of primitive peoples are
not so much matter of bravery as of
the presence of rudimentary pain
sense. The horse with broken leg
viii proceed to Craze in the pasture
with little apparent discomfort. Vet
erinary surgeons perform operations
upon animals with little thought of ad-
ministering anesthetics. Even in CIV
ilized man the pain-sense requires to
be developed. 1t is not born with him.
The operation of circumcision is fire.
Quently done on newly born male in
pain. The 'facies pathetica' (pathetic
expression) of the dog, horse and some
other animals, and the tendency to in
terpret pain in terms of our own SEN
sation, are responsible for those self
constituted sponsors of the lower ami
mals-the anti-vivisectionists whose
excessive zeal for the dumb makes
them quite gorget the welfare of the
human spring.
when a hard object is applied to
the skin with greater pressure than
is necessary to evoke the sense of
touch the sensation becomes one of
pain, and it's severity is in proportion
to the degree OF pressure exerted.
The sense of pain has been described
as overmaXimal stimulation of any
form of snsory nerve. According to
Howell, For continuous pain at least,
the evidence is very strongly in favor
of the view that there existos special
set of fibers which have a specific en-
ergy for pain. 1t would appear that the
pain-sense has a punctifOrm distribu-
tiOn in the skin When a pin or needle
is pressed against the skin the pain
increases until Just before the moment
of penetration. An intestine may be
cut or sewed without causing any SEN
sation, while strong contraction of the
muscles will evoke intense
gripping pain. Deep injection of fluids
into the voluntary muscles occasions
but little discomfort, while cramping
of such muscles gives rise to disagree
able sensations of great severity. The
feeling of muscle-fatigue is on the bor-
derland Of painful sensation. The quail
ity of pain will be found to depend
upon the kind of sense-Organ which is
for instance, pain describ-
ed as burning means the stimulation
of the pain-sense as well as stimula
tion of the nerve-endings of the So
called warm spots;' 'throbbing' pain
is due to local congestion with lymph,
the throbbing being due in degree to
the cadence of which is
timbed with the pulse. Many inflam-
matory pains are of this nature, and
if the site of inflammation
be in the digital extremities. In ad-
dition to temperature and tactile spots
on the surface of the body there are
spots from which pain may be elected.
In some parts of the body tactile and
is entirely absent,
while pain is easily evoked. The cor
nea Is a good example of this, as those
know who have ever experienced the
of foreign body in the eye.
Under some conditions pain-sense may
be wanting while tactile sense is nor
NAL"
We see, smell, taste and hear by
means of the mind, the sensation be-
Ing referred to the respective organs of
sense. Likewise DR.. Dempster notes.
pain is a matter of cerebration. Pain
Is much more severe If the attention be
to it. An unexpected wound