PAIN AND ITS WARNING

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 254, 23 October 1920, Page 17

PAIN AND ITS WARNING

(By HERBERT A. YELDHAM.)

The most terrible feature of a few: common diseases is their painlessness. | It is pain, and pain only, whic'.i most of u= fear, and the usefulness and value of pain as a protection is not understood. Civilisation has so softened the white " races that there is a disproportionate response of the nervous centre- to un-pit-leant and uncomfortable stimuli, and ! those whose lives most nearly approach the lives of their savage ancestors, feel less than others in any physical suffering. Giles, the Australian explorer, relates 5 that an aboriginal, carried into a much j colder climate than that to which he ha.l been accustomed, once placed his chilled F feet within the plowing ashe.s of llie-c campfirc, and lost one or more of hi-s I h toes by burning without complaint. ! v A Queensland doctor wrote, some years ago, to the "X/ancet" giving an ' account of a native patient, with a f barbed spear deeply embedded in his £ abdomen, being carried upon a gum tree r litter for thirty miles with the eight foot shaft of the spear, erect, and waving J this way and that, the man apparently ' quite unaware that ne was making any s unusual display of courage. a Black, red, and yellow races are nearer! E to Nature than we are to-day, and by * breeding and religion recognise pain, if' J not at its true value, at least with a' >■ more accurate estimate than our o\vn.| ! Children, with us, are not encouraged * to be stoical, and grow cp with a false ' impression that pain is an unnecessary c burden, and one of the unexplainable c cruelties of existence. ; The ancient churches "held the belief j< that pain was "sent" for purposes of:< spiritual purification, and the self-!! infliction of pain, which is permitted andi I practised by some, even at this hour,; J formed a very important part of roligioi.-*j 1 observance and ritual. Jn homoeopathic doses pain is a stimu- I lant. in large dose* a depressant. If a; 1 horso, struggling uphill with a heavy ', load, is tormented and thrashed all the:; way, he may—probably will—fail to go j,' onto the top, but if he is encouraged and j : coaxed until the crest is near, and h? ; ; tfhows signs of flagging, the whip, applied j ■ as a stimulant (not as a punishment). 1 will make him draw -upon hie reserve of energy, and his task will be victoriously accomplished An Irish writer in a novel of the Napoleonic era. toils an amusing storj- of a veteran who returned from the wars; with an explosive 'bullet (a small "live" j ! shell) in his body, i:i such a situation i ' j that there was an absence of all sensa- j I tion below his waist. He considered this an advantage, as rheumatism, corns, and other disabilities *md afflictions could be entirely disregarded. iAU went well until one winter's night, sitting by an open fire, with 'his feet extended towards the blaze, he fell asleep. A burning log dropped and rolled towards him, and soon his lego, encased in loose trouseTS and a folded rug, were merrily burning. .Little by little the fire mounted, and still he slept, but presently the increasing heat reached the upper portion of his body, and 'he awakened, but too la-te, for the live shell near his spine exploded, and cut him, raggedly, in halves. R.IJP. The moral, if somewhat laboured, is obvious, i think, too, that in many of ua there is an explosive centre, and the approach of danger, heralded by pain, is often made known to us, if heeded, in time to take such precautions as knowledge and experience—our own or that of others—may dictate. The discomforts produced by followj ing certain fashions in dress and habits I are often so near the borderline of j pain that townswomen especially posI sibly in consequence of training so obI tamed, arc notoriously more courageous I (in the dental surgery for instance) than their male companions. The woman who can show a placid countenance to the world when her feet are in tight nigh-heeled shoes, her neck and shoulders chilled by exposure, and her complexion stiff with artificial ornamentaI tion, is something of a heroine —has i something more than mere patience. j There is one variety of human pain I which must be considered as the severest i test of endurance, for thousands are broken for life by its severity. It is known variously as mental distress, mental torture, agony of mind, and is produced by grief, loss, disappointment, and reI morse. Physical pain is so dwarfed by its terrors," by -comparison with its results, that death by suffocation, poi- j i son or bullet is frequently welcomed j !as a means of escape by those who lack j I spiritual faith, a normal mental stabi- I lity. It strikes at the very root of life and the awful mystery of it makes human help seem futile. It produces a condition similar to tliat known as ■'shock," or wrecks the intellect, and I never, in any'ease, does the sufferer I ascape a lasting memory and effect ] which, often alters the wliole outlook | ' upon a hitherto familar world. Any. | 1 violent emotion, even that of .joy, can I iso affect the cerebral centre* that sud- j i den death sometimes follows. The lower j I animals are not exempt; I have known ■ j a dog to die from fright. When nervous, rontrol of involuntary i function (such as the pulsation of the heart) is withdrawn, immediate effects are felt. A simple example of this is tlic j "racing"' heart, which causes temporary : discomfort and a gasping inspiration. ] after a sudden fright, or anything which i causes an in_ten«e concentration of the I mind upon an extraneous happening. j The young girl, waiting "oy the stile, sees, or thinks she sees him approaching at a distance, fie is wearing a new hat, and looks unfamiliar. "It is," she - i whisper*. "No." •"Yes it i^—no. it isn't--j yes it is—it is." and her doubt U j ! solved to the drumming of a "racing | I heart, which her intense attention to! j Ihe advancing object has left temporal- ■ J iiv to iisel:. There may be an element jof happiness in ilti-t sort of thing, but ; in psf-enre it is painful. The poets mostly sing of the pain- and ; I penalties of the emotions, and any mother v.in toll you of Iho manifold sufferings involved in Kia'.-riial love. ; Anxiety and worry arc mild forms of j . ! montal DRin which, if persistant, •>..;■'.;■- ,imine-. the physical health by !'"' r ""- ---tinuous withdrawal nf m-rvoii- furvfrom the normal function-, suoli .•- ---! digestion, and a= mental exhaustion ■■'"■' ■! physical depression act and rend !>:. ; one upnn the othi-r, n "viciou- cir:j is established which, if not brokeri.lni'N Mo inevitable deslrurtuion of ti.-suo :iii'l i physical end mental ability. ■ The euro of pain i- not i\* .-up|>: ■- sinn, but the removal of it« -au--. ■ always remembering that ii i< 1 , warn- j • : ing never to be dNivpanlfd. iii.'.i it 1- im> , . I ohje-S of all Irl.-li.-il !*ostme:it to ii.jrnmplish this nft-ii .liftim!. . I i?v'HhVTish- k-'""l'.fL./t!^. ,,: «".« , ."1.a r w"-'. , <-rrii.-,-. ' I " strafed ! Vr,>v.: Nature's rork-stn-wa ■ J The iinswcr to thin i- a rhrerful allirinntiv. . cfti-!! a sa.l mid ■ sorrowful "no." ui-;>ends upon the delay which has followed the warning Nature sometimes gires, and saddest of all it is when lii.: warning lias been obvious but unheeded. The curious thing is that, sifti-r so many thousands of years, wo do not know more a'uuut ourselves.