The Significance of Pain
That pain is itself an undesirable things few who have experienced it, will deny. In many ways -also it is actually injurious to the ppr&on suffering from it. It robs him of his appetite and his sleep, ■ lowers his, vitality, aggravates local disease by concen ' trating attention thereon, and .may consequently hasten exhaustion and death. Pain is an evidence of the ascendancy of the destructive factor of disease. "When I hnn a patient," save Professor Chiene, "I always feel I am doing or have done wrong."' But 'whilst pain and all kinds of suffering are thus evil in t'hemseives and in some <.f their effects, they have, as Dr Mitchell Bruce sho.va, other* effects which are essentially conservative. ''They prompt or originate acts of relief : and relief promotes repair and recovery." Negatively, the danger, of the absence of pain in disease, of "latency," of ''disea^? without symptoms," is recognised. Aboasses originating in the spine, empyema, and pul:nona.ry tuberculosis ii^ s nstanecs of ijrave affections which are frequently overlooked until thej' have reached a serious degree or are beyond repair, mainly from being unattended with pain. The presence of pain in such cases Mould have prompted the sufferer- to seek assistance earlier.
The Significance of Pain
Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 75
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