" Common Sense"

Southland Times, Issue 4995, 5 August 1884, Page 4

" Common Sense"

There is a 'sense' which is common, and there is a ' sense ' which is • uncommon.' The one of these senses Bhould never be allowed to displace the other. This is perhaps more manifestly important in the healing of diseased bodies than in anything else. Let ub try to give a few thoughts on this i mportan t subject. A sense is a something in U3 in the use of which we have the material, so to speak, of knowledge. This capacity, or whatever you like to call it, is that by which every one of us more or less knows what to do to help ourselves or others in cases of bodily trouble. 80 far m every one has this capacity, it is • common sense ;' so far as only a few have it, we may say it is in degree at least, « uncommc n senne. 1 We must, try and make this clear in a simple practical way. Here, then, is a head which is hot.and sleepless. Toothache, or some other form of neuralgia prevails, and the poor owner of that head has a vrry bad time indeed;' Neither 'the word ' toothache,' nor jet the word ' neuralgia ' means anything to the great majority of minds. Even the word 'nerve,' which is in so many mouths, has no useful meaning. To one who has an uncommon capacity of knowing in such cases, these and similar words have meaning, but to the vast majority of people they mean just nothing. But now see how different it is with the word • beat," as applied, to the burning brow. Where is the person to whom that word does not instantly convey real knowledge ? We think that the common capacity of making a clear g x>d use of what is meant by that word is common sense, .Leave all those words which, to the great majority of people, meau just nothing, for those words that mean something to everybody, and you land in the most important domains of real common sense. Lay your hand gently on the forehead of the suffering person, and feel how hot the brow is ; do you need anyone to let you know one of the most important matters of knowledge of which any of us can form a conception 7 That heat is just as easily known and understood by one as it is by any other — the knowledge of it is common to all, common sense takes hold of it at once. But it is not only the brow that is hot in that burning head — the whole mass of that head is burning. Who can there possibly be on earth to whom that is not patent 1 You see a nurse put a little bit of rag on the forehead of a fevered patient ? You say : Is not this proof that common sense is not common as oould be desired ? No ;it only tells you that that nurse fails to use the sense which is common to her and everybody else. Fou cannot for a moment contend that it is not perfectly within reach of her knowledge that the whole head is burning, and that it will take a hundred times the cooling power of that bit of rag to cool down the heated brain. Or you see another nurse put a large towel, wrung out of the cold water, round this hpad. That looks as if common sense were to be used ; but no, it is not so. The cold towel is very speedily heated, and it is allowed to stay on the heated head and to increase the burning. That is not the result of any lack of common sense, it is only the result of such sense baing unused. No one can be beyond the reach of knowing that a burning brain cannot be cooled in such a way. If one t hinks at all — that is, if he uses the sense which he has in common with all his fellow-creatures — he will know that it will take the pressing of a cold cloth, of f en changed, for an hour at least, to bring down the ferering heat of that restles3 braiD. Nobody needs to be told that, because it is difficult to know except to uncommon sense. ... If the head is chill instead of hot, it could be no stretch of uncommon skill to see that it should now ba gentiy an-* persistently heated ; and yet this would be all that is required lo produce the most delightful results. We have seen ex. cruciatiDg pains turned into a most delightful feeliDg of relief by thi9 heating alone. It was only in the use of such simple thought as is common to us all that such a change was iecured. We have written this only that the benefit of simple natural healing may be more widelv known. — Professor Kirk's Papers on Health.