THE MEANING OF PAIN 



fox who gnaws off his leg to get out of a trap. 

 Neither one of them is much hurt. We must 

 not interpret these things in terms of our own 

 pain-sense. 



The freedom from pain-appreciation pos- Pain-sense 

 sessed by the animals, lower than man, is well- in animals, 

 known to the students of natural history, who 

 see them chew off and tear off their mem- 

 bers with nonchalance. After a severe surgical 

 operation a rabbit goes to munching carrots 

 as though nothing had happened. A horse 

 with a broken leg will go limping about and 

 continue to graze, carrying the dangling limb 

 in a manner which in man would mean excru- 

 ciating agony. The veterinary surgeon, in his 

 operations upon cows, horses, and dogs, rarely 

 bothers himself with anesthetic. He plunges 

 a hollow needle through the skin, abdominal 

 wall, and into the intestine of a cow to relieve 

 a distended bowel without thought of anes- 

 thesia. The pain reaction may be as quick in 

 an animal as in a man because in animals the 

 nerve energy works largely through the spinal 

 cord and inferior brain centers, and less is ex- 

 pended on thought. The prick of a needle may 

 make an animal start as quickly as man; but, 

 in order to judge whether it produces pain, we 



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