Herrick, Modem Algedonic Theories. 3 



duce pleasure. This is not entirely true for there is a more or 

 less disguised pleasurable sensation due to striking the "funny- 

 bone " but, in general, Marshall's reply seems apt. The meth- 

 ods used in stimulating nerve trunks are, in the nature of the 

 case, not normal. No evidence of special pain nerves, he claims, 

 has been adduced. The fact that pain often is perceived after 

 the sensation he explains as due to " the tendency ingrained in 

 us to consider with promptness those elements in our exper- 

 ience which enter into the make-up of objects." We believe, 

 however, that there are very simple physiological explanations 

 of the delay. First, in many cases the delay is due to the fact 

 that the causes of the painful sensation are secondary, such as 

 congestion or vaso-motor changes and that these and not the 

 primary irritation are the real sources of pain. A gross illus- 

 tration is afforded by the pain felt when a pressure is removed 

 from an inflamed spot, for example. Second, severe pains, in 

 their passage to the brain, do not move along the direct sensory 

 channels but by continual accumulation and overflow break 

 away to the sensory centres via gray columns of the cord. A 

 violent pain cannot be transmitted along the relatively narrow 

 nervous channel of the fibre but by a series of explosive over- 

 flows finds its own way to the brain exciting sundry reflexes as 

 it goes. This suggestion harmonizes the facts observed by 

 Schiff, Myers and others which have been supposed to indicate 

 the existence of special pain nerves. It is entirely possible for 

 the fibre tract conveying sensation from a limb to be severed 

 and yet the painful overflow to pursue its independent course to 

 the brain when the anaesthetic region is injured. On the other 

 hand, it is easy to see that hypnotic suggestion might effect a 

 dislocation of the cell paths for pain without destroying sensa- 

 tion in the region considered. A great deal of spurious physi- 

 ology has associated itself with these pleasure-pain speculations, 

 among which may be noted Courmont's theory in his book 

 " Le Cervelet et ses Fonctions, " that the cerebellum is the seat 

 of pleasure and pain. It is unnecessary here to follow the full 

 and to us conclusive refutation which Marshall offers of the the- 

 ory that pain and pleasure are sensations. The closing object- 



