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attended to, ill-health may follow. Eating rich food, drinking too 
much alcohol, tight lacing, neglect of proper precaution against 
inclement weather, neglect of proper ventilation, exercise too much 
or too little, may one and all produce a sufficient amount of pain or 
discomfort to call for a change in our life. The last use of pain that 
I shall mention is as an indicator of coming weather. It has long 
been known that various kinds of weather affect people in various 
ways—thunder often causes headache, certain winds produce 
rheumatism &c. ! but the following case has such a practical bear- 
ing that will give you an epitome of it. It is taken from the Army 
and Navy Journal, and recorded by Dr. Weir Mitchell, a well known 
American physician. Captain Robert Catlin, of the United States 
Army, has for many years suffered with traumatic neuralgia, 
resulting from the loss of a foot, which was crushed in battle by a 
round shot in 1864. The total amount of pain as regards duration 
for the eight years ending January 1st, 1883, was 12,944 hours, or 
nearly 1-5th of the time ; he has always been free from pain during 
sleep, so that nearly }th of his waking hours is occupied with pain. 
March is the most painful month, January being a close second. 
Low temperature and high barometer nearly always produce pain, 
and extreme barometric undulations extending its duration. Eating 
a meal hastens an attack and intensifies it when on. Intense 
auroral periods are also believed to produce pain. As the result 
of the observation of 60 well-defined storms through 10 consecu- 
tative months, it appears that the storms announce their coming 
by the twitching of Captain Catlin’s nerver when the storm centre 
is at a distance of 680 miles. Should the pain be on a day of 
intermittent pain, it takes on an additional activity just before the 
increasing shower, and continues 20 to 40 mins.; this will sometimes 
four or five times in 12 hours. Each little increment of pain seems 
to bear about the same relation to the showers, as the main attack 
bears to the storm. It must be a satisfaction to Captain Catlin to 
know that notwithstanding all his sufferings, his own case will pro- 
bably open out a wide field for useful information. 
Most of us I suppose especially when young, have dreaded the 
pain of death, and have made up our minds as to what form of 
death we should like to die; yet I believe most of you have made a 
mistake, and have not chosen the least painful. I am now more 
especially referring to accidental death. Drowning and burning— 
Two common forms of death—are very often not more painful than 
having an anesthetic administered. The water in the one case, 
and the smoke in the other, quickly produces suffocation, and when 
this is attained, the subsequent injuries are painless. In many 
fatal accidents the primary blow has been sufficient to produce in- 
sensibility, so that the after effects have not been felt. I simply 
