,324 MAN- AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



midst of a battle often experience no pain from a wound 

 and may not know they are wounded until after the 

 emotional excitation has worn off, when the sensation 

 of warm blood on the skin may be their first warning 

 of injury. 



Dr. Livingstone, the African explorer, has testified 

 to his complete unconsciousness to pain during his 

 struggle with a lion. Although he was torn by teeth and 

 claws his fear overcame all other impressions. Possibly 

 the phenomena of hysteria may also be explained on 

 this basis, as may the unconsciousness of passing events 

 in a person in the midst of great and overwhelming 

 grief. By constant practice the student may secure 

 the final common path for such impressions as are 

 derived from the stimuli offered by the subject of his 

 study, and so be oblivious to his surroundings. Con- 

 centration is but another name for the exclusion of ir- 

 relevant stimuli from the final common path. 



Since both psychic and mechanical stimuli cause 

 motor phenomena by the excitation of precisely the 

 same mechanism in the brain, and since the more 

 rapid transformation of energy by psychic stimuli in 

 these cases submerges the transformation of energy by 

 physical stimuli and prevents pain, it would seem 

 as if the phenomenon of pain must be associated with 

 the process of releasing energy in the brain-cells and 

 with the passage of energy to the effector mechanism 

 -the muscles. Were a physical injury inflicted in a 

 quiescent state equal to that inflicted without pain 

 during a highly emotional state, there would result 

 great pain and intense muscular activity. 



Another viewpoint which throws further light upon 



