260 THE HUMAN MECHANISM 



The impulses which make us aware of the position of parts 

 of our bodies also play a very important role in reflexly 

 guiding our movements. Upon this we shall dwell at greater 

 length in subsequent chapters (see especially Chap. XV). 



24. Sensations of pain. Most organs of the body may also 

 give rise to impulses which, on their arrival in the brain, 

 cause sensations of pain. It is still, perhaps, an open ques- 

 tion whether this sensation, like sight, smell, and hearing, is 

 aroused by its own mechanism of end organs and afferent 

 nerves or whether it is called forth by the excessive stimu- 

 lation of the nerves of the other senses, but for the discus- 

 sion of this question the reader must consult more advanced 

 works on physiology. 



Pain is a useful danger signal, since it effectively calls 

 attention to abnormal conditions and incites us to the adop- 

 tion of active remedial measures. Remedies, however, should 

 not be confined to the abolition of unpleasant sensations, but 

 should be directed to the removal of their cause. A tooth- 

 ache from a decaying tooth may often be stopped, for a time 

 at least, by the use of chloroform or other anesthetic drugs, 

 but the drug only stops the pain ; it does not check the 

 progress of decay or repair the damage. Again, a bronchial 

 cough may be unpleasant and even painful, but we should 

 not rest content with the use of some drug or cough medicine 

 which merely lessens the irritability of the inflamed surface 

 of the air passages, and so, perhaps, stops the cough without 

 curing the disease. 



Pain is a warning that some abnormal condition needs 

 attention. Sometimes that attention may be supplied by the 

 sufferer himself, or by his friends, but often skilled medical 

 advice is needed. Too frequently, for the sake of economy 

 or from feelings of modesty, or even because of an unwilling- 

 ness to acknowledge illness either to the world or to one's self, 

 the mistake is made of postponing the visit to the physician, 

 the patient meanwhile bearing discomfort and perhaps actual 



