268 THE SPECIAL SENSES 



11. A traveler, overcome by cold and fatigue, lies down and 

 falls asleep near a large fire, and when he is aroused in the 

 morning, it is discovered that one of his feet has been insen- 

 sibly destroyed. A grain of sand, lodging in an insensitive 

 eye, may cause inflammation, ancl even the loss of sight. If 

 intense light were not painful to the eye, many a child would 

 innocently gaze upon the glories of the sun to the ruin of his 

 sight. 



12. Pain is, indeed, a present evil, but its relations with the 

 future prove its mission merciful. Painful impressions cannot 

 be recollected from past experience, and they cannot be called 

 into existence by the fancy. Considered in the light of results, 

 pain has a use above that of pleasure ; for, while the immod- 

 erate pursuit of the latter leads to harm, the tendency of pain 

 is to restrict the hurtful courses of life, and in this manner to 

 protect the body. 



13. The relations of pain to pleasure are thus described by 

 the eminent physiologist, Magendie: "By these sensations 

 Nature induces us to concur in the order which she has estab- 

 lished among organized beings. Though it may appear like 

 sophistry to say that pain is the shadow of pleasure, yet it is 

 certain that those who have exhausted the ordinary sources of 

 pleasure have recourse to the causes of pain, and gratify them- 

 selves by their effects. Do we not see in all large cities, that 

 men who are debauched and depraved find agreeable sensations 

 where others experience only intolerable pain?" (Head Note 1.) 



1. Pain is "Nature's Harbinger of Mischief." "It must, there- 

 fore, be evident that pain is, under certain'circumstances, really beneficial. 

 It is often a great boon to have a sensitive stomach ; for those who suffer 

 pain after food are less apt habitually to err in diet, and thus to become 

 dyspeptic or gouty, than those whose organs receive everything uncom- 

 plainingly. Pain in the stomach is frequently due (in well-to-do people) 

 to the fact that they won't work and will eat ; not that the stomach itself 

 is weak (as they think), but that the supply of food being greater than 

 the demand, the system becomes overstocked. In dyspepsia the cause is 

 very often far away, and the stomach is no more the cause of the malady 



11. The case of the traveler ? Grain of sand ? The sun and child ? 



12. Mission of pain ? Painful impressions compared with those of pleasure? 

 18. What does Magendie say of the relation of pain to pleasure ? 



