n 4 PHYSIC 



is removed or neutralised by the application of peripheral 

 counter-irritation in a degree of proportionate intensity, 

 according to the manner and nature of the objectionable 

 sensory experience, by gentle, or more or less vigorous, 

 apposition, or contact of cutaneous surfaces and append- 

 ages with the irritated area. In the case of the adult 

 irritatee, this subconscious application of counter-irritation 

 may, and does, often end in conscious realisation of the 

 irritation, and the conscious and intelligent application of 

 the means of counter-irritation. 



Moreover, throughout the higher animal world, we may 

 every day observe the more or less conscious and intelli- 

 gent use of the principle of counter-irritation by the 

 systemic nervous system possessed members in removing 

 and neutralising the thousand and one irritations to which 

 they are constantly exposed, and from which they so often 

 suffer. Such phenomena may, therefore, be regarded as 

 amongst the inherited, transmitted, or innate protective 

 and beneficent qualifications for meeting the ' ' ills of life," 

 and baffling some of the many disturbing agencies to 

 which it is continually exposed, and so of rendering its 

 survival possible and, to some extent, enjoyable and desir- 

 able. The counter-irritant may vary in intensity of appli- 

 cation from the faintest touch, contact, or impact, to the 

 most violent, in proportion to the degree of intensity of 

 the irritant to be removed or neutralised, and will be 

 sub-consciously or consciously used, according to the 

 degree of mental attention attracted to it, and the nature 

 of the being affected. Thus the tickle may be neutralised 

 or removed by a gentle touch or contact, or a more 

 emphatic scratch, the fainter degrees of pain by more pro- 

 nounced pressure and rubbing, the more severe degrees 

 of pain by more severe application of these, and the 

 absolutely intolerable varieties of pain by a frantic appeal 

 to the involved nervature, overwhelming in its insistence 

 and violence to the degree of self-destruction. The appli- 

 cation, therefore, of artificial methods of utilising the 

 principle of counter-irritation in the removal or modifica- 

 tion of sensory nerve irritation is abundantly warranted, 

 and will often justify its adoption as a mode of treatment 

 in many of the ills to which human flesh is heir. The 



