12 



area below, smashing his ankle. He told me afterwards that the 

 accident at the time gave him no pain whatever, and until he was 

 removed he was unaware of any injury. 



" Pain in a certain sense is entertaining " has been quoted as an 

 expression of a confirmed invalid. It is this entertaining property 

 of pain for non-oversensitive natures that is alluded to by Leopardi. 

 " What remedy," asks Tasso " is there for weariness ? " " Sleep, 

 opium and pain, replies the Spirit, and this last is the most potent 

 of all, for while a man suffers he can never feel weary. Then speaks 

 out the sensitive nature in Tasso. " I had rather be wearied all 

 my life than take this medicine." Shakespeare says, " He jests at 

 scars who never felt a wound." 



It has been said, and I think with good reason, that our martyrs 

 did not suffer the intolerable physical anguish that many people 

 have ascribed to them ; for their minds were intensely fixed on 

 other things. Doubtless there are many people who receive credit 

 for bearing much pain when they experience little, and again, others 

 receive little sympathy whilst suffering much, and it is for the 

 reason that there exist such numerous grades of sensibility that 

 corporal punishment must necessarily ever be disproportionate in 

 its action. In speaking about pain in the lower animals, I do not 

 wish to say anything that would underrate their real sufferings, 

 but at the same time, I do firmly believe that animals are thought 

 to suffer a great deal more pain than they generally do. We must 

 remember that pain is entirely associated with the nervous system, 

 and that the less this is developed in the animal scale the less 

 sensitive is the animal. Several examples of this little sensitive- 

 ness of pain might be given. The following are interesting : — A 

 horse will eat grass with a broken leg with comparative comfort. 

 A badger will overturn a nest of wasps, and remain eating the 

 honey and larvae, wholly indifferent to the abundant stings to which 

 it is treated ; and we believe monkeys will sometimes sit and gnaw 

 their own tails, provided they are not prehensile tails. We read 

 of a gentleman who had to keep his monkey's tail covered with 

 tobacco juice in order to prevent this destructive process, while, as 

 regards crabs and lobsters, even a fright will sometimes cause them 

 to throw their claws away. Look at the immense murder which 

 goes on amongst the animals low down in the animal scale. Cries 

 of animals must not be confounded with the moans of pain ; the 

 two are entirely different and have different meanings. A dog 

 always cries out before he is hurt. There is always a compensatory 

 action existing in all forms and stages of life, and as we suffer 

 more acutely than our animal friends, so are our opportunities for 

 shielding our suflering greater ; reason and experience teach us 

 many ways of easing ourselves, but of this more anon. 



