13 



Coming now to the main part of my paper — the uses, oars, some 

 would say, the uselessness, of paui — I find that my difficulties in- 

 crease, for opinions are conflicting when few authors take the same 

 road, acd yet perhaps in many cases these difficulties are more 

 apparent than real. But let us now for a few moments look into 

 some of these. 



Mr. Hinton, who has written a well-known pamphlet, entitled 

 the " Mystery of Pain," takes up the spiritual or moral side, and 

 thinks little of the use of pain unless bearing upon this. 



Dr. Yeo wrote an article in the Contemporary Review for July, 

 1879, taking what be called the material side, and stating that 

 pain in itself is of very little, if of any value. Having read both 

 these papers, and some others, also having given the subject some 

 little thought, I believe the truth concerning the use of pain to 

 touch both the above extreme views, but the bulk of it to rest prin- 

 cipally between the two. It is not becoming to speak much here 

 concerning the moral side ; a few sentences will suffice. Most 

 people will admit that pain watched mcreases our sympathy and 

 gives us larger hearts ; the pain and discomfort of many animals 

 draw us to them, and teach us to care for them. Hinton goes as 

 far as to say that ' ' A life from which everything that has in it the 

 element of pain banished becomes a life not worth having ; or 

 worse, of intolerable tedium and disgust ; " but the nature of the 

 individual will determine very much the value that will be put upon 

 this moral side of the subject. Let us turn to the other side. 



The existence of pain anywhere seems to be an abnormal thing, 

 and wherever it exists a cause for it must be present, although in 

 many cases we are unable to discover it. 



Many examples of the use, and also, as far as we can judge of 

 the uselessness of it, might be given, but as this paper is not a 

 medical essay, my examples will be few. Pain in some diseases 

 acts as a warning and attracts attention indicating that rest or 

 some other remedy is required, and often when this indicator has 

 been neglected serious troubles have followed ; but on the other 

 hand pain does not take the van in a large number of diseases, and 

 many diseases have progressed considerably before that pain has 

 called attention to them. 



In these last diseases, pain is not to be blamed — as she has 

 been — for failing to act the part of a sentinel in the on-coming 

 disease, for other symptoms or signs have already existed telling 

 the nature of the complaint without the unwelcome addition of the 

 pain. Again, the severity of pain is no gauge for the severity of 

 the disease. Many of our most fatal diseases run through their 

 course with little : and vice versa, many painful complaints interfere 

 little with length of life. 



