702 The American Naturalist. [September, 
ference that the stimulus, the neural discharge, the physic 
counterpart, and the motor result, rise and fall together. Be- 
ginning now with the motor reactions of pain, itis to be observed 
that they are among the strongest and, most violent of which 
we are capable; the violent struggles that every creature makes 
to free himself from pain, or that he displays, reflexly, in the 
convulsions of its torture, are among the most familiar facts 
known. Again, it is equally well known, that the stimuli 
which cause pain are the most violent that we encounter; 
usually it is for that reason that they are detrimental. Also, 
pain is the strongest and most violent of our sensations. When, 
therefore, all the evidences alike, from every common source of 
observation, agree that the neural discharge ought to be strong 
proportionally as the stimulus, the sensation, and the motor 
reactions are strong, it would seem that we ought to conclude 
that the neural discharges of pain are strong. 
Surely we ought so to conclude, unless Prof. Baldwin has 
further evidence to offer. The evidence most likely for him to 
offer is that pain is characteristic of exhaustion, weakness, dis- 
order and disease. This is the stronghold of the traditional 
school, and has been the secret of its fallacy from its beginning. 
Yet, there is not a single one of these phenomena that is not 
perfectly explained without accepting the tradition, and with- 
out any of the violations of fundamental analogies which its 
acceptance necessitates. This is done upon the basis of spe- 
cific pain-nerves. Every analogy demands that there should 
be such nerves. If all other sensations have specific nerves so 
should pain. They have long been anticipated in physiology. 
And recently they have been demonstrated with surprisingly. 
wide-founded and abundant evidence ;* quite equal indeed to 
that for the nerves of touch. 
Necessarily the universal distribution of these nerves brings 
them into close connection with the vaso-motor mechanism. 
Wherever there is unusual congestion of the blood there is 
t See article in Brain, p. 1, 1893, and p, 339, 1894, by Dr. Henry Head of Uni- 
versity College Hospital, London. Also those by Prof. von Frey in Berichte d. 
math. phys. classe d. Kénigl. Sachs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft zu Leipzig, 
1894, pp. 185 and 283; 1895, p. 166. 
