1881.J The Philosophy of Pain. 339 
multiplication would, in accordance with the dodtrine of 
Natural Selection, be decidedly small. 
But we must not stop here. How is the case with internal 
diseases of the human system ? In all affections of the in- 
flammatory class pain is an essential and substantially never- 
failing feature. The sufferer is duly warned that something 
is amiss with him, and may at any rate seek means for relief. 
Here, too, it may safely be contended that the severity and 
acuteness of the torment is fairly proportionate to the urgency 
of the danger ; and it must also be at once granted that if 
acute disease of the vitals were unattended with pain, and 
were consequently liable to be overlooked, the change would 
not be beneficial either to the individual or the species. 
Now, however, we meet with faCts of a totally different 
class. There are not a few diseases of the most serious 
character where nothing like pain is ever experienced, and 
where the sufferer consequently goes on in his usual course, 
totally unaware of any danger, till he falls down dead, or is 
at least completely prostrated. Everyone must have met 
with the statement — stereotyped we might almost call it, in 
cases of apoplexy — that “ the deceased was apparently in 
the enjoyment of perfect health.” Surely a disease indicator 
which does not a Ct in affections of the brain and the heart 
is very far from perfect. It might be contended that in these 
very diseases a warning might be more beneficial than in 
acute affections. In the latter the alarm is often, in faCt, 
too late, unless efficient medical aid is at once procurable. 
But if a man were made aware by any signals that morbid 
changes were in progress in his heart or in his brain, he 
might modify his way of living and avoid whatever is likely 
to foster the disease. It is not too much to say that many 
a person might prolong his life by merely avoiding excite- 
ment, if he were only warned of the necessity of thus aCting. 
But here, where the danger is extreme, and where a caution 
might save, the “ watchman ” makes no sign ! Pain, there- 
fore, is not a general warning against all physical perils, even 
the most urgent. Just as conscience in case of moral 
diseases, so pain in bodily derangement is merely a partial 
and irregular monitor. 
We may pass now to an example almost diametrically 
opposite in its character. The decay, and even the ultimate 
loss, of a tooth is of but little moment. Yet few pains are 
so violent, so prolonged, so utterly distracting as tooth-ache 
— the warning which the “ watchman ” employs to inform 
us that there is something wrong with one of our grinders. 
For so slight a cause a man may for months be deprived of 
