THE MEANING OF PAIN

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2269, 28 April 1921, Page 4

THE MEANING OF PAIN

From research into I lie early signs i>F disease which was undertaken by Sir James Mackenzie and his staff at the St. Andrew’s Institute of Clinical Medicine, lias emerged a new law which is likely to exercise a profound inlluenee on medical thought. Disease reveals its presence only by symptoms. It was, therefore, felt that every effort must be made to understand how a symptom is produced. This knowledge, strange as it may seem, did not exist, or at least was exceedingly inexact. Thus it was popularly believed that the internal organs of (he body were capable of feeling pain, of being “painful.” Expressions such as “tender liver,” “pain in the heart,’’ and so on were in current use. This view was under suspicion, however, and some observers decided I hal internal organs never feel pain or become painful. When discovered they give rise to conditions which indeed cause pain. But this pain is fell:, not in the organ, but in the skin and muscle of the body wall. The pain is thus outside of the organ; it is a signal, like a rocket, pointing to disaster somewhere. The observer is left to find out, by his own knowledge or experience, where exactly the disaster is situated, and what exactly its nature may lie. Unless lie knows how the signal works lie will miss this discovery. There is no direct connection between the internal organ and the skin which covers the body, and in which the pain and tenderness are felt when the organs are overstrained. So

that the connection must be a ner-

vous one, one. nerve running from tiie organ to the brain or spinal cord, and another one running from the brain or spinal cord to‘the skin. This nervous rellcx, as, it is called, is a kind of telegraph system whereby messages from the outside world —from the sense of touch and also from eyes, ears, nose, and so on — reach the organ, and whereby on its part the organ is enabled to advise the outside world of its condition. The means by which disease shows itself are, thus, not peculiar to disease. They are the ordinary means by. which healthy life is carried on. Symptoms, in other words, are only exaggerations of the normal.