The nature and significance of pain considered in its physiological aspect : An introductory address delivered at St. George's Hospital, on 3rd October, 1887 / Published by request.

  • Dent, C. T. (Clinton Thomas), 1850-1912.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature and significance of pain considered in its physiological aspect : An introductory address delivered at St. George's Hospital, on 3rd October, 1887 / Published by request. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    13/52 (page 9)
    mltisration or cure of disease : for that is but dis-ease, want of ease, pain. The introduction of such topics needs no excuse, for day by day a Physiology of the mind assumes more practical shape. Between Physiology and Psychology there is still a great gulf: the one science begins long after the other has finished; but year by year, as physiological knowledge advances, the space is narrowed, and the time must arrive when the two sciences will begin to merge one into the other. Moreover, in our curriculum we are apt to lose sight too much of the ultimate objects of the Medical Art in the feverish craze for detail at the moment; and yet once in a while it is good to catch a glimpse of the goal towards which we are striving. I have known the sicjht of the summit of the mountain, albeit very far off, stimulate the wearied climber to fresh exertions. The etymology of the word pain alone furnishes a striking instance of its universality. In a vast number of languages the word is identical, and, as Wedgwood remarks, the Latin word from which it was derived was no doubt enabled to spread itself so widely from the prominence of the idea of retribution and punishment in religious teaching. Nine-tenths of written history is but a record of the varied