Physical pain

“ That curst breath that withers flowers and burns them like fire; that pain at once physical and mental, which invades both soul and body, penetrates to the depths of thought, and paralyzes mind as well as blood! ”

“ One question at any rate was answered. Never, for any reason on earth, could you wish for an increase of pain. Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes, no heroes, he thought over and over as he writhed on the floor, clutching uselessly at his disabled left arm. ”

“ Physicians tell us that there are in men and women such enormous differences in this matter of sensitiveness to physical pain that one person may die of a pain which would be comparatively slight to another ”

“ Any of you who have had much to do with one stricken with a sore disease, who knows he never can be well again, know that it is not the sickness, the physical weakness and pain that make the problem and the tragedy. ”

“ The religious joy in her ecstatic eyes changed at times when her physical pain became very acute; she was devout and very rheumatic. Her carriage was waiting for her outside the churchyard; the overfed roans fretted impatiently.
Slowly the churchyard emptied, the people going away in quite a happy frame of mind. They had not been lashed for their sins; they had not been bidden to do hard things or to fear hell. The preacher had dwelt with a passionate unreasoned hope on the end of all, the quieting of noisy troubles, the coming right of things that were now wrong, the ultimate peace. ”

“ The painful conditions following fractures and sprains proved to be particularly amenable to mental influence exerted in this special way. As we approach the modern time, there comes to be a definite recognition of the fact that the mind may produce many pains and aches which seem due to purely physical conditions that might be expected to yield only to physical treatment. A corresponding recognition of the power of the mind to lessen and even suppress actual physical pain is almost a corrollary of this. ”

“ As a child her nurses had said that she was too good to live. As a girl of eighteen she seemed too beautiful to live. It was a beauty so spiritual, so unearthly, that to see it was to feel that it was claimed elsewhere. Netta's father had died with the complaint on his lips that physical pain had so far destroyed his sense of humour that he got no more pleasure out of leading articles. Jimmy had gone into the army, spent his own share of his father's property and most of Netta's, and finally redeemed by a gallant death a life that had been remarkably extravagant and bad.
Netta's hair was grey ”

“ Pain, on the other hand, may be supposed to be experienced whenever the physical activity coincident with the psychic state to which the pain is attached is so related to the supply of nutriment to its organ that the energy involved in the reaction to the stimulus is less in amount than the energy which the stimulus habitually calls forth. ”

“ When excessive pain exists, and every attempt occasions nervous trepidation and apprehension, it is absolutely certain that there is some diseased condition present, for which proper advice should be secured at once. ”

“ Yet others, with deep, gaping wounds, in which inflammation had already set in, were delirious from their pain, and implored that they might be put out of their misery, and with drawn faces twisted themselves into indescribable positions in their supreme agony. ”

“ In anger the eyes are fiery and the pupils contracted; in modesty the cheeks are suffused with blushes; in fear, and under a sense of infamy and of shame, the face is pale, but the ears burn as if for the evil they heard or were to hear; in lust how quickly is the member distended with blood and erected! But, above all, and this is of the highest interest to the medical practitioner,—how speedily is pain relieved or removed by the detraction of blood, the application of cupping-glasses, or the compression of the artery which leads to a part? ”

“ Just as when a person has a severe sore upon the hand or foot, if besides it should be cut with a knife or fire should be put upon it, he would not feel the pain of the knife or the fire, on account of the pain of the sore, so likewise the maladies of the body, such as hunger and thirst, or such maladies as love of possessions and family, combined with the absorbed attention of the senses to these things, prevent the soul from being conscious of its disquiet and distress. ”

“ There are numerous sorts of Diseases, to which Human Creatures are subject; and yet there are but few Fundamental Maladies; which are these as follow; Pain, Sickness, Weakness, Dizziness, Numbness, Deadness, Madness, Fainting and Swounding; of which one is particular, the rest are general: The particular is Sickness, to which no parts of the Body are subject, but the Stomack: for, though any parts of the Body may have Pain, Numbness, Dizziness, Weakness, or Madness; yet in no part can be that which we name Sickness, but the Stomack. ”

“ And the pain grows, expands,—fills all the skull,—forces you to cry out, replaces all other sensations except a weak consciousness, vanishing and recurring, that you are very sick, more sick than ever before in all your life. ”

“ Sufficiently precise as regards superficial parts of the body, especially the skin, its localisation is vaguer when it is seated in the deeper parts, the viscera, the instruments of organic life. 26In the last case, when the pain is of internal and non-peripheral origin, coming from the great sympathetic or the related vagus nerve, it is accompanied by a state of anxiety, of depression, or of anguish, which we shall often encounter, and which frequently causes it to be said that “it seems to the patient that the workings of nature within him are suspended.” ”

“ Now is the body healed, because the source of sickness has been opened to relief. And you will recognize you practiced well by this: The body should not feel at all. If you have been successful, there will be no sense of feeling ill or feeling well, of pain or pleasure. No response at all is in the mind to what the body does. ”

“ Symptoms.—The main symptoms are wakefulness, restless nights, headache, indolence, melancholy, indisposition to study, forgetfulness, despondency, weakness in the back and private organs, no confidence in one's own abilities, a desire for seclusion from society; whites, hysterics, and inability to look any one in the face. Sometimes the muscles are relaxed, limbs tremble, the skin is sallow and dry, with pain in the womb. ”

“ A moderate degree of pain in any part excites the action of the whole body; a greater quantity of blood and nervous energy is determined to the part. A still greater degree of pain brings on inflammation and its consequences, and if it be intense, it will bring on fever, convulsions, delirium, fainting, and even death.
The endurance of pain depends much on the strength of mind possessed by the patient, which, in some instances, is such, that the most violent pains are patiently endured; while in other instances, the slightest can scarcely be born. ”

“ We have pains so slight that we never feel them, yet in their aggregate effect they may be fatal; and a fatal blow that shall at once strike down every nerve of sensation would produce as little conscious pain. ”

“ It is necessary at the outset to distinguish clearly between 'discomfort' and 'pain.' Pain is a distinct sensory quality equivalent to heat and cold, and its intensity can be roughly graded according to the force expended in stimulation. ”

“ In such misfortunes it is of great importance to know the desperate nature of the disease. The next step to the alleviation of pain, is the bearing it with composure, and not aggravating it by impatience and irritation. ”

“ In a word, the condition of the greatest mental distress becomes the condition of the greatest bodily sickness.
The soul is informed of the threatened ruin of the organs that should have been her good and willing servants by a thousand obscure sensations, and is filled with an entire sensation of pain, associating itself to the primary mental suffering, and giving to this a sharper sting. ”

“ Moreover, if we attend to the matter a little more closely, we see that what is called bodily pain is rather to be referred to the soul. For it is the soul, not the body, which is pained, even when the pain originates with the body,—the soul feeling pain at the point where the body is hurt. ”

“ Any interruption of this circulation by a pressure upon the soft pipes through which the fluid is carried, must, as a natural consequence, lower the natural action of the organs, and by increasing the sensibility, give rise to pain and disease. Hence the headache, the giddiness, dul­ness, depression, and languor, the numbness of the extremities, the enlarged veins, and other painful sensations which too often accompany gestation; and when all these have passed away with parturition, it too, frequently happens that the figure is spoiled for life. ”

“ If one notices the uncomfortable mood brought about by strained expectation, anxiety before a public address, vexation at an unmerited affront, etc., one finds that the suffering part of it concentrates itself principally in the chest, and that it consists in a soreness, hardly to be called pain, felt in the middle of the breast and due to an unpleasant resistance which is offered to the movements of inspiration, and sets a limit to their extent. ”

“ Have not sensations of pain, of hearing, of color, or of smell as much reality as our sensations coming from muscle, joint, synovial membrane and articular surfaces? The acute, shooting, twinging pains of rheumatism, gout, tabes-dorsalis, the burning pains of meningitis, the excruciating throbs of megrim, the fine stabbing pains of toothache, the agony of angina, the sharp tormenting pains of facial neuralgia, and many other pains coming from different organs and tissues, are not they real and external? ”

“ This process shows the pain to be in the mind; for the inflammation is not suppressed; and the pain will presently be felt again, unless the mental image occasioning it be removed by Mind, the Truth of Being.
Matter is never inflamed, never causes this derangement. Fear, conscious or unconscious, produces all inflammation. Note how fear makes the face pallid. It either retards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale cheek, or a flushed. Even so fear increases or diminishes the secretions, the breathing, the action of the bowels, the action of the heart. ”

“ There are other more general pains, resembling rheumatic ones, and are of a quick, flying, convulsive kind: they affect the patient in the neck, joints, and other parts; a dull pain often seizes the head, neck, breast, belly, and even runs along the back-bone. The patient is gloomy, murmurs much, is forgetful, {205} and drowsy; at times the mind seems disordered ”

“ The pain is due to the pressure exerted on the sensory nerves by the surrounding swelling, as is well shown by the intensification of the distress, as every beat of the heart forces more blood into the space already filled. ”

“ There has been much discussion as to the nature of pain, and the mode by which it is produced, one school holding that there are special nerves for its transmission and another that it is merely the expression of a certain grade of irritation. Whatever may be said in favor of either of these points of view, it can be demonstrated that pain occurs only when the mind is under a strain and is immediately relieved when the strain is relieved. ”

“ Pain, hunger, and thirst are the internal senses with which we are most familiar. Pain is evidently a protective sense. It is never aroused unless something is amiss; for that reason pain should never be neglected. ”

“ But none, whatever be the strength of will, succeed in suppressing completely the expression of pain when intense. Only very energetic persons succeed in preserving immovable the muscles of the face, while they discharge the activity of the nervous system into other muscles by tetanic contractions.
We may say that every malady has its peculiar expression of pain. Often, by merely looking at the patient and hearing him moan, the physician can tell which are the affected organs. ”

“ We generally refer pain to this sense, though it may arise from too violent an impression made upon any of the organs of sense.
Pain is an unpleasant sensation, which the mind refers to some part of the body, and very accurately, if any part of the surface is affected, but less so, if it arises from the affection of an internal part. The sensation of pain may arise from any thing which tends to injure the structure of the body, whether that be internal or external; so that it serves as a monitor to put us on our guard, and to induce us to remove any thing which might be injurious to us. ”

“ Have you ever felt the sharp, stinging pain, the dull, heavy pain, the throbbing, jumping pain, the cramping, tearing pain, the sickening, nauseating pain? Then you know all about them. Nobody can tell you anything more. Experience is a perfect teacher. ”

“ The capacity for pain is not needed in the muscle, and it is not placed there,—is but little needed in the skin, and only here and there over the thigh is a spot capable of feeling pain. Pain is simply our intrinsic medical adviser to warn us and stimulate us. Not all living flesh is painful; nor is all nerve, not even all sensory nerve. There’s no tint of pain, real pain, in the sensations of the optic nerve. ”

“ Second, when anything touches the bare nerves or hurts the cells, we feel a pain. We can feel a pain anywhere in the body. Pain tells us if we are being harmed. If we had no feeling of pain, we might be killed before we could know of our danger. ”