Word: sherrington
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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What is pain? Everybody knows because everybody has suffered it, but nobody can tell anybody else. Dictionaries are hopeless.* The late Sir Charles Sherrington, who collected no fewer than 22 honorary doctorates for his brilliant researches in physiology, called pain "the psychical adjunct of an imperative protective reflex." That may be fine for another physiologist, but it is no help to a man with a nail through his foot. Although pain is what drives most patients to a doctor, it is the symptom to which, all too often, doctors pay least attention. One good reason: it is the subject about...
Eskimos Too. The University of Oregon's Dr. Frederick P. Haugen reports that dogs raised from puppyhood in a solitary, restricted environment, so that they cannot hurt themselves or be hurt, do not act as though they feel pain when tested in early maturity. Even Sherrington's "imperative protective reflex" is missing-these animals have to learn to stay away from a hot stove, and it takes repeated burns to teach them. Dr. Haugen comments: "The influence of past experience and learning is evident in any group of patients as one observes the notable differences in their reactions...
...equivalent at the same amount of heat, i.e., when the skin temperature hit 113° F. Yet an Eskimo has been known to hack off his own gangrenous foot to save his leg. The conclusion: the differences between races and cultures must lie in the "psychical adjunct" part of Sherrington's definition-in the reaction to pain, not in the pain as such...