Pain

Abstract

UT Almæ Academiæ inſtituto morigerer, & ſimulque ut rem, tum Medicis, tum aliis & non ingratam proferrem, in Diſſertatione ) hac inaugurali de Doloris cauſis & effectibus agere propoſui. DOLOR mortalibus ipſis coævus, nemini parcens, hominem naſcentem excipit, ad tumulum deducit, individuus comes, apud omnes ferè malorum princeps habitus. Atqui hunc poſuit benignus naturæ author fidum vitæ cuſtodem, & inſtantis periculi monitorem vix corrumpendum.

DOLOR itaque, Græco nomine ænxyes, Suyn (quatenus medicinæ objectum) eſt ingrata illa ac moleſta ſenſatio, quam mens percipit, ex certa conditione phyſica organo ſentienti inducta; quæ tamen ſenſatio, ſic in mente excitata, neutiquam repræſentat actionem corporis, organum illud afficientis, neque illud phyſicum, quod tunc patitur organum affectum, ſed ideam tantummodo moleſtiæ.

# ## ### ## # To comply with the institution of our beloved Academy, and in the hope of presenting a topic not unpleasant to both physicians and others, I have proposed to discuss the causes and effects of pain in this inaugural dissertation. Pain, as old as humanity itself, spares no one, greeting a person at birth and accompanying them to the grave as an inseparable companion, regarded almost universally as the chief of evils. Yet, the benevolent author of nature has placed it as a reliable guardian of life and a nearly incorruptible warning of impending danger.

Therefore, pain, known in Greek as "ænxyes" and in Latin as "suyn" (as far as it is an object of medicine), is that unpleasant and troublesome sensation perceived by the mind, induced by a specific physical condition upon a sensory organ. This sensation, once aroused in the mind, by no means represents the action affecting the body or the physical condition of the organ that is afflicted, but rather conveys merely the idea of discomfort.