Note 22 — Chapter I · PHYSICAL PAIN.

Weir Mitchell (Medical Record, 24th December 1892, quoted by Strong, Psychological Review, 1895, vol. ii. p. 332) reports the following extraordinary case of natural analgesia: Man who died at age of fifty-six, cheerful and corpulent, weighing some 250 pounds; intelligent, and vigorous both in body and mind, with a considerable reputation as a lawyer and politician. Having a finger wounded in a crush during a political campaign, he removed it himself by biting it off and spitting it on to the ground. He had an ulcer on the toe which resisted treatment for three years without ever causing him the slightest pain. He also had an abscess in the hand which spread to the fore-arm and arm, causing enormous swelling and endangering his life; the lancet was used without precaution, and throughout he felt no pain. It was the same with an operation for cataract on both eyes; he remained motionless as a statue. It was only during his last illness that he complained of some pain, but that quickly passed away, and he had returned to his state of natural insensibility before he died.