My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

MY EARLIEST MEMORIES 19part of the day in the large garden or by the riverside,or in the fields and woods around us. As will beseen later on, this immunity ceased as soon as wewent to live in a town. I remember only one childishaccident. The cook was taking away a frying-panwith a good deal of boiling fat in it, which for somereason I wanted to see, and, stretching out my armover it, I suppose to show that I wanted it lowereddown, my fore-arm went into the fat and was badlyscalded.I mention this only for the purpose of callingattention to the fact that, although I vividlyremember the incident, I cannot recall that I sufferedthe least pain, though I was told afterwards that itwas really a severe burn. This, and other facts of asimilar kind, make me think that young childrensuffer far less pain than adults from the same injuries.And this is quite in accordance with the purpose forwhich pain exists, which is to guard the body againstinjuries dangerous to life, and to give us the impulseto escape rapidly from any danger. But as infantscannot escape from fatal dangers, and do not evenknow what things are dangerous and what not, onlyvery slight sensations of pain are at first required, andsuch only are therefore developed, and these increaseproportion as command over thein intensity just inmuscles giving the power of rapid automatic movementsbecomes possible. The sensation of pain doesnot, probably, reach its maximum till the wholeorganism is fully developed in the adult individual.This is rather a comforting conclusion in view of thesufferings of so many infants needlessly massacredthrough the terrible defects of our vicious socialsystem.I may add here a note as to my personal appearanceat this age.I was exceedingly fair, and my long