I have chosen the word "suffering" instead of "pain" because it more accurately describes the problems to be considered here. In recent years it has been found possible and rewarding to deal with subjective responses—symptoms—in a quantitative manner. There is no time now to describe the technical approaches to these problems. In any case, such descriptions are readily available.1 The problem of pain is doubtless as ancient as the human race, and, perhaps because it is so old, it seems to have gathered about it more folklore than anything else in medicine. In the present instance, the quantitative approach has made it possible to recognize and dispose of some unfounded traditional statements. This might be called a negative benefit. There are positive ones as well. The necessary validation for the statements to be made can be found in the references already given. It might be well to mention for