Word: threshold
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...machine called a dolorimeter, which measures pain in grams. It would have made the Marquis de Sade very happy. Just put the victim's leg on the leg rest, put the pressure inductor on his shin bone and pump up the pressure until it hurts. That indicates the threshold at which pain begins (and the victim-however Spartan-is supposed to yell). The threshold varies from 500 (for the Gummidge type) to 2,700 grams, depending on the person's nervous system...
...people who already have a pain. It can measure pain anywhere in the body-Marat's itch, Prometheus' pecked liver and Job's ulcers would have been equally fair game. The machine is applied to the patient's leg and the squeeze increased beyond the threshold, up & up until the agonized shin bone makes the patient forget his neuralgia or whatever was hurting him. A reading at that point gauges the severity of the neuralgia, the sores or the itch. By comparing the first day's pain intensity with successive days' recordings, the progress...
...cost, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said in London, was "very great." But he added: "Now we stand on the threshold of Germany...
...perhaps our friend is right--what with the war and all, Jester has forgotten to tread lightly while crossing the sacred threshold...
...black man in his native continent. At last February's trail-blazing French Empire conference in Brazzaville, he had served as honorary chairman, helped promote a policy of "Africa for the Africans." Now, within the French Empire, the Governor General said optimistically, his people stood on the threshold of full citizenship, even of social and economic equality with whites...