"veterinarians don't have that problem..."

From Philip Yancey in Books & Culture-- and his review of Pain and its Transformations: The Interface of Biology and Culture...

Yancey starts his review with a fascinating anecdote and its relevance to biology and Evolution...

When I called a physician friend for advice on an adverse reaction to anesthesia after minor surgery, he made the offhand comment, "You know, veterinarians don't have that problem. They measure out the dosage, give the injection, and the horse or dog or whatever responds according to the book." That simple observation could serve as a summary of what prompted Harvard conveners to bring together molecular biologists, neuroscientists, pain clinicians, psychiatrists, anthropologists, musicologists, and scholars of religion for the conference that spawned this book. Physiologically, pain in humans may resemble that of horses and dogs, but there the similarity ends....