The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-03-11
LIFE AND DEATH.

LIFE AND DEA II.
Messrs. Blanchard g. Lea have jus, pub
ished volume entitled assays on Life,
Sleep, Pain and Dea,h.'' The author is
Preseason Dickson, Of the South Carolina
Medical College. The work is one Of more
than ordinary value to the thoughtful, and
while it suggests many solemn reflections,
it abounds with facts and illustrations, al
once calculated to interest and excite inqui-
ry. Abiding to the condition Of mind snd
body, known us the trance, the author
states that many persons while SO absorbed
and paralyzed, have been buried alive
Pliny mentions the case Of man Of high
rank, who having expired some time, as il
was thought, was placed upon the funeral
pile. The heat of the flames revived him,
but he perished before his friends could
rescue him. Tho great anatomist Vesa-
Illus had the unspcakable misfortune to com
mence the dissection of a living body ap-
paren,ly dead. Less unhappy the fate Of
the Able Provost, who fell apoplectic, bur
recovered his consciousness-ioo late-un
der the scslpel. Preparations were made
to embalm the body of Cardinal Somag.ia.
The operator had scarcely penetrated into
the chest when the heart was seen TO beat.
Returning partially 10 his senses, he had
sufficient strength to push away the knife
but the lung was mortally wounded. In
one Of our journals is recorded the strange
ly interesting case of the Rev. MIR. Tennet,
Of New Jersey, who lay three days in his
shroud, and was saved from interment nj
most by miracle. We find collection BY
Bruhier Of no less than iifty-,wo cases Of
persons buried alive; four dissected pre-
maturely; fifty-three who recovered after
being coiiined; and seventy falsely con-
sidered dead.
Abiding to death, DR.. Dickson says that
be who has had his three sufficient warn
|ings, who like the monk Of the Ercural has
lost all his cotemporarcs, and is condemn
ed to hopeless solitude, and oppressed with
a consciousness Of dependence and imbe-
|cility, must look on death not as curse
but as refuge. Ofone hundred aud thir-
|ty-three suicides occurring in Geneva from
1925 to 1884, more than half we're above
fifty years Of age; thirty -four, from fifty to
sixty; nineteen, from sixty to seventy; /;
nine. from seventy TO eighty three, from
eighty to ninety, in all sixty-fve. The
mean term Of life in that city being about
thirty five or forty, this bears an immense
proportion TO the actual population above
Iti.ty, and exhibits forcibly an opposite con
dtion Of feeling to that alleged by Rush, o
wcarness of living, a desire to die, rather
than anxiety, or even willingness to live.
Our author adds:
81 once knew an old man of about one
hundred and four who retained many Of his
faculties. He could read ordinary prin,
without glasses, walked firmly, aud could
even leap with some agility. When last,
parted with him, wished him twenty years
more; upon which he grsspcd my hand
closely, and declared he would not let me
90 until had retractcd or reversed the
prayer.
"Strolling with my venerable md cs-
teemed colleague, Prof Stephen Elliott. one
afternoon, through field on the banks Of
the river Ashley, we came upon a Negro
basking iu the sun, the most ancient look
ing personage have ever seen. Oar at-
,emp,s, with his MD, to calculate his age,
were of course coniec,ural; but we were
satisfied that ho was far above one hun
drcd, Bald, too,hless, nearly blind, bent
almost horizontally, and scarcely capable
of locomotion, he was absolutely alone in
the world, living by permission upon q
place, from which the generation to which
his master and fellow-servnnts belonged
had long since disappeared. tle expressed
many an earnes, wish for death, and de