The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-11-07
PHYSICAL PAIN OF DEATH.

A paragraph is going the rounds in the
papers giving the opinion Of Lord Bacon and
others, that the pain Of hanging is inconsid-
cradle. 1t is asserted, for example, that after
momentuTy feeling of suffocation, bright
colors dance before the eyes and stretch away
into vistas of indescribab.e loveiness. There
is no reason to doubt the truth Of his declara-
tion, because numerous instances have occur
red Of persons being cut down before life was
extinct; and it was on the authority Of well
authenticated examples of this character that
Lord Bacon and others founded IN opinion.
Moreover, hanging, in its effects on the hu-
man organism, produces results very similar
to those produced by some natural disease, so
that this also affords criterion for judging.
In cases of drowning, likewise. the testimony
is universal that the physical pain, up to the
moment Of consciousness being lost, is quite
inconsiderabe. The same phenomena of
notes, stars, and beautiful lights dancing be-.
fore the eyes, has often been mentioned by
persons restored after apparent death by
drowning.
1t is nearly certain-indeed, as certain rs
anything chiefly speculative can be-that in
all deaths the physical suffering is small
Even when invalids experience the most ex.
crutiating agony during the progress of the
disease, nature comes to their relief at the last
hour, and life goes out gently, like a candle
in its socket. Those who have witnessed
death beds most frequently, especially, if they
have been intelligent persons, and therefore
capable Of judging, agree generally in con-
sdering the physical pain of death as ncon.
siderable. They say that the convusive mo.
tions, which frequently attend the parting
breath, are not evidences of suffering, for that
the invalid is insensibe. They say also, that
no such spasm.
A leading medical authority states scarcely
one person in fifty is sensible at the point of
death. and some physicians assert that they
have never seen u death bed in which the
patient was sensible. As life fails, nature, it
would seem, benefcienty interposes, deaden.
ing the sensbility of the nerves, and other.
wise preparing the individual for the great
and inevitable change.
These facts should teach all men, while yet
in health, "to put their houses in order."-
Many father, by negl, citing to make a will,
or keep his business always arranged, has left
his family an Inheritance Of litigation, or en-.
tailed on them the severest LOSSES Few of
those, comparatively, on sick bed, have
sufficient clearness Of intellect left to adjust
entangled affairs, provide for contingencies of
trade, or even to direct wisely the distribution
of their estates. Death usually comes rapidly
in the shape of a short disease, leaving time
for nothing but wild and hopeless struggle
with the enemy. Or it comes SO insidiously
MS to begule the victim and his friends, up 70
the last hour, with the hope of recovery, or
at least of months of prolonged life. Men
dread sudden death, and pray to be delivered
from it, forgetting that, to most of us, death
is always sudden, coming as the scriptures
truly says, "like thief in the night" 1t is
.:Dt for its physical pain that men should fear
death, but lest it should overtake them ere
they have set their "house in order" To be
leaving family unprovided for, or to have
put off arrangements for settling up ones
affairs, is the real pang of dying man.