San Andreas independent., 1856-10-11

PHYSICAL PAIN OF DEATH.-A para
graph is going the rounds of the papers
giving the opinion of Lord Bacon and
others, that the pain of hanging is incon-
siderable. 1t is asserted, for example, that
after momentary feeling of sufocation
bright colors dance before the eyes and
stretch away into vistas of indescribable
loveliness There is no reason to doubt
the truth of this declaration, because nu-
merous instances have occurred of. persons
being cut down before life was extinct !;
and it was on the authority of we'll authen-
ticated examples of this character Lord
Bacon and others founded their opinion
Moreover, hanging, in its effect on the
human organism, produces results very
similar to those produced by some natural
diseases, so that this also affords criterion
for Judging. In case of drowning, like
wise, the testimony is universal that the
physical pain, up to the moment of con-
sciousness being lost, is quite inconsider-
able. The same phenomena of notes,
stars and beautiful lights dancing before
the eyes, has often been mentioned by in
dividuals restored after apparent death by
drowning.
1t is nearly certain-indeed, as certain
as anything chiefly speculative can be
that in all deaths the physical suffering is
small Even where invalids experience
the most excruciating agony during the
progress of the disease, nature comes to
their relief at the last hour, and life goes
out gently, like 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-
sidering the physical pain of death as in
considerable. They say that the convul-
sive motions, which frequently attend the
parting breath, are not evidences of suffer-
ing, for that the invalid is insensible-
They say also, that, when the senses are
retained, there is usually no such spasm.
A leading medical authority states that
scarcely one person in fifty is sensible at
the point of death; and some physicians
assert that they have never seen death
bed in which the patient was sensible. As
life fails, nature, it would seem, bene6-
GENTLY interposes, deadening the sensi-
bility Of the nerves, and otherwise pre-
pairing the individual for the great and
inevitable change.
These facts should teach all men, while
yet in health, ''to put their house in order
Many a father, by neglecting to make a
will, or keep his business always arranged,
has left his family an inheritance of liti-
cation, or entailed on them the severest
losses. Few are those, comparatively, who,
on a sick bed have sufficient clearness of
Intellect left to adjust entangled affairs,
provide for the contingencies of trade, or
even direct wisely the distribution of their
estate.
Death usually comes rapidly, in the
shape of short disease, leaving time for
nothing but wild and hopeless struggle
with the enemy. Or it comes so insidu-
ously as to beguile the victim and his
friends, up to 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, forget
ting that, to most Of us, death is always
sudden, coming, as Scripture truly says,
" like thief in the night" 1t is not for
its physical pain thatm should fear death,
but least it should overtake them ere they
have g 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 pangs Of the dying hour.
philadelphia Ledger.
FRUIT TREES IN THE COUNTY OF SAN