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

PHYSICAL PAIN OF DEATH.
A paragraph is going the rounds in tn
papers giving the opinion of Lord Bacon ant
others, that the pain of hanging is inconsid
erable. 1t is asserted, for example, that afte
a momenta.y feeling of suffocation, brigh
cOlors dance before the eyes and stretch away
into vstas of indescribab!e oveliness. Their,
is no reason to doubt the truth of his decara
ton, because numerous instances have occur
red of persons being cut down before life wa'
extinct; and it was on the authority of wei
authenticated examples of this character thai
Lord Bacon and others founded their opinion
Moreover, hanging, in IFS effects on the hu
man organism, produces results very similar
to those produced by some natural disease, SC
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
inconsiderable 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 ccrtain-indeed, as certain as
anything chiefly speculative can be-that in
all deaths the physical suffering is small
Even when invaids 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, agenerally in con.
sidering the physical pain of death as incon.
siderable. They say that the convulsve mo.
tions, which frequently attend the parting
breath, are not evidences of suffering, 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 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, bene6ciently interposes, deaden.
ing the sensibility 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 neglecting to make 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 a 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 insidously
as to beguile the victim and his friends, up 20
the last hour, with the hope of recovery, or
at least Of months of prolonged life. Men
dread sud den death, and pray to be delivered
from it, forgetting that, to most of US, death
is always sudden, coming as the scriptures
truly says, alike thief in the night" 1t is
not 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.