Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-09-25
PHYSICAL PAIN OF DEATH.

\ paragraph is going the rounds of the
papers giving the opinion of Lord Bacon
and others, that the pain of hanging is IN
considerable. 1t is asserted, for example,
that after momentary feeling of suffoca-
ton, 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 numerous
instances have occurred of persons being
cut down before life was extinct; and it was
on the authority Of well-authenticated exam
pies of this character that Lord Bacon and
others founded their opinion. Moreover,
hanging, in its effect on the human organ
ism, produces results very similar to those
produced by some natural diseases, 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
inconsiderable. The same phenomena Of
notes, stars and beautiful lights dancing be-
fo,e the eyes, has often been mentioned by
individuals 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 invaids experience the most
cxcruciating 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, espe-
cially if they have been intelligent persons,
and therefore capable of judging, agree gen.
orally in considering the physical pain of
death as inconsiderable. They say that the
convulsive motions, which frequently attend
the parting breath, are not evidences of suf-
fering, for that the invalid is insensible.-
They say also, that, when the senses are re-
tanned, there is usually no such spasm. A
leading medical authority states that scarce
ly one person in fifty is sensible at the point
of death and some physicians assert that
they have never seen deathbed in which
the patient was sensible. As life fails, ma
ture, it would seem, benefcently iuterposes,
deadeniug the seusibility of the nerves, and
otherwise preparing the individual for the
great aud inevitable change.
These facts should teach all men, while
yet in health, "to put their houses in order. Z"
Many a father, by neglecting to make will,
or keep his business always arranged, has
left his family an inheritance Of litigation,
or entailed on them the severest losses
Few are those, comparatively, who, on 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 estates.--
Death usually comes rapidly in the shape Of
a short disease, leaving time for nothing but
a wild and hopeless struggle with the enc
my. Or it comes so insidiously as to be-
guile 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 deliver
ed from it, forgetting 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 that men should
fear death, but lest it should overtakc them
ere they have "sct their house in dcr."-
To be leaving i family unprovided for, or to
have put off arrangements for settling up
ones affairs, is the real pang of the dying
hour-PhHadcLphia Ledger.