Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1869-09-25
From Appleton's Journal
Death from a Scientific Point of View,

1t is a law of nature that whatever has
beginning must have an end, the idea of
death itself being associated with birth.
But this term Of life, the moment that
reduces to inert matter the body which
life had animated, may arrive, sooner or
later, accidentally or naturally.
Accidental death happens when one of
the essential organs of life, from some cause
or other ceases to act; these principal or
gans being the brain, lungs and heart.
The action of the brain, however, may
be almost wholly suppressed, and yet life
continue; breathing may be for some time
suspended, and yet life linger within; but
when the beating of the heart ceases, then
life is extinct.
Accidental death, therefore, is all the
more rapid from its cause acting more i'm
mcdiatcly on the circulating centre; it
may happen at all ages, although it is much
more frequent in the earlier than the later
stages of existence.
Natural death is much rarcr; accidents or
disease almost always consuming life before
the period primitively fixed upon by Ma
ture.
1t may also happen at more or less ad-
vanced age, according to the peculiarities
of constitution, sex, race, climate, etc.
When the work of destruction follows its
usual course, life departs in an opposite
sense from the one in which it had been
developed; in the embryo, life seems to
march from the heart to the remoter or
sans, but in the old man it gradually for
sakcs his body from the circumference to
the centre. Then the members, becoming
motonlcss, and obeying the law of heavi-
ness, loose their sensibility and heat; and
the muscles no longer obey the will, even
if the will exist; the skin becomes cold
and dry, or is covered with viscous
sweat; the face assumes a characteristic
aspect. and appears emaciated the eyes
withdraw deep into their orbits, the cornea
is unsettled, the cyeids are half closed by
the lowering Of the upper one, the cheek
bones become prominent, the nose droops,
and the discolored lips are parted and
puckcrcd The voice, like thought, be-
comes incohercnt the eyes lose their pow
crs of vision, and the oltactory nerves are
inscnsible to odors; but hearing is among
the last of the faculties that leave him.
The abdominal and pectoral visccra cease
to fulfill their functions, drinks fall into
the nsophagus as into an inert tube;
breathing becomes short, slow, and irrcgu-
lar, now suspended, now renewed. tcrmin-
ating finally in the last gasp. The pulse
beats rapidly but fainter and fainter, Of
tering numerous remittances until it ceases
to be appreciabc The heart still contin-
ucs beating leebly and irregularly and at
last contraction marks the moment that
separate life from death. No vcstige of
life now remains, except in certain It's
sues, which even for some time after death,
retain organic properties; the capilares
are contracted, so as to drive into the veins
all the blood they contain; the irritability
of the muscles is demonstrated when placed
under the influence of the voltaic pile.
These last phenomena of life soon disap-
pear, then the blood dccomposes, its liquid
parts infltratng the tissues, and its solid
elements being deposited either on the
heart or on the sides of the vessels. Then
follows decomposition, which slowly and
mystcriously reduces the whole to water,
carbonc acid and ammonia, being the pro-
ducts into which are resolved all animal
matters in state of putrefaction. These
matters of complex composition return to
the inorganic combinations which enabled
the plants to elaborate them; thus the
study of putrefaction, at first so revolving,
acquires special philosophical interest,
while revealing to us chain-work of phe-
nomena admirable on account Of its beau
tiful simplicity.