The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1869-04-06

meet, aHd HaBter prepared io keep his
/ promise He was aware q the risk be
ran, II, As was likely, be should lie op.
i posed for be bad 20 control over bis
temper, and be expressed his fears that
dispute would prove fatal to bis lie.
/ Arrived al 81, Georges Hospital. be
found The Board assembled, and enter.
ing the room, presented The Petiiion o.
the young men. aud proceeded 10 urge
the proprety Of their being admitted
In The course d his rsmarks be made
some observation which one OF his col
leagues hatly eoalrAdielod. Huater
immediately ceased speaking. retired
from the table, seemed struggling tore
press HIS emotions, and cell dead upon
the floor.
1t isa curious but well established
fact that III The bours from ten in the
morning until midnight deaths more
rarely occur than from m dnigbt until
ten in the forenoon 1.-THE latter being
forty FIVE per cent more than the for
mer and that more deaths occur from
five to SIX o'clock in the morning than
during all other hours Of the day.
Within seven or eight hours after
death a rigidi,y comes upon the body
II is not confined to the external mus
cles, but is m anifested in the great or
lesser blood-yessels. and in the heart.
The duration Of this rigidity is ogdinar-
lily from twenty-four TO thirty-six hours,
when il entirely passes away. When
the body is greatly emaeiated or weak
ened by pain, or distorted by long con-
tinued disease, it comes ON sooner aud
is more eyanescent. The researches Of
physiology fail to account for it. 1t
seems like the final act of life, and has
been supposed to be the last effort OF
muscular power The analogy it pre-
sents to the coagnlation Of the blood
has led TO the belief that it was depend
ent upon that. Neither OF these solu-
tions is now regarded satisfactory. The
peculiar beauty Of the human face in
death, that rapture Of repose" to which
Byron alludts in the Giaour, improves
as the rigidity passes away from the
body, and is most perfect three days af-
ter death.
It was for long time popular su-
perstition that the countenance preser-
we'd in death the impress the mind up
on it in dying. Such is not the case -
Neither anger nor ferocity. as might be
supposed to exist where death came
from assassination; neither lear nor an
gnsh, where it occurred from the tor
ture OF the RACK, remains upon the fea-
tures. The same repose OF fcountenance
the same indication Of placid rest steals
over the last sleep Leslie, the royal
academician, speaking in his autobio-
grapby Of having been frequently order
ed to make drawings of the dead, and
of the reluctance with which in every
case be entered the room where the
body lay, says that the faint indications
Of a smile which always lighted up the
features of the dead, as he sat at work
so attracted him that be invariably felt
reluctant to go away
There is no doubt that causes wholly
unc onnected with the state OF mind or
feeling at the time OF dissolution con-
tribute to beautify tho features. Anto-
marcbi's cast, taken from the face of
Napoleon after death, is handsomer
than any bust or portrait of him. Hum
boldt's head, wrought in marble by the
sculptor from the cast taken after his
death, is not only more grand than 9TH
en- numerous busts during his life, but
looks like man Of sixty rather than
ninety-ene; and Lockhart remarks that
there never was modelled more majes-
tic image Of repose than the body OF
Sir Walter Scott presented a few hours
after death. In each OF these cases
death added to the beauty Of faces OF
fine proportions without any relation to
metaphysical causes. 1t is always so.
The faint smile which steals over the
face after consciousness has ceased, and
that tranquil repose of the dead to
which, in comparison, even the sleep Of
an infant is agitation, are parts of the
unfathomable mystery that surround
as