The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-23

there lB n hre OF Bl0Wly-Durnlng charcoal.
The air gradually becomes so impure that IL
cannot furnish the lungs with the amount Of
oxygen requisite to support life, and death
occurs as from suffocation; but so gradual is
the process that any discomfort the victim
NAV experience is not sufficient 60 waken
him, and the dreams Of death become com
mingled with those of sleep which never
terminates.
II is when nature is struggling to re-
sist the approach of death that there is
pain. In death from old age there is
no such struggle. Nature yields, be-
cause the time to do SO has come. The
machine has been actually worn out and it is
not necessary to rudely break it by violence.
There is, then, no first stage, unless the whole
period Of life may be 30 called; but the
dreamy, quiet second stage creeps over the
aged person, and, without any appearance of
pain he sinks to his rest As affording
some countenance to what we have at
tempted to prove, we are glad to quote
the words of an eminent medical author
and teacher of Edinburgh, DIR. w. Aitken:-
Death by extreme old age may
be considered, in many instances, as the de-
sirable end of a long-continued, and, per-
hops, dreary journey. The sufferer appears
to fall asleep, as he might do after severe
fatigue. The long and weary journey of life
is thus often brought to a close with little ap-
parent arrangement of the ordinary mental
powers; the final scene is often brief, and the
phenomena Of dying are almost impercep-
tible. The senses fail as if sleep were about
to supervene; the perceptions become gra-
dually more and more obtuse, and, by degrees,
the aged man seems to pass into his final
slumber. We scarce can tell the precise in
slant at which the solemn change from life
to death has been completed. Sensation
fails first, then voluntary motion; but
the powers of involuntary muscular
contraction, under the excitement of
some external stimulus, may continue
for some time longer to be freely expressed.
The blood generally ceases first to be pro-
PEELED to the extremities. The pulsations of
the heart become less and less efficient. The
blood fails to complete its circuit, so that the
feet and hands become cold as the blood
leaves them, and the decline of temperature
gradually advances to the central parts.
Thus far the act of dying seems to be as
painless as falling asleep; and those who have
recovered after apparent death from drown
ing, and after sensation has been totally lost,
assert that they have experienced no pain
What is called significantly the agony of
death, may therefore be presumed to be
purely automatic, and therefore unfelt. The
mind, doubtless, at that solemn moment,
may be absorbed with that instantaneous
review of impressions made upon
the brain in bygone times, and
which are said to present themselves with
such overwhelming power, vividness andforce,
that, in the words of Montaigne, we appear
to lose, with little anxiety, the consciousness
of light and of ourselves. At such time,
the vivid impressions of life well spent must
constitute that euttanGSi0-that happy death
to be desired by all.
You shall go home directly, LIE Fevre,
said my uncle Toby, to my house, and we'll
send for doctor to see what's the matter,
and we'll have an apothecary, and the corpo
raj shall be your nurse; and Ill be your SER
want, lie Fevre.' **
1.-The blood and spirits of lie Fevre, which
were waring cold and slow within him, and
were retreating to their last citadel, the heart,
rallied back; the film forsook his eyes for a
moment; he looked up wistfully in my uncle
Toby's face, then cast look upon his boy
and that hgament, fine as it was, was never
| broken.
Mature instantly ebbed again; the film
returned to its place the pulse futtered-
stopped-went on-throbbed- stopped again
moved d-stopped-shall go on? No."