Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-06-19
WHEN DO WE DIE.

WHEN DO WE DIE.
The Phenomena OF Death-sleep the
scnbiancc OF Final DIssol nj ion-T
Dead Temporarily Restored TO Life.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
Since the latter end of the eighteenth
century, when Bichat wrote his wonderful
treatise Recherches Physiolopioues Sut
LII Vie ct La Mort" physiolog ists have
added Il thousand fold to our knowledge of
the phenomena Of life, but until recently
scarcely ono jot or ono title to q correct
perception OF death. One, however, is 30
incxtricably allied to the other that u
scientific apprehension Of life, its energies
and sutforings, cannot over DO hoped for
without corresponding examination of
physical dissolution. And this word dis
solution we use with authority, for L,ob.
niz's doct riae Of death is US Justly cele.
brated as his theory of life. Lie6niz. in
his celebrated lottor to Arnauld, held thu:
birth is nothing but tho development or
evolution ola living being already formed,
and that corruption or death is similarly
nothing but the involution of the same
living entity, even 10 what We call death,
preserving and maintaining its pristine
vitality. Thus, according to this eminent
thinker, life and death arc merely changes
in the order and harmony of tho living
body: and consequently death mere dis.
solution of the ties Of so.called human
lite. Blchat went o step beyond this, OF
rather, perhaps, gave US less metaphys
ical conception Of the idea Of the great
German. lie considered the brain, the
heart, and the lungs as species of vital
tripod, and endeavored to ascertain how
tar the death OF one or the other Of these
great organs influence or determine the
collapse OF the remaining functions of the
body.
Very recently Bichaps investigations
have been pursued to q still further point,
the distinction between organic death and
apparent death has been still moro broad.
ly drawn, and recent experiments have
proved beyond doubt that death does
not attack life with single stroke, as it
were, Of q sword blade, but that member
dies after member, that one function loses
Its vitality after another, and more
strangely still, it seems eminently proba-
BILE that even after decapitation the trunk.
less head can tor time be restored to
sentient life. The resemblance between
sleep and death, that relationship Of which
ah poets from Homer and Virgil to Mrs.
Romans and Shelley have sung, has been
proved in manner even their intuition
could scarcely have dreamed Of. In sleep
one sense fades away completely before
another is affected. Tho eyes are sight
less long before the ears have ceased to
hear, and the will power is lost while the
imagination remains in full activity. 1t
is the same in that living death which, in
spite OF NJ. Gustave Flourens, extreme old
age generally resembles. The senses fail
In succession. The ear becomes insensible
to sound, the touch is blunted, perfumes
loose their fragrance, the eye il darkened,
and the taste frequently is the only evi.
dence Of sentient animal life. There are
exceptions-the lightning before death, p
US Shakespeare calls it, but they arc rare.
A few hours before Beethoven died hil
hearing and full voice returned to the
stricken musician, but that he himself
heard the prayers ho repeated is one Of
those anomalies in nature which furnish
tho exception to prove the rule.
And as we have already said, it is nov
proved that it is the same with death. i
seems at first sight that death intervenel
as soon US tho heart ceases to beat, be
cause the circulation being thereby az
rested, it is impossible to keep up a suppl.
OF nutrition to the several organs. Blu
modern researches have shown that this il
very fur from being actually the case
There are hundreds of nervous enereie
which retain a certain living activity lon,
after the heart has lost its own proper &C
t!vity. 1t has been conclusively proved thu
the hair and the nails have in ma nv caae
grown long after death, and Spallazan
has added yet more important fact. H
fed CROW, Immediately killed it, an,
placed It in temperature equal to that o
the body Of the bird when alive. 81.
hours aftcrward he opened its stomach, an
discovered that the food had been thor
ougbly digested. Another physician, NJ
Robin, u Frenchman, experimental upol
a victim of the guillotine. and found thu
the heart continued to beat nearly IN hou
after the loss of the head, and that tn
removal of the liver, the stomach, and tn,
intest'nes had no apparent effect in. des
troying It's action. In 1858, NJ. Brow
SeQuard, one of the ahlest Psychologists O
the day, carried this experimentstiil fur
Their. lilo carefully decapitated dog, an'
ten minutes afterward applied the galvan
ic current to the head. No movelnen
was perceptible. He then placed to tn
four arteries found at tho section of tn,
neck, clyster pipes communicating b.
tubes with q reservoir Of the fresh oxygen.
ated blood, and observed the penetration
Of tho blood into the vessels Of tie head
AT once there were irregular movement
in the eyes and the muscles Of the face
regular contractions apparently d;recte,
by the will succeeded, and for quartz
Of an hour during which the injection Q
the blood into the cerebral arteries con
tinued, the head to all outward semblanc
was restored to life. The tubes wer
then removed, motion ceased with IN ago
nizcd shudder and death ensued. Tn
question was at once asked whether sucl
q resurrection were not applicable 10 ma,
also, and MIR. Robin entreated NJ. Brow,
Sequard to make the attempt. So con
vinced was be, however, that the funo
tons Of life were thoroughly restored b,
the process, that he refused TO experiment
upon the head OF any man, executed ate
tho French mode, upon the ground that h
could not consent to be party to the tor
lures either head Or trunk would underg,
when by his means temporarily restore,
to life.
Another Psychologist, Nj. Paul Bert, ha
pursued the same train Of investigation b,
another method. Reasoning from Browi
Sequard and Robins experiments, and up
On the we'll known fact that after apparent
death the muscles become rigid by dc.
grees only, first those of the jawbone,
then of the abdomen, then of tho neck
and then Of the breast, aud convinced thai
organic death is matter Of more pro
longed graduation than is generally bcliev.
ed, he cut of the tails of two old rats and