Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-04-05
5tlistellameuns &eading.
SENSATIONS WHEN DYING.


of persons on the point of death are, undoubt
edly, to certain extent, erroneous. The ap
pearance of extreme agony which is often pre-
sented under these circumstances, is due tt
mere muscular agitation, independent of any
extraordinary sensibility of the nerves of feel
ing. Those who die natural death, in th'
very last stages of existence, are scarcely con
scious of bodily su8ering-not more thar
they frequently are to the attentions and 80
licitude of friends.
Those who die by violence or accident, un
doubtedly experience degree of pain proper
tionate to the extent of the bodily mutilation
Hanging is, doubtless, an unpleasant mode o
death but few, after all, "shufle off thi
mortal coil" more easily than those who arr
suspended by the neck. 1t is akin to drown
ing in this respect. The blood Immediately
seeks the head and soon deprives it of all con
scousness. The efforts to inhale the air
which are kept up for some time after the core
is attached, and which causes such violent
movements of the chest and extremities, arise
from the influence of the spinal marrow
whose sensibility is not so soon destroyed by
the congestion of blood as that Of the brain
Persons who die by decapitation, most prob
ably suffer more, though their pain is only
momentary; this is the case with those who
blow out their brains The sensation pro-
duced by ball passing through the body
would be difficult to describe by one who had
never experienced it, but it is something sim
gular in this case that those who are shot, al
though the "leaden messenger of death" may
not have penetrated any essential vital organ
Immediately fall to the earth, apparently un.
der an Irresistible feeling of their approaching
return to dust, exclaiming, as it were, invol'
UNFAIRLY, II am dead man."
A dagger wound in the heart, for the few
moments which are consummated in the ebb'
ing of life, must occasion unutterable feelings
of agony, independent of the mere sensations
of pain in the parts sundered by the entrance
of the blade. The rushing out Of the blood,
at each convulsive pulsation of the heart,
must seem like the actual spectacle Of the
flow of life.
Those who are crushed to death may not
expire instantly, unless the Uranium happens
to be involved in the casualty. Where the
skull is not fractured, there is probably an in.
conceivable agony for few seconds-a flash.
ing thought of home, friends and family, and
all is over. Those who are cut in two by a
heavily.burdened railroad carriage, must ex-
perience some similar sensations.
If the neck is broken low down, the person
does not necessarily die on the instant. His
situation is the most distressing of any which
can be imagined. He may live and have a
being for days; but he cannot move. His
face may express all the passions, feelings and
emotions; but beyond the motions of his
breast and countenance, bis energies do not
20. His arms are pinioned at his side; bis
legs are lifeless, and he essentially beholds his
body in the grave, while he is yet in full pos
session of his faculties. The least disturb
ance of his position is liable to launch him at
once into eternity.
In taking laudanum, person exists in a
state of insensbility for length of time, a
melancholy spectacle to bis friends. In pois-
oning from arsenic, great amount Of suffer.
ing is undergone. The sensibility of the
stomach is exceedingly acute when inAamed,
and the effect of arsenic is to produce inHam.
nation of the viscus Prussic acid is rapid
and acts by paralyzing the brain.
In rejecting on the horrors which death
presents under these different aspects of vio-
ience, the mind becomes overcome with dis
gust We cannot do better than turn to the
contemplation of its features in the milder
course of disease, where, if the mind be at
ease, the final exit is made without any of
those revolving exhibitions of bodily suffering.
BIBL1oeRAPH1cAL ERRORS AND BLUM.
DERs.-Some eighty years ago newspaper
reader wrote a private letter to Mr.. Woodfall,
at that time publisher of the Morning Chrons-
Gle, London daily paper. This letter com.
planned of Woodfalls want of respect for the
crowned heads of Europe, whom he called
not "potentates," but "potatos," and protested
against Frederic the Great being denominated
"The Nero of Prussia" instead of the hero.
The edition of the Holy Bible (the Vulgate
text) executed by order of Pope Sextus v,
was intended to be free from literal errors,
and every sheet was narrowly examined as it
was printed. Nevertheless it abounds with
errata, and most of the copies that had passed
into the hands of the public were called in.
Some few remain in the collection Of the Gu
rious, and single copy would be cheap at
$1,000. In Germany, a printers wife stole
into the Office where new Bible edition was
in hand, and, to alter the sentence Of subjec.
tion to her husband, pronounced upon Eve in
the third chapter of Genesis, took out the
first letters of the words herr, and put "na''
in their place, by which the text was altered
from "and he shalt be thy lord" (herr) to
"and be shalt be thy fool" (narr.) Her life
is said to have paid for this. The few copies
of the Bible which got out before this inten-
tional erratum was discovered have been pur.
chased at enormous prices. The Vinegar
Bible derives its title from an edition of Holy
Writ which contains an erratum in the title
to the twentieth chapter of St. Luke, in which
parable of the Vineyard" is printed para
BILE of the Vinegar" This edition was print.
ed in the year 1717 by the University of Ok
ford, at their Clarendon Press.
In another edition, printed in Londen,
"Thou shalt commit adultery" was printed as
the seventh commandment, omitting the neg
tive. This was also said to have been wo-
mans mischievous work. The Archbishop of
Canterbury, when the alteration came under
his notice, laid on the Worsbipful Company
of Stationers in London the heaviest fine that
ever was recorded in the annals of literary
history. The amount was 100000.
CARRYING THEIR Own BRIMsToNE.-Af.
ter service in place where the people had
been good deal bewildered by selfordain.
ed preacher, who accepted only so much of
the Bible as suited his whims, and who was
wont to make merry over the idea of future
man stepped up to me, and
said in canting voice: Bishop, do you be-.
leve in hell?" I said: "Are you anxious