The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-02-12
SENSATIONS WHEN DYING.

oENSA1lONS WHEN DHINGs
The popular ideas relative to the suffer-
ings of persons on the point of death are
undoubtedly to certain extent erroneous.
The appearance of extreme agony which is
often presented under these circumstances
is due to mere muscular agitation, indie
pendent of any extraordinary sensibility OF
the nerves of feeling. Those who die a
natural death in the very last stages of ex-
istence are scarcely conscious of bodily suf-
fering-not more than they frequently are
to the attentions and solicitude of friends.
Those who die by violence or accident
undoubtedly experience degree of pain
proportionate to the extent of the bodily
mutilation. Hanging is doubtless an un-
pleasant mode of death; but few, after all,
"shufIle off this mortal coil'' more easily
than those suspended by the neck. 1t is
akin to drowning in this respect. The
blood Immediately seeks the head and soon
deprives it of all consciousness. The Ell
forts to inhale the air, which are kept up
for some time after the cord is attached,
and which causes such violent movements
of the chest and extremities, arise from the
influence of the spinal marrow, whose SEN
sbility is not so soon destroyed by
the congestion of the blood as that of the
brain.
Persons who die by decapitation most
probably suffer more, though their
pain is only momentary; this is the case
with those who blow out their brains.
The sensation produced by ball passing
through the body would be difficult to de-
scribe by one who has never experienced it,
but it is something in this case that those
who are shot, although the "leaden mes
senger of DEATH may not'ha~e penetrated
any essentially vital organ, Immediately
fall to the earth, apparently under an ir-
resistible feeling of their approaching re-
turn to dust, exclaiming, as it were, in
voluntarily, "I am dead man."
A dagger wound in the heart, for the
few moments that are consumed in the eb-
bing 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 aow of life.
Those who are crushed to death may not
expire instantly, unless the Uranium hap
pens to be involved in the casualty. Where
skull is not fractured there is probably an
inconceivable agony for few seconds-a
flashing thought of home, friends and
family, all is over. Those who are cut in
two by heavily burdened railroad car
riage must experience some similar sensa
tions.
If the neck is broken low down the per
son does not necessarily die on the instant.
His situation is the most distressing of any
which can be imagined. He may live and
have being for days, but he cannot
move. His face may express all the pas
sions, feelings and emotions, but beyond
the motions of his breast and countenance
his energies do not 60. His arms are pin
ioned to his side, his legs are lifeless and
he essentially beholds his body in the grave,
while he is yet in full possession of his
faculties. The least disturbance of his
position is liable to launch him at once into
eternity.
In taking laudanum a. person exists in
state of insensibility for a length of time, a
melancholy spectacle to his friends. In
poisoning from arsenic a great amount of
suffering is undergone. The sensibilty of
the stomach is exceedingly acute when in
famed, and the effect of arsenic is to pro-
duce fatal inflammation of the viscus.
Prussic acid is rapid, and acts by paralyz-
ing the brain.
In rejecting on the horrors which death
presents under the different aspects of vio-
lence the mind becomes satisfied with dis
gust. We cannot do hetter than turn to
the contemplation of its feature 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.