Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-04
WHAT rs DEATH?
Paradoxieal as 1t May Seem, Mr.. Fair
child, Physicist, OF New York, Says
There is No such Thing.
There are Physical and Psyehieal Bodies
Some More Asserted yisitations by
Spirits to Prove 1t.

Francis Gerry Fsirchild, of New York,
found himself, few days ago, the subject of
much questioning as 10 an article on death
from the pen of the great French writer, NJ.
Renau. On the street and in his Office be
was invited BY friends to give his views about
il, which he did in a lengthy letter to the
New York Times, in which he sustains the
position taken by Prof. Crookef, Of England,
and the late Prof. Zollner, of Germany, and
assumes that there ia no such thing as death;
that when life leaves the body it merely
marks the passage of the ethereal psychical
body Gas St. Paul and Prof. Crookes call it,
into another sphere, leaving an old house the
insect life, in which, BY its voracity, expresses
what is usually denominafed its decay. Mr..
Fairchild assumes with st. Paul shat there
is q physical body and there is psychicsl
body" and then be proceeds TO discuss how
the latter, instead of perishing with lis ma
terial envelope, continues 10 invest the human
spirit with glorifedform. Among the media
val writers ANNA, and in old Englieh the
word soul, embr aces The two essential factors
of life in the othsr world, namely, the spirit,
or conscious being Of man, and the psychical
body; and many and curious are The specu-
lations of old writer's as to the question
whether the psychical body was immaterial
or composed of some, subtle and ethereal
form Of matter. The modern spiritualists,
accepting Prof. Crookes and Sergt. Cox as
their highest authorities on the subject,
have substantially reproduced the Pauliau
theory OF mans being; and, in point Of fact,
the balance of scienti6c evidence is in their
favor. With this explanation of the differ
ence between the spiritual and the physical
bodies, the same as was advanced by the
APPEAL last Sunday in its discussion Of
"Ghosts and Dreams" Christ and St.Paul
being quoted as the highest authorities on
the question, Mr.. Fairchild asks, "What is
death?" question he proceeds to answer as
follows:
Paradoxical as the assertion seems to the Or
binary mind, uniformed as TO the latest revela-
lions of the microscope there is no such thing as
death in the sense of extinction of life. Guam
body consists Of matter that actually Iives; fot
according to Prof Beale, though such TISSUES as
enticle muscular, hber, the tinger-nais, the hair
PARTICLES they not living matter in the proper
acceptation of the term, but matter that has
once passed tnroign tne cGnaitl0n Oh me ana Is
ammonia, carbonic acid, urea. and so on; so that
the question whether the contraction of muscle
cided cathedra. In point Of fact, therefore, in
dependent of the standard analysis of the body
into water and other constituents, laid down in
he -hO0kg II ia SukppDtibla 0uantita-
tive analysis of far deeper Significance. at diff
ferent ages there Is some variation In the COM
matter in the human body. the former being
relatively larger in infancy and youth than in
manhood, and constantly diminishing as age ad-
vances but, on the average fully nfnety-fve per
cent. of a living man is already dead; and the
process of death-that is, OF the transformation OF
protoplasm into formed material or ttssue-is one
that forms the primary basis OF human life; SO
that the very process OF living is interlinked to
death. Every thought every act of ideatfon, every
contraction Of muscle, every. impression Of the
a given Quantity of matter that previously lived.
the living matter OF the body Is composed oil
units OF protoplasm styled cells-minute, origin
ally spherical elements each of which, independ
emily considered, is microscopic being, possess
ing an individual life history of its own. From
iorty to sixty days repfesent probably the average
of O human life from infancy to age
many generations Of eeIl-life are embraced;
Sefore he comes sisavis with the final ystery.
is by groups OF these little bodies acting in con-
cert and concurring together to produce single
result, that the complex tissues OF organic life are
created and maintained, each of these myriads OF
independent lives being microscopic laboratory
for the evolution of the formed materials OF
mnscie, bone. nerve and membrane, by means OF
which our higher functions are executed. Now
and then cell. or group of cells, rebels against
then comes morbid development. such as cancer
tubercle. 1t is now settled fact of physiology
that when q man dies-that is, when the fune-
tionai life is arrested-these little bodies resume
their action as independent centers OF living mat
ter SO that, quantitatively speaking, there Is no
less life in the body as IL lies in its coffin habited
for the grave than there was when the eye still
softeued with tenderness, the busy brain laid
plans fot the future, or the active had guided th
ben or the pencil; and the collective amount OF
microscopic Lille in the form of minute organisms
that will be generated by the dead body in
the progress OF decomposition is an excellent
equivalent for the amount of living matter that it
originally contained. In other words death, in
the sense of extinction OF LIE is fiction of our
ana cell-groups have ceased to concur in the exc.
cution of the higher purposes of organic life but
in the old myth; devout the. tissues they hsve
created But II death ia in reality fiction and il
the body in its coffin is no less living than before,
what mysterious entity or energy was 1t that, low
departed, once controlled and subordinated these
millions Of cell lives to the higher purposes of a
the ethereal psychical body with its special group
of energies tfansfusug and idealizing the grosseI
physical body; and he would point 70 the fac,
that human life is COMPOSED of two lives. inter
woven together. but fundamentally distinct, in
evidence of his hypothesis.
"There is thus" says Mr.. Fairchild, Sin
the deepest facts OF science indubitable evil
dence of the existence Of higher spiritual
and psschical being inLerAoten With our
physical lives; and, if this be so, death is
but translation into higher and more
beautiful form OF life. But it must not be
forgotten that the same argument that APP
plies TO nan applies to the ant or fly tina,
buzzes its little day and perishes. Why not
What is man more than fy, except in
he m atter OF avoirdupoise?