Morning journal and courier., 1884-12-05
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Dr. G. L. Beardsley, in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, concludes that the dread of dying is quite as intense as the instinct of self-preservation. Indeed, it is not improba
 ble, adds the doctor that numbers would care less about living were the modes of leaving the world theme for happy con temptation, or an innovation to the routine of plodding that was agreeable. One is re markedly exempt from the crime of nasty induction if he affirms that there is no sane or healthy mortal who anticipates his extinc- tion with any degree of pleasure. The func- ton of dying is absolutely vegetative-we fall to pieces like "a flower. This very fact, that the process is chemilal, confirms us in the conclusion that the,fnal ''throe" is aspainless as the inconvenience is nothing to the foetal pilgrim when he touches on daylight A moments examination of the way are to die will show marks of goodness in our ''tak- ing off" The degree of sensibillty is pro- portioned to the integrity of the tissues. An inflammation heightens it; age depreciates 1t. Any defect in nutrition disturbs the comfort of the individual until the carbonic acid gen. erated in the deyitalization of the blood be- comes fixed in the cells or is no longer displaced. The sensory ganglia everywhere part with their irritability by virtue of this
  criteria of death are being satisfied, and the process is consummated when this extinction of sensibility prevails at the ultimate fila ments During the process of this dissolu- ton of the nerve force, this creeping on of the numbness of death, the individual is rapidly passing into condition of repose, and instead of torture bangs, degree of dissatisfaction oft approaching to enthu- siam is realized. The sensations to the therapeutical operation of opium, hasheesh, ether, etc., are not improb- ably akin to the mental activities of the dying. Barring the hallucinations experienced in the stupor, as it gains on the subject, the moribund is familiar with naught that bor- ders on suffering. This carbonic acid has poisoned or narcotized the several ganglia, and reflex productions are interdicted. A con summate analgesia prevails. In short, the notion of pain is forbidden the instant that any stimulus fails to excite a response. The condition of this irritabiIity is that the nerve center and track be sound. If this vigor vanishes, reflex phenomena are at an end, and suffering, physiologieally speaking, is i'm possible, because Of the arrest Of the tune tion of the sympathetic.
 Fortunately, for wholesome study of ones demise, there are assurances abundant from vivisection, the testimony of those who have been restored to consciousness, and the affirmation of the dying, that there is no physical recoil from death Burney tried hard to f6SlSC the eUOfGS made to r0SuSOltdG6 him from drowning, so bewitched was he by his prolonged alumher, Dr. Solander, the traveller, was so delighted with the sensa- | tions of excessive cold that he first to l lie down in the snow to realize the luxury of | such a death. William Hunter sorry he | was not able to ''write how easy and de- 1 lightfu1 it is to die." Infants die as serenely as they breathe and not a few among the
 advanced in years treat death as a friend to
 the infrmities. Hanging is naturally rated,
 next to crucifxion, most distressing pro 1 cedure But it isreported of those who have ! been saved from strangulation, that the agony promised to be brief, and was rapidly
 replaced by hallucination of a fascinating | variety.
 l One would fain believe that the kind God 1 who suffered as to feel no sigh in coming would take no delight in turning our farewell | into writhing-nay, he does not quit us at
 the last He is our greatest benefactor in allowing us to sleep out of weariness. Death | is, assuredly, no tax collector; it's s'jaws are
 not the clutches of an assailant; there is
 no ''victory to the grave;" the ghost speeds away from us as it entered, with no rutne. l The sense of death, as Shakespeare has it, is 1 most in apprehension. It is the fear of the
 lonely night, not the throes of nature, that
 makes the leaving painful.