Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-11
aPAlNLEssneoEATHN
The Process Of Physical Dissolution mat
"t' tended with Pain. e

The Process of Physical Dissolution Unat-
A+ 4 tended with Pain. nee
A writer concludes that the dread of
dying is quite as intense as the instinct
of preservation. Indeed. it is not inn
probable that numbers would care less
about living were the modes of leaving
the world a theme for happy oontem-
plation, or an innovation to the routine
Of plodding that was agreeable. One
10 remarkably exempt from the crime
Of hasty induction if he afirms that
there is no a N or healthy mortal who
anticipates the extinction with n
degree of pleasure. Pie function of
dying is absolutely vegetable-we fall
to pieces like a flower. This very fact
that the process is chemical, confirms
us IN the conclusion that the final
'throe" is as painless as the incon-
%venience is to the fetal pilgrim when
he touches IN daylight. A moments
examination of the way we are to die
will show marks of goodness in u
taking off" The degree of sensibility
is proportional to the integrity of the
tissues. An Inflammation heightens it,:
age depreciates it. Any defect in
nutrition disturbs the comfort of the
individual until the carbonic acid gen
Grated in the LIBERALIZATION of the
blood becomes fixed in the cells or is
no longer displaced The sensory
ganglia everywhere part with their
irritability by virtue of this poison, and
cease to conduct currents. The cri-
terra of death are being satisfied, and
the process is consummated when this
extinction of %sensibility prevails at the
ultimate flament. During the pro-
gress of this dissolution of the nerve
force, this creeping OF the numbness of
death, the individual is rapidly passing
into a condition Of repose, and instead
OF torture or pangs a degree of SELF
satisfaction oft approaching to enthu-
siasm is realized. The sensa-
ton peculiar to the therapeutic
cal operations of opium, hasheesh,
ether. ETC., are not improbably
akin to the mental activities of the
dying. Barring the h~a,lucinations ex-
perienced in the stupor, as it gains on
the subject. the moribund is familiar
with naught that borders on suffering.
This carbonic acid has poisoned or
narcotized the several ganglia, and
reflex productions are interdicted. A
consummate analgesia prevails. In
short. the notion of pain is forbidden
the instant that any stimulus fails to
excite a response. The condition to
this irritability is that the nerve center
and track be sound. If this vigor van
ishes, reflex phenomena are at an end,
and suffering, physiologically speak
ing, is impossible, because of the arrest
of the functions of the sympathetic.
Fortunately, for a wholesome study
of ones demise. there are assurances
abundant from ~vivisection, the testi-
mony of those who have been restored
to consciousness, and the atfirmations
of the dying that there is no physical
recoil from death. Burney tried hard
to resist the efforts made to resuscitate
him from drowning, SO bewitched was
he by his long slumber. DR.. Solander,
the traveller, was so delighted with the
sensations of excessive cold that he was
the first to lie down in the snow to
realize the luxury of such a death!
William Hunter was sorry he was not
able to ''write how easy and delightful
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 their intirmities. Hanging is
naturally rated, next to crucifixion, a
most distressing procedure. But it is
reported of those who have been saved
from strangulation, that the agony
promised to be brief, and was rapidly
replaced by hallucination of a fascinat-
ing variety.-A Physician, IN Medical
and Surgical Reporter.