The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1886-10-24

A Doctors Testimony as to the Time
When Men Die.

A Doctors Testimony as to the Time
When Men Die.
Mr.. Francis Gerry Fairfield. writing
from the shore town of Madison, Conn.,, to
the Albany argus, relates the appended
curious facts concerning the simultaneous
occurrence of death, in most cases, with
the ebb of the tide. Mr.. Fairfield first
speaks of Dickens acceptance of this idea.
way of Illustrating his subject, the old
doctor went on to tell story in some par
ticulars parallel to that of Barkis. This
young man was very skeptical as to the
basis in fact of the ancient notion, and SO
addressed himself for three years to the
verifcation of the alleged relation, by
ascertaining the hour and minute of every
death that came under his notice, and COM
pairing that data with the tidal movement.
Some four years ago the young skeptic
common ,ed his record with view to
verify or disprove the world-old hypothesis.
During three years of careful observation
and inquiry he amassed record of fifty
one deaths. Only two of these occurred
when the tide was rising; and these two
were deaths from fatal accident. At the
age of twenty-four the young scientist him-
self was stricken down with typhoid fever,
and eventually succumbed to the disease,
afte1 laying for many days on the very
verge of dissolution.
On his deathbed he sent for his brother
in New York city, but the latter was, I'M
fortunately SO circumstanced that it was
impossible to respond Immediately to the
summons, and delayed day after the re-
ceipt of the message. On the closing
afternoon of his life, hour after hour, till
the last incoming wave had deposited its
riddles of the sea, the dying man waited
in patience, exclaiming now and then, or
rather signing, as the tall old-fashioned
clock in the corner of the room, like
gigantic coffin with figures and hands, told
tick tack of itstribe.
after the tide turns Mother, what time
is it,"
And still the tall, old clock, whose
exactly circular, silver-frosted dial reseIn-
bled one of the cyclopean fAces in some
old Hellenic bas- relief, went on telling off
the seconds with the same relentless tick
tack that Hawthorne has described with
such symbolical significance in the 'sScar-
let Letter." the last incoming wave broke
on the lonesome sands of the sound sAore;
and the ebb set in that sstakes soul"
The dying man lost hope as the fated
moments went by and Valley did not
come.
s'Walley won't get here, mother, till I'm
gone" he murmured YEARLY. II shall be
dead before the tide turns again."
The prediction was verified. He went
out with the tide, as Barkis did in the
wonderful etching of Dickens, and as
the souls of many more have gone
before and since. The long-waited-for
Wally arrived less than an hour after
the last outgoing wave had reeeded-bnt
too late. The tide of life had ebbed for
ever; its last puisating wave had receded
from the enfsebled brain.
Sc ended the old doctors story, whose
parallel have listened to many times in
the folklore of this primitive community
stories of the old and young, the grave
and gay, whose souls, like that of Barkis,
had gone out with the tide.
"Mind you," reiterated the grim old
practitioner, 81 proffsr no explanation of
the fact. But fact it is, sir, and no super
stitious fancy of sea-going population,
that the pulses of the living human heart
rise and fall with the tidal movement of
the sea. Form your own theory of the
phenomenon. Within the last five years,
in district embracing sixty square miles
or so by the sea, have noted the hour
and the minute of no less than ninety
three demises iii my own immediate prac-
tice, and every soul of them has all gone
out with the tide, save four who died sud-
denly by fatal accident. 1t is riddIe--a
my stery. But /, who have sat with my
fingers on the wrist of many feeble pa
tent, and notice the pulse rise and
strengthen, or sink and vanish with the
turning of the tide, know that it is fact. -
Hartford Times