The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-01-07
Sleep and Death.

Inc relationship between sleep, 'the
cousin of DEATH" and death itself, is
probably real as well as apparent. The
distance which separates them is great,
but there are intermediate connections,
grades of dissolution as of development.
Among these the similar states of trance
and Information are worthy of special
notice. For a sleep and for trance. one
cause, the exhaustion chiefly of the ner-
ous matter, but more or less of every
organ and tissue, is ~assignable. The hvs-
terical stupor is the sleep of nerve CEN
tiers worn out with the assault and con-
tlict of stormy reflex action. Healthy
sleep is the rest of physical elements
wearied with the same strain applied
more gradually.
Cases have been recorded in which
somnolence, continuing for days without
cessation. has resembled trance in it's du-
ration, while preserving all the ordinary
features OF natural sleep. Various facts
support us in associating Information
with the train of organic or functional
changes as the other unconscious states
which we have been considering, 1t
comes like a habit; it has, one may say,
annual return; its apparent cause is the
oppression of external cold, and the an
nimals it affects are mostly those which,
from their bodily structure or habits, are
subject to great periodic v~aritions Of
temperature. Vital tissue is exhausted
and function is in part suspended prob
ably because the numbness of cold has
taken hold upon the radicles of the out
ward circulation, and of that of the BRAN
surface which is connected with it by
numerous anastOmoses. In such a case
armenia would seem to be the cause of
the winter sleep, as there is evidence to
show that it is also the cause of that
temporary starvation of brain which
fulls without arresting its action in the
natural repose of each night.
We may ever regard the lethargy
ended by death, into which a man falls
when exposed to great cold, as short and
mortal Information. The same influence
acts upon him as upon the bear or fish
but the power of its shock is greater on
his finer and less accustomed organize
ton. So, likewise, in other than the COM
paratively coars forms of life, in the
WEAKNESS, paralyses, atrophy and gan
creme of limbs, in the ~lealless Information
of trees, and in their decay beginning ut
the terminal twigS, the same teaching is
evident-that vascular nutrition, in its
periodic variations, is the parent of ac-
tiv1ty and of life, as its absence is of
death. 1t is not, therefore, altogether
surprising to meet with occasional in
stances in which death is stimulated by
some great degree of stupor.
The case of George Childet, alaborer,
living at BridSewater, which was lately
recorded in the daily papers, appears to
have been M of this kind. The
trance-like state developed quite sud-
denly and was mistaken by the relatives
death. Some slight degree of
warmth in the apparent corpse induced
the clergyman in attendance to refuse
burial, in spite of the decided wish of
relatives that it should take place.
After eight days the signs of animation
were re~-established, and the subject of
this singular experience slowly recover
ed. In all such cases there is an ele-
ment of mystery. and one cannot al
ways decide how much of this Is due to
he physiological or pathological condi-
or to some external agency.
We are not informed of the anteced-
in the present instance, and cannot
how much hard work, undertaking,
anxiety or other causes may have to do
With the result. The state described,
f really one of trance, affords a strik-
ng example of the difficulty which
sometimes, though very rarely, arises in
the final point in diagnosis, and
warning that the most trivial sign of
should not be overlooked in de-
ermining the fact of death.-Br7tish
Medical Journal.
A Great Newspaper Enterprise.