Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-03-21
WHEN PEOPLE DIE.
physicians Throw Some Light on We
Interesting Suhiect


ihysiclans Throw Some Light on yery
Interesting Subject.
For many years medical science has
been wondering whether there is any
particular hour in the twenty-four at
which more deaths occur than at any
other time of day, and while statistics
have been compiled and the figures
subjected to exhaustive Investigations,
but little, If any, light has been thrown
upon the subject. Here in this city the
physicians at the different hospitals
are almost entirely of the opinion that
there is no reason to believe that peo-
pie die at any particular hour any
more than there is to believe that peo-
pie are taken sick at certain hour.
and, as no statistics as to the
hours at which patients died have
been kept. it is impossible to state
even If there are more deaths at one
time OF the day than at another.
DIR. Wells, the chief physician at the
Almshouse Hospital, said he did not
believe there could be any thing in the
idea. ''Of course" said he, "there
are certain diseases which are attend
ed by fever during the night, and as
natural result the patient will die of
exhaustion after the tension upon the
nervous system incident to the fever
has relaxed. The relaxation occurs
with the coming of daylight, but the
patient does not necessarily die at that
time, the hour of death depending en-
tirely upon his or her constitution.
"lf they be strong and hardy pa
tients, whose ailments are attended by
fever, they will last much longer than
patients whose constitutions are run
down, and who are physical wrecks.
Apart from this there are a thousand
and one reasons which could be adj
vanced in denial of any existing theory
as to the hour at which most deaths
occur. The time of PERSONS death
depends entirely upon the age, the
sex, the physical condition and numer-
GUS other things, without considering
the disease.
1.-The idea of person dying at a
given hour is made ridiculous by the
fact that one physician might be able
to prolong a patients dissolution sew
eral days by treatment unknown to
another physician, who, perhaps,
might hasten death. Even if sick
people were allowed to go without
medical treatment, the physical and
other conditions which | have named
would still exist and have their infu.
ence upon the time of expiration and
refute all theories as to set hour fol-
dying"
At the Presbyterian and Pennsyl.
vania hospitals the doctors to whom
the same questions were propounded
could not see how there could be any
basis for the idea, advancing the same
arguments practically as given by Dr.
Wells.
DR.. Pere, an eminent French spec
ialist, some twenty years ago became
imbued with the idea that the vary
ing atmospheric conditions that exist
ed during the progress of twenty-foul
hours had great deal to do with the
extinguishing or prolonging of the
sta1 ii ~ ,,o+, h<
began to make a special study of the
subject. As he was connected with
one of the largest hospitals in Paris
where the rate of mortality among The
patients was from ten to fifty per
sons per day, he was given ample ma
terial upon which to base his investi
cations and make deductions.
After studying from all possible
views the figures collated in the frs
ten years, he has lately announced
that there are no marked peculiaritie
in the hour of death of all the patients
with the exception that the fewes
occurred between the hours of sever
and eleven o'clock at night, and tn
most between four and six in tn,
morning. He accounts for these pecu
liarities, however. by the statemen
that the people who died during tn
morning hours were mostly sufferer
from diseases and injuries that pro
duced high fever at night, causin,
- 4, Il
ing hours.
The time of the year and the condi
ton of the weather. he says, hav
much to do with the death of feve
-pHtieuts.=H: sss,iaLtea on isseienging 0
life Is, in measure, controlled by III
air currents, upon which depend tn
amount of humidity in the air or it
clearness. -Philadel phia Record.