Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-13
FALLING LONG DISTANCES.

|
FALLING LONG DISTANCES.
Speculation rs to How People Feel Who
Take Big Tumbles.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
The amount of mental or physical suffering
that Immediately precedes death has always
been question of interest. No reporter would
think of describing an execution without at
tempting to give an analysis Of the feelings Of
the condemned man on the scaffold. The re-
membrance of the death agony of a loved one
| often causes more acute agony than the idea of
eternal separation. People have brooded until
they were almost driven to madness over the
thought that they might be buried alive and
awake to brief consciousness in their collins
In this skeptical and pessimistic age 1t is not SO
| much death that is feared the pains that are
| supposed 10 accompany it. Novelists have at
tempted to picture the thoughts OF a drowning
man during the few seconds that intervene be-
| tween submersion and total loss of sense. One
OF the most graphic pages in Victor Hugo is
| that IN which he 1magines the sensations OF a
| man fallen overheard i'll midocean while the
ship is pulling out of sight and he is gradually
iapslng into insensibiitv. Svnpathetic per-
sons have specialized on the agony of anticipa-
| ton that must fill the mind of man falling
| from great height, and consoled themselves
with the thought that he was dead before he
struck the earth
| Psychologists have interested themselves in
| the general question, and especially in that in
! reference to persons falling from great heights.
| Personswho have been resuscitated after drown
ing or hanging have been able to give some
| description of their sensations, but those who
| have fallen considerable distances and escaped
death have not, so far as known, thrown any
| valuable light on the subject. It has been
| supposed that the thrill of terror analogous to
| that which any one feels when he perceives
that he is in danger of falling and saves him.
self by sudden effort is of such intensity
! when the elevation is lofty as to mediately
| arrest the vital functions and cause death with
| out moments suffering. In cases Of this kind
| the newspaper reports usually add the consol-
| ing thought that the victim of the accident or
| suicide was probably dead before striking the
| earth, and consequently spared both physical
and mental suffering. There never seems to
| have been any solid foundation for the presump-
| ton, since 1T is difficult to suppose that per-
son could be asphyxiated in falling for three
or four seconds at the rate of from 90 to IS feet
| second, the time it approximately takes to
reach the earth from an elevation of from $50
! to $50 feet.
! The most that we can suppose is that respi-
| ration Is suspended, and that there results a
sort or syncope or condition of partial uncon-
seriousness, not of sufficient duration to cause
| asphyxia. Almost any one can hold his breath
for minute. Persons who give public exhi-
| billions remain easily under water for two
| minutes. and coral and pearl divers for more
than twice that length OF time. There are
facts on record to prove this view Of the case.
| Intending suicides who have thrown themselves
from the Suspension bridge at Cincinnati, q
height of go feet. have been saved. To fall this
| distance would require about two seconds, and
the striking of the water would be the principal
thing to be considered. A more remarkable
case is that Of the young woman who threw
herself Clifton hrid in nd
which is at the height of $50 feet above the
| river. The time Of the fall was about four sec
onds, as there was strong wind blowing, and
her skirts being inflated slightly retarded the
downward movement. She was at once fishe
out of the water and taken to the hospital,
where she soon recovered. Her only injuries
| were some Commissions on the thighs and back
and slight displacement of the breastbone.
OF sixteen others who had attempted suicide
from the same bridge only one man had been
| taken from the water alive, and he survived
but short time. The young woman in ques-
| ton remembered nothing from the moment
she left the bridge until she recovered con-
sciousness
The doctor who reported the previous case
said that he had never known before of the sur
vival Of any one that had fallen $50 feet. Such
an instance, however, occurred in Paris at a
time when throwing ones self from one of the
lofty columns or other public monuments was
favorite mode of suicide. A man threw him
SCR HoiL tue column OF the Bastlie WHICH IL
1856 feet in height, but, falling on tent erected
for some workmen at the base, rebounded and
struck the sidewalk. The fall had been
deadened in such a fashion that, though
painfully bruised, he was able to get up and
walk away shortly afterward, If not cured of
the suicidal mania, resolved, probably, in fu-
ture to seek death by less painful and more
certain method.
The most notable case Of survival after fall
ing long distances is that related by French
writer, H. de Parville. 1t is that OF an East
from cliff 300 meters high, which is just the
altitude of the Eiffel tower. His fall was
broken by masses Of dense vegetation at the
foot Of the precipice, and he escaped without
serious injuries. 1t is hardly probable that the
Eiffel tower will ever be favorite place for
suicides, the outer slope of the walls rendering
perpendicular fall for any considerable dis
| lance impossible. The favorite method at
present in Paris is to leap from the upper
the court, and death is certain. II person
has no domicile he would, perhaps, find the
towers or other lofty monuments convenient;
but, as in Italy, all persons who have in their
| manner anything suggestive of suicide are
watched, and in most cases it is the rule never
to leave a person alone at the top of a high
monument The last effort to commit suicide
in this manner failed ignominiously in Paris.
A man who had not been sufficiently watched
| threw himself a few months ago from the top
Of the Arch Of Triumph, which is about as high
as the columns OF the Bastile. He was caught
By the projecting cornice q few feet below,
whence he was removed with great difficulty
but not seriously hurt. It is almost the only
case Of the kind that has occurred for the last
ten years, though the Paris suicides average
nearly two week, taking the year in its en-