The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-07
THEPLEASURES OPDYING
LAST SENSATIONS IN THIS WORLD
ALMOST ALWAYS HAPPY ONES.

LAST SENSATIONS IN THIS WORLD
ALMOST ALWAYS HAPPY ONES.
sweetness OF Coming Sleep or Death.
The Numoness Which Preced es the
Actual Dissolutiou-rhe Mind Often
OUTLINES the Body and Life Goes Out
in q Joyful Dream - Disease vs.
Death.
Or. W. b., atkinson, Secretary American
Medical association, IN the Neto York Press.
A human beings death was formerly con-
sidered great struggle, and vivid. almost
shocking. descriptions OF the phenomena Of
dying were given In such exaggerated forms
that none cared to think OF the supreme mo-
ment when death should come to them.
Euthanasia, or the pleasure of dying. takes
the very opposite view and proclaims death
70 be easy and almost painless.
As the end of life approaches nature often
brings her peculiar anesthetic and the per-
son passes of without suffering half the
agony which the sickness causing the death
brought to the patient. Even men meeting
a violent death in the jaws of Wild beasts
have few seconds OF calm preparation be.
fore dying, which brings relief and GER
tain degree Of pleasure. The great trouble
in death is the sickness and pain which car
rios one to the door of death, and IL Is at
such moments that one suffers all the tor
ment aud agony Of dozen deaths.
The pleasures of dying can only be likened
to those of the dreamy morphine eater, who
gradually passes Off Into a semi-conscious
state where everything seems like floating
visions of bliss. The body and nerves are
numb, aud the excited, over wrought brain
becomes quiet and unexoited.
THE MIND SURVIVES THE BODY.
The imagination plays fancifully with
| blissful pictures and the whole condition Of
the nervous system is of pleasurable exslta-
| ton. The drowning man experiences the
same relief and pleasure when the struggles
are over and the cold limbs grow stiff and
numb.
Persons frozen in binding snow storms
have reported their sensations accurately,
and they all agree that after a certain
amount OF suffering which every one feels
at first in extreme GOLD they enter into a
blissful state from which they do not wish
| to be reused.
Morphine, cocaine. ether and laudanum
bring to the patient this Same mental and
| nervous condition, and patients resent any
attempt to rouse them from their dreamy
state. Nature supplies her own auesthetlo
before the important moment has arrived.
Before the death rattle 10 heard the con-
vulsed frame relaxes, the signs OF pain
and suffering on the frame disappear, and
often smile partly opens the lips. The
whole body shows signs OF painless mo-
ment. and IL the mind wanders and the
tongue uttsrs words, they are all OF pleasure
and Joy.
LIKE FALLING ASLEEP.
| Those who have watched at hundreds Of
death beds have noted that death was easy
and officers in battle have testified that the
| last moments of dying soldiers were pain
less People who have been In the jaws Of
wild beasts in India and have been rescued
at the last moment, testify that a numbing
calmness was experienced after the first
sharp, painful snap Of the teeth upon them.
In fact, the approach Of every creatures
fate brings with it q kindly preparation
when life is blissful and full Of pleasure. The
last sensation in this world is then one OF
| JOY and not exornciating pain.
The real knowledge Of euthanasia cer-
tainly diminishes, IL IL does not entirely re-
| heve, the dread Of many OF the last strug-
| gle, which has been made 30 horrible by
vivid descriptions Of its agony. The pleas
ures Of dying may remove great burden
| from the minds of hundreds who are In
| evitably approaching death. The old-fash-
1
had a baleful influence upon those who were
| fighting insidious diseases, aud many ag-
| gravated their complaints by feverishy
| dreading the pain of the last struggle. In
| this way a great deal of harm was done and
many sufferers hastened their own end.
| Even In the case OF poisoning, the pain
suffered ia only when the system oombats
against the desire to yield TO the influence Of
the drug. Sleep generally steals over the per-
| SON. and only the dreamy pleasures caused
| by the poison and OF dying are again expert
enced In this world. The greatest pain felt
is that Of the stomach pump, which may be
| applied in time TO recall the suicide to life,
and in every case they rebel against this
| most alphabetically. That tho suffering Is
not 80 terrible may be surmised from the
| fact that persons who have once attempted
suicide frequently make the second or third
attempt.
1t is fact that the pain Of death is fire.
| Quently far less than the pain that accom-
panies many diseases that are not fatal. The
| pain Of rheumatism for instance, 10 proha-
ing. 30 is the pain of neuralgia, or the pain
of the toothache.
DISEASE MORE PAINFUL THAN DEATH.
Death often, indeed, comes as silently and
| painlessiy as sleep. Those at the bedside
cannot see exactly when the vital spark Of
| life gives out with any more certainty than
you can tell when a drowsy person passes
| from Semi-consoiousness to actual sleep. II
| we were not all familiar with the phenome-
| non Of sleep how we should fear that sweet
| oblivion: how we should stand affrighted on
the brink before yielding our brain and body
| to the absolute Inconsistencies of healthy
| sleep.