The record-union., 1893-08-25
VITALITY AFTER DEATH.
Curious Speculations Both Physical
and Psychical.

The conclusions reached in an article in
recent number of the French scientific
periodical, -AnHdIeS de C7tintie ct de IhuS-
2Gte, suggests some curious speculations,
both physical and psychical. A,iormidable
array of facts is produced to show that
bodily vitality does not cease with the
death OF the being, as such; that certain
form of life persists; that upon the death
of the animal as whole, each cell then
lives on its own account, continuing to
perform its functions and exhausting by
species of residual or Preventative life
the reserves at its disposal, vegetating
after the fashion of yeast, and being able.
like that, to pass from life fed by the air
to life in which air is unnecessary to it,
There is shown to be strong evidence for
the view that the stOppage of the life Of
the individual does not stop the cellular
life of the tissues.
Among the proofs of the persistence of
life in the tissues. after death and their
performance of their functions is the fact
that muscle, after it is taken from the ami
maj, continues for some time to absorb
oxygen, TO give out carbonic acid, and to
respond to electric stimulation 1t has
been demonstrated that the tail of a rat.
more than ten days after it has been cut
of, can be grated on the back of an ami
mai OF the same species, the only condi-
ton being that the part cut off be kent in
and almost annuling, the exchanges that
suffice to maintain its life.
These facts raise some interesting
queries concerning conscious life II is
neld by many thinkers, and apparently
with reason, that wherever there is life
tnere must also be consciousness of some
kind. A sensitiveness to impressions
from the environment of an organism.
that is what appears to lie at the basis of
CONSCIOUSNESS. Researches in hVpnOtisln
have recently thrown much light upon
the phenomena of consciousness, and it
has been proven that in states that have
commonly been called states of uncon-
sclousness the keenest consciousness
really exists, although entirely separate
from our normal consciousness. Thence
there IS reason for supposing that per-
son Is always conscious in some waV
whether sleeping or waking.
The persistence of bodily vitality after
death OF the individual indicates an ac-
compartment of some sort OF conscious
ness. Since the reserves Of the tissues
are sooner or later exhausted and everv
cell finally dies, this argument in itself
would not seem to give material support
from physical data for belief in irnmor-
tality except to hint that life, and hence
consciousness, may attach to forms of
matter too imponderable for the percep-
ton Of our senses and which may have
AOAhACo pdl 10 OA Jul DOQlSS ana, as the
vehicles of life, persisted intact after the
death of the grosser parts. While this, of
course, is mere speculation, it is worth
bearing in mind that scientific methods.
proceeding upon hypothetical lines, have
led to the establishment of facts equally
strange.
Material and psychical science in their
lines OF advance nowadays seem to keep
pace with each other in remarkable way.
one lending its support to the other. 1t
IS a curious fact that the evidences Of
vitality in the tissues after the death of
the individual, presented by the French
writer, seem to agree in a striking man
ner with the strange idea upon which the
weird and mystical work Of an American
author was based, Captain Huntington,s
story, Dreams Of the Dead,'' in which
persistence of consciousness in the brain
cells after death causes all sorts of un-
canny dreams until complete disintegrs-
tlon is accomplished. 1t is a noteworthy
circumstance that a fundamental idea Of
this queer story should so soon find
partial support in the speculations of
science. 1t is said that everything can
be found in Shakespeare, and so it may
be queried if all this was not anticipated
in Hamlefs soliloquy, to which a new
significance may thus attach