Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-01-19
MOI LIKE NATURAL pEATH.
A simulated Article on tho Stage Too Dra
matte and THRILLING

On the stage, where action is the
primary demand in the climax of the
play, death must be made dramatic.
Perhaps one of the best known
deaths on the stage is that of Camille
in Alexandra Dumas play. Camille
is supposed TO die from consumption,
aud the death comes from hemor-
rhage of the lungs. The action of
the body following hemorrhage of
the lungs has nothing dramatic
about it. If the blood vessel which
breaks is very large, there may be
semiconvulsion resulting from shock
Otherwise the death comes from loss
of blood that pours from the mouth
or from strangulatiOn-that is, the
lungs fill with blood SO that the suf-
ferer cannot breathe.
But such death as this would not
satisfy the demands of the stage or
what are believed by many persons to
be those demands, and we therefore
see Camille in strong convulsions.
There are many deaths on the stage in
plays when the cause of death is sup
posed to be heart disease. AS a matter
of fact there are number of diseases
of the heart, in the majori of
which the person dies because the
heart simply stops beating. When
this happens, a real death is like
nothing so much as a faint or syn.
cope. The sufferer merely collapses,
and the end has come.
About such deaths, however, there
is nothing dramatic, and actors and
actresses therefore generally choose
to personate that form of heart dis
ease known to physicians as angina
pectoris. In this disease there is the
most intense pain conceivable, and
those suffering from it not only man
ifest the intolerable character of the
pain by walking up and down, by
moaning or crying, by throwing
the arms about and sometimes by
beating the chest with the clinched
fist, but they often have convulsions
in which all parts or limbs of the
body are violently distorted. This
disease gives any person ample op
portunity for action.
In many plays the characters are
supposed to take poison and the pop
ular belief as to the effects of the
poison is as mistaken as it well can
be. Collie follows swallowing arsen-
ic. It is ordinarily believed that the
effect of laudanum or of opium in
any form is to put person to sleep.
Not only is this untrue of many peo-
pie, but invariably the first effects of
the drug are to enliven and excite
the person taking it.
When, then, you see the heroine
in the dungeon swallow the contents
of the bottle of laudanum and at
once sink into a profound slumber,
YOU are watching something that
never yet took place. The secondary
effect of opium on probably 80 per
cent of human beings is to put them
to sleep, and as this effect is much
more lasting than the first excite
ment it has possession of the popular
mind. The convulsions which so
often follow the taking of poison on
the stage may be produced by COM
mon -strychnine. Properly
speaking, strychnine does not pro
duce commissions in which there is a
great and rapid movement OF the
limbs. The muscles of the back and
the great fexor muscles of the legs
and thighs are contracted into sort
of prolonged rigidity so that the suf-
ferer is bent backward like bow
and often is supported by his head
and heels, the body being arched be-
tween.
Mile. Croisette, in Paris, when
PLAYING in La Sphinx" created a
great sensation and made name for
herself. She went to DR.. Charcot, the
eminent physician, of Paris, and
learning from him the effects of pol
sons chose strychnine and had the
name inserted in the play, She
studied carefully all that books could
tell her and then procured several
dogs and gave them the poison
watching the spasm that followed
She produced such a perfect simula
ton of the results following the
swallowing of strychnine that not
only the daily press praised her, but
one of the medical journals devoted
ouitea long article to this partof the
play and advised medical students tC
90 to the theater for the purpose OF
studying the symptoms of poisoning
by strychpine. For one Crolsettf
that you will find on the stage, how
ever yo will easily see 100 victims
of poison who simply cause the phys
ician to sLllle. North American he
view