Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-04-23

Gazette so years ago, but it is equally
interesting today-when Bichat wrote
his wonderful treatise Recherches
Physiologiques Sur La Vie ct La Mort,
psychologists have added a thousand
fold to our knowledge Of the pheno-
mena of life, but until recently scarce
ly one jot or one title to a correct per-
ception of death. One, however, is
SO inextricably allied to the other
that scientific apprehension of life,
its energies and suffer:r2s, can not
even be hoped for without a CORES
ponding examination of physical disso-
luton. And this word dissolution we
use with authority, for Liebniz's doc
trine of death is as justly celebrated
as his theory of life. Liezniz, in his
celebrated letter to Arnauld, held that
birth is nothing but the development
or evolution of a living being already
formed, and that corruption or death
is similarly nothing but the inVolution
of the same living entity, even in
what we call death, preserving and
maintaining it's pristine vitality. Thus,
according to this eminent thinker, lite
and death are merely changes in the
order and harmony of the living body,
and consequently death a mere dissO-
luton Of the ties of so called human
life. Bichat went step beyond this,
or rather, perhaps, gave us less
metaphysical conception of the idea Of
the great German. He considered the
brain, the heart, and the lungs as
species Of vital tripod and endeaVOred
to ascertain how far the death of one
or the other of these great organs i'll
fiuenced or determined the collapse OF
the remaining functions of the body.
Very recently Bichat's investiga-
tons have heen pursued to a still
further point, the distinction between
organic death and apparent death has
been still more broadly drawn, and
recent experiments have proved be-
yond a doubt that death does not at
tack life with a single stroke as 1t
were of a sword blade, but that mem
Der dies after member, that one func-
ton loses it's vitality after another,
and more strangely still, it seems emf
nently probable that even after decapi-
tation the trunllIess head can for Il
time be restored to sentient life. The
resemblance between sleep and death,
that relationship Of which all poets
from Homer and Virgil to Mrs. He
mans and Shelley have sung, has been
roved in a manner even their intui-
Of
n sleep one sense fades away COM
pletely before another is affected. The
eyes are sightless long before the ears
have ceased to hear, and the will
power is lost while the imagination
remains in full activity. 1t is the
same in that living death which, in
spite of M. Gustave Flourens, extreme
old age generally resembles. The
senses fal in succession. The ear be-
comes insensible to sound, the touch
is blunted perfumes lose their frag-
rancy, the eye is darkened, and the
taste frequently is the only evidence
of sentient animal life There are ex-
ceptiOns-the lightning before
DEATH as Shakespeare calls it, but
they are rare. A few hours before
Beethoven died his hearing and full
voice returned to the stricken mu-
stefan, but that he himself heard the
prayers he repeated is one of those
anomalies in nature which furnish the
exception to prove the rule.
And as we have already said, it is
now proved that it is the same with
death. 1t seems at first sight that
death intervenes as soon as the heart
ceases to beat, because the circulation
being thereby arrested, it is impos-
sible to keep up a supply of nutrition
to the several organs. But modern re
searches have shown that this is very
far from being actually the case
There are hundreds of nervous ener.
gies which retain a certain living act.
ivity long after the heart has lost its
own proper vitality. 1t has been con
clusvely proved that the hair and the
nails have in many cases grown long
after death, and Spallazani has added
yet more important fact. He fed a
crow Immediately killed it, and placed
it in a temperature equal to that OF
the body of the bird when alive. Six
hours afterward he opened its
stomach, and discovered that the food
had been thoroughly digested. Al
other physician, M. Robin, a French
man, experimental upon a victim Of
the guillotine, and found that the
heart continued to beat for nearly ar
hour after the loss of the head ano
that the removal of the liver, the
stomach. and the intestines had nc
apparent effect in destroying it's &C
ton. In 1858, M. Brown-Sequard, one
of the a5lest psychologists of the day
carried this experiment still further
He carefully decapitated a dog, anC
ten minutes afterward applied the gal
vanic current to the head. No move
ment was perceptible. He then placed
to the four arteries found at the sec
ton of the neck, clyster pipes com
municating by tubes with a reservoir
of fresh oxygenated blood, and OBJ
served the penetration of this blood
into the vessels of the head. At once
there were irregular movements in the
eyes and the muscles of the face, reg
ular contractions apparently directed
by the will succeeded, and for a quar-
ter of an hour during which the injec
ton of the blood into the cerebra
arteries continued, the head to al
outward semblance was restored tC
life. The tubes were then removed
oh, Il