The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-23


a mile away or on the other side of the
planet. Memory, too, is subject to the
will. One can recall a scene of child
hood or an incident of yesterday with
equal facility. The muscles are also
divided into voluntary and involun-
tary. We can, for instance, will to
move the head, hand or foot, and the
proper muscles will obey, or we can
will to keep them still, and the thing
is done.
The second or vital system may prop
erly be termed the commissary depart
ment of the body. It is the function
of the nerves, muscles and organs of
which it is composed TO furnish nour-
ishment to the entire body. 1t has TO
do with the digestion and assimilation
of food, the circulation of the blood,
the movement of the lungs, in fact,
with all the vital processes of the Body.
Unlike the sensitive system, the vital
system is involuntary. One can not,
for instance, control the movements or
the heart or lungs by exercise of the
will power, nor hasten or retard the
digestion of food by the stomach, nor
in any way influence the vital organs
or their functions. It is interesting TO
note that Jesus, in His sermon on the
mount. announced the scientific fact of
the presence in man of the two systems
described above when He said, which
of you, by taking thought, can add one
cubit unto his stature?'' Now, taking
thought as we have seen, is q volun-
tary act, a function of the voluntary
system, while adding a cubit to the
control of the will, function Of the
vital system.
We are now prepared for closer
study of the phenomena called sleep
and death. Francis Bacon said, "Sleep
is nothing else but a reception and re-
tirement of the living spirit into itself"
Sleep is, in fact, the temporary death
of the entire sensitive or voluntary
system, and it comes about in the FOL
lowing manner: AS result or the
days, activities, the higher gangl1a OF
the brain, which are the organs OF
thought, reason, memory and all men
tai activity, become fatigued by the ex-
element of the passions, the eyes py
the exercise of sight, the ears by that
of hearing, and the voluntary muscles
| of motion by powerful and repeated
! contractions. AS a result of this Ia
| tigue, the organs of the sensitive sys-
| tenn reach a point of exhaustion where
| they fail any longer to respond to the
ordinary stimulus by which they are
| accustomed to be aroused. We must
| then use a stronger stimulus to arouse
| them. or they must be refreshed by
/ withdrawing from all stimuli for time
and that is sleep. Even a stronger
stimulus, as, for instance, shouting in
the ear of a person too sleepy to re-
sDond TO the tones of ordinary CONVEX
sation. will only succeed in rousing him
| temporarily For when the ear is Ia
tigued to a greater degree no amount
of sound. which is the natural stimu-
lus as light is to seeing, will suffice
to keep the sleeper, awake. 1t is Well
known that soldiers when sufficiently
fatigued sleep while cannon roar about
| them. And criminals have, sometimes
to be awakened from a sound sleep on
the morning of their execution Ma
cauIay relates the following incident:
On the day appointed for the decapl-
tation of the Duke of Argyle at Edln-
burgh for rebellion, one of the iords
| of the council came to the castle ana
! demanded admittance to the duke. Ii
| was answered that the duke Was
/ asleep The privy councillor thought
that that was a subterfuge, and insist
ed on entering. The door of the cell
Twas gently opened; and there lay Ar
| gyle on the bed, sleeping in his irons,
the placid sleep of infancy. The PLACID
sleep of exhaustion would have been
nearer the mark.
| Tt is the rule to read in the accounts
! of executions by the state, that the
/ condemned slept well, ate hearty
breakfast, and went to his death With
out fear and with apparent indlfter-
ence This is not an eXhlpltlon VI
4 courage. nerve" or stolid indifference
on the part of the condemned his
conduct is due to the fact that Tor the
months. and sometimes years, ne mas
heen under sentence of death, the
Thought and contemplation of the event
have been almost constantly IN MS
mind-so much so that this partlculal
calamity has lost its power to arouse
:, the condemned those feelings of nor"
ror which it produces in the bystander
PM q live rattlesnake in the cell or d
condemned man an hour before the
/ time sat for his execution, and the rep
lille will throw him into panic or rear
His sensitive system will respond u
ltbe stimulus of this new ana un'
itbought-out and unsuffered horror.
Nobody ever heard Of a person aoou
IN he lynched showing anything pu'
the most abject fear. The reason Iol
this difference in conduct at the sai
lows between the legally condemned
man and one about to die by lynch-i0hN
is this: in the latter case, the ldea o
being hanged is sprung suddenly on liz
man and his sensibilities have no
had time to become immune to rear aIA'
horror from this particular stimulus
whereas. in the case of the Iegahl
condemned, months of contemplated
of the event have exhausted the ca
nacity of his sensibilities to RESPOND
with fear to the thought, or even tn'
act. of being hanged. 1t is in this wa!
that all our griefs and sorrows ar
healed. Not by time. as is often aS
serted. but in time, by exhaustion .
the capacity for suffering from ina
...-1aw aa,,ra And the Suffer1nt