Valdez daily prospector., 1913-05-19
LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND
 DEATH NOT UNDERSTOOD

A ulS)dlcH rom IdllS, pIlllttu not long ago, told of the wonder full feat of a professional swim- mer who remained under water no less than five minutes and 2G seconds. in the meanwhile swlm- ming thirty yards, though totally immersed all the time and unable to take any. fresh air into his lungs. If he had remained under water d few seconds longer, no doubt he would have been drOwn- ed. A drowned man, as far as we can see. and as far as he is per- SUmally concerned, is d dead man: and yet there is little question that, if this swimmer had thus perished, he could by modern methods have been revived, and would thus apparently have been brought back from death to life. Many drowned persons have thus been restored after all conscious ness had departed from them.
 hTe explanation usually given, says Garrett P. Serviss, is that in such cases it is not real death. but "suspendeh animation.' with which we are dealing. The bodily machine has stopped like an en- zine ''stuck on the cehter' and by clearing the obstructrd pass age, inparting artificial move mpnt lO the muscles of the chest and introducing air into the lungs the machinery is set going again. Thp heart resumes it's beating and the man recONerS cunSciuuSnrSS as the blood begins once more t" flow through his arteries.
 And vel he fact remains that. as far as we can determine. Slls- pended animation. for the victim himself. is equivalent [" death. and if it is allowed ln pass into what we call real death there Is nothing in his experience to ln4 dicatc any further change. As a personality he suffered death when his consciousness departed. A kind of separated life" re- mains for a time in the differ ent organs of the body, but 1t is not the thing which we, as con- sciouS beings, know as life.
 There are other ways in which "apparcnt death '--that is death as far as the individuals consci- ,ousness is cOncerned--may be produced. Ii sometimes happens. for instance, in various forms of trance. In perfect sleep. unac- companicd by dreams, the con- seriousness is completely arrest ed. If the sleeper should or could remain in that state for a thou sand or a million years, it would be all the same to him. Yet in sleep the appearance of death IS not produced for those who look iupon the sleeper. They see that he continues to breathe and his heart goes on beating, while the Icirculation of the blood. though it may be changed or slowed down is not arrested. Something occurs that cuts off the connections or the nervous system, or the braln, and consciousness departs. ... :. When the man is. profoundly asleep OF in a state of suspended animatintr; as in drowning. are tie parts of his body which still |relain a kind" of life separately cconsid,rs of that life? We have no reason to, suppose; that they are, but, :on' the other .hand. we have no means*of proving that
 thev.:are not: If such .consci"'ss-.
 ness exists, it has ] gno: appareht re-
 taxation to the consciousIesys .'Qt
 the whole individual, which as-
 sures him that he is living. He
 has that consciousness only when
 his entire system is working to-
 gether, and in such a way as to
 stimulate the activity of his brain
 Some very interesting experi-
 ments have been tried. recent!