Year: 1876




ferings Of persons on the point of
death are erroneous. The appearance
of extremer agony which is often pre-.
sented under these circumstances is
due to mere muscular agitation, inde-
pendent Of any extraordinary sensibili-
ty of the nerves of feeling. Those
who die natural death in the very last
stages of existence are scarcely con-
scious of bodily suffering-not more
than they are frequently to the atten-
tions and solicitude of friends.


Those who die by violence or acci.
dent undoubtedly experience degree
of pain proportionate to the extent of
the bodily mutilation. Hanging is
undoubtedly an unpleasant mode of
death !; but few, after all, ''shuffle off
this mortal COLI more easily than those
who are suspended by the neck. 1t is
akin to drowning in this respect. The
blood Immediately rushes to the head
and soon deprives it Of all conscious.
ness. The efforts to inhale the air,
which are kept up for some time after
the cord is attached, and causes such
violent movements of the chest and
extremities, arise from the influence
of the spinal marrow, whose sensibility
is not so soon destroyed by the con-
gestion of blood as that of the brain.


Persons who die by decapitation
most probably suffer more, though
their pain is only momentary this is
the case with those who blow out their
brains. The sensation produced by
a ball passing though the body would
be difficult to describe by one who has
never experienced it, but it is some
thing singular in this case that those
who are shot, although the 'sleaden
messenger. of death'' may not have
penetrated any essentilly vital organ,
Immediately fall to the earth, appar-
emily under an irresistible feeling Of
their approaching return to dust, ex-
claiming, as it were, involuntarily, 81
am adead man!''


A dagger wound in the heart, for
the few moments which are consumma-
ted in the ebbing of life. must occasion
unutterable feelings of agony, inde-
pendent Of the mere sensations of pain
in the parts studered by the entrance
of the blade. The rushing out of the
blood. at each convulisve pulsation of
the heart, must seem like the actual
spectacles Of the flow of life.


Those who are crushed to death may
not expire instantly unless the Uranium
happens to be involved in the casualty.
where the skull is not fractured there
is probably an inconceivable agony
for few seconds-a flashing thought
of home, friends and family, and all is
over. Those who are cut into by a
heavily y-burdened railroad carriage.
must experience some similar sensa-
ton.


If the neck is broken low down the
person does not necessarily die on the
instant. His situation is the most dis
tressing of any which can be imagined.
He may live and have being for days:
but he cannot move. His face may
express all the passions, feelings and
emotions but beyond the motions of
his breast and countenance his ener.
gies do not 60. His arms are pinoned
at his side; his legs


he essentially beholds his body is in
the grave, while he is yet in full pos
session of his faculties. The least dis
turbance of his position is liable to
launch him at ONCE into eternity.


In taking laudanum a person exists
in a state Of insensibility for a length
Of time, melancholy spectacle to his
friends. In poisoning from arsenic a
great amount of suffering is under
go2e. The sensibility of the stomach
is exceedingly acute when inflamed,
and the. effect of arsenic is to produce a
fatal inflammation of the viscus. Prussic
acid is rapid, and acts by paralyzing
the brain.


In rejecting on the horrors which
death presents under these different
aspects of violence the mind becomes
overcome with disgust. We cannot do
better than turn to the contemplation
of it's features in the middle course of
disease, where, if the mind be at ease,
the final exit is made without any of
those revolving exhibitions Of bodily
suffering. -: .-
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