LIFE AFTER DEATH.
Sill A. KEITH’S STATEMENT. BODY DIES GRADUALLY'. Sir Arthur Ke'th has been led into a further statement, regarding the process after death. This is in reply to ti, letter from a “Seeker After Truth.” who wants to know what becomes of tlie soul of a ina,n when he is apparently dead and under an anaesthetic, and: he is resuscitated by means of heart massage,:— Sir Arthur Keith writes ;— “The name of John Hunter, the leadings urgeon of the eighteenth century, is well-known $s it ought to be, One of. his most important discoveries was. that tissues <]o not die together, but gradually. He was able to show, for, instance, that an artery cut out from a dead man’s body two days after lie was dead: w as still alive. “In the present discussion on the subject people seem to think that when a man dies life departs from the whole of his bod(y at once. Actually life departs gradually, and pants of the; body may bei alive two days after the man is dead. Those parts could be brought roupd if you cared to supply them with, oxygen, and they would live and be able to work again. “From a scientific point of view it could only be. said that a man is dead when $ll the tissues of the- body are dead. But for all ordinary purfor instance', the signing of a death certificate—we simply say a man is dead when a man’s heart has stopped and circulation of the blood has ceased: And that is right, be<cause you may be' quite sure that if the heart stops for; ten minutes the brain; is dead ; there is no more life in it, ,and no possibility of it ever functioning again. This is because thte; nerve cells of teh brain cannot survive, for more than ten minutes if they are deprived of oxygeny “I should! Hke to make this clear to people. A hundred years; ago, oh rather more, the bodies of the - men who were ha.nged were brought to the surgeon.s for dissection. Actually
the bodies were dissjected ,at New-
gate,, but it was the habit, of my predecessor of that time to take the,
heart out of the' hanged l man and bring it back to this college (Royal College of Surgeons of England). People w'e.re executed at 8 o’clock in the morning, an,di my prediecessor of a century ago used to bring their hearts here and watch them in action. The heart would continue; to beat in many cases until 2 d’clcck in the afternoon, that is, for, a matter of .sjx hours. Nowadays psysiologiis.ts use that feat in experiments.
“If you could have been, present at some of the demonstrations in connection with the Harvey tercenten--ary celebrations, you would have seer one in a body of a dog and an artificial one, which was really a pump, was used to circulate the blood. The brain had previously been, removed, but if the living brain, had still been in the skull the dog woulfli ha.ve been an ordinary living animal. The body was kept alive with an artificial heart after the real heart had been thrown away, but there was no brain and the dog was not conscious. “The flesh may. live, but the brain d'ifes- It is a, curiouss fact that the bralin, cells are the first, part of the body to die. If a man. is emerged in water, and has not taken breath for 15 minute, R i a practically useless to try artificial' respiration. ’You may bring back the heart, but tiierje. is no reponse in the brain; the neWe cell 3 of the brain would haves died, and no--thing—not .eyen the oxygen in the blood—would make, them come b,i\ck to life again.
“We .medical men know many facts not known to, the general public, and it is oun duty to> know them. If, however, you ;ask me these questions, I feel it is my duty to answer, them. It is the; facts that fell, ,apid not the opinions of men. At present we are cutting little bits of tissues opt of a chicken embryo, sometimes a rabbit, sometimes a human being, and, we are cultivating these particles of flesh, which will grow and live. “The life, of tissup represents the spirit of tissue anjd the soul of tissue. You can divide an animal into a million partis and every part may die. at a different time, so that the' death of an animal may be spread over two or three, days. But do not alarm people who are afraid of being buried alive, because if the brain is dead—and I say that the brain cannot survive for more than ten minutes if deprived of oxygen—though the rest of the bocly be living tissue, that is death as we know it. ■
“What is usually meant by spirit is life; so the spirit, does not go. out. of tiie body as an entirety. The idea of a spirit hoverinig hi space is of a very primitive; origin, for it was an ancient belief that, the body was a sort of tent that to which the spirit returned from t'me to time. That is exactly what, an .Australian native thinks, believing that when a man is asleep his soul departs, and comes back again when he ?twakes. I thought we li ad advanced beyond that.
“There are many people who have pased through the operation your correspondent has in mind ; there are also many hundreds of people ‘drowned’ and brought back to life. They have cro s sed the- threshold of unconsciousness. and beyond that threshold lies the threshold of death. All who have passed into unconscioiisne s s agree that there was no memory at all. and that they had -no feeling. A man loses consciousness and then all the rest i blank.”
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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5307, 1 August 1928, Page 1
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982LIFE AFTER DEATH. Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5307, 1 August 1928, Page 1
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