HOW PEOPLE DIE.

Kumara Times, Issue 2005, 1 February 1883, Page 2

HOW PEOPLE DIE.

The London Spectator says :—Miss Nightingale has pointed out how constantly the mental state of the depends on their physical condition. As a rule, she tells us, in acute cases interest in their own danger is rarely felt. "Indifference, except with regard to bodily suffering, or to some duty the dying man desires to perform is tho far more usual state. But patients who die of, consumption very frequently die in a state of seraphic joy and peace ; the countenance almost expresses rapture. Patients who die of cholera, peritonitis, &c, on the contrary, ofteD die in a state approachin» despair. In dysentery, diarrhoea, or fever, the patient often dies in a state of indifference." Those who have carefully examined the dead on a battlefield or in the streets after an emeute are struck with ihe fact that while the expression on the faces of those who have died by gunshot wounds is one of agony and distress, the dead by sword have a calmer expression, though their wounds often seem more painful to tho eye. A very careful observer, who was through the Indian mutiny, entirely confirms this. After giving several instances, he says :—" A rapid death by steel is almost painless. Sabre edge or point divides the nerves so quickly as to give little pain. A bullet lacerates."