MISCELLANEOUS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2639, 5 September 1881, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Mrs Parfitt, an elderly woman, the widow of a clergyman, residing at Merriwa, N.S.W., met with a shocking death through falling into a fire. Being old and feeble, she was unable to extricate herself, and was frightfully burnt. A neighbor,hearing her screams, ran to her assistance, and found her clothes on fire. If one is thankful to the revisers for nothing else, says the Australian “ Churchman,” at least gratitude should be felt for the removal of the “ beasts ” out of the Revelation, and for the substitution of “ creatures ” or “ living creatures,”

Dr Thomas D. Spencer argues, in the “ Popular Science Monthly,” that in most cases death is painless, “It is a physiological process,” he says, " and ought to be free from suffering. When the fiat of death went forth, Nature kindly provided an anaesthetic for the body. As the end of life draws near, the respirations become slow and shallow, interrupted now and then by a deep, sighing inspiration, as though the lungs were vainly endeavouring to th.ow off the palsy creeping over them. As the intervals between .the inspirations grow longer, the blood becomes saturated with carbolic acid gas—the same as that formed from burning charcoal, whose deadly fumes have so often aided the suicide painlessly to destroy life.” Dying is, therefore, very much like gently falling asleep.