THE POINT OF DEATH. When Dissolution Occurs a Matter of Grave Uncertainty.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 187, 15 January 1887, Page 2

THE POINT OF DEATH. When Dissolution Occurs a Matter of Grave Uncertainty.

Altho t u.u usually iv is o^,«y to tell when. dis«olution his occurred, yet there are cases which occur from time to ti me rendering the matter one of very giave uncertainty. The point at which the boul rehn quishes the boriy is among the irost difficult things to establish. Perhaps this uncertainty is one of the reasons why there is such curiosity as to death-beds and last words. We are anxious to know how affair 3 appear to those who are passing away. They are undergoing the great chanro through every one must pass. How does it look to them ? Very little more Information is to be gathered from the dying than from the dead. Certain inferences may be drawn from the surroundings — the departing colour, the cold, deepeningstare, the groan, the rattle in the throat, the stiffening limbs ; but they are aB likely to mislead as not. And the same may bo said of the death sayings. They are *8 enigmatic as the declarations of the oracles. We may take sometimes half a dozen of meanings from them, as for instance, Goethe's " More light !" Was it the sense of earthly darkness growing around him, or was it the breaking of the eternal light upon his vision, or was there yet some deeper significance in the exclamation? Medical works eho<v that people have been resuscitated fifteen, twert.y and even thirty minutes after apparent death. Helden, the highwayman, is said to have been dead three-quarters of an hour. His body wa» cut down after hanging that length of time* and was handed over to his friends after a thorough examination. That night he was seen as well ns ever, except for a Ht-.ffnoss of the neck. Pryce, the Norwich miser, was dead as Cresar, according to those about him, and until some thoughtful person, distrusting the warmth of his hands, administered a stimulant. He arose, and lived years afterward. Cases of mere trance are almost innumerable. Supposed deaths from drowning show that reauecitation may take place thirty or forty minutes after all life has apparently left the body. The question as to what becomes of tho soul in this long interval is the one that puzzles many. But the chief point of the matter is that the physicians and friends should not too readily accept appearance* in the critical hour. There may, as in the Fraser instance, be yet some spark of life remaining. As Dr. Lackerstein claims, there is aosolutely no reason why, with the resources he employed, at hand, any one should die of an overdose of chloroform or from a shock while undergoing a surgical operation.

Why is a kies like some sermons T Because there are two heads and an application.