The Dread of Death.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 354, 27 March 1889, Page 3

The Dread of Death.

Ik his letter to Janius Henri Brown on this subject, Sir Lyon Playfair says :—: — Having represented a large medical constituency (the University" of Edinburgh) for 18 years as a member of Parliament, I naturally came in contact with the most eminent medical men of England: I have ! put the question to most of them., 'Did you, in your extensive practice, ever know' a patient who was afraid todie ?' With two exceptions they answei'ed k No.' "One of these exceptions was Sir Benjamin BVodie, who said he had seen one case, that' of a'-ydung girl- of bad character -who had .a sudden accident. I have known three friends whoSvere partially devoured by wild beasts under 'apparently hopeless circumstances of Escape. The first was Livingstone, the great. African traveller, who was knocked on his back by a lion, which began to munch his arm. He assured me that he felt no fear or pain, and that his only feeling was one of inten&e curiosity as to which part of his body the lion would take next. The next was Rustem Pasha, now Turkish Em bassador lin London. , A. bear attacked him,, and tore off part of his hand and part of his arm and shoulder. He also assured me that he had neither a sense of pain nor of fear, but that he ielt excessively angry because the beabt grunted .with so much satisfaction' in munching him. The third case is that of Sir Edward Bradford, an Indian officer now occupying a high position in the Indian Office. He was seized iq a solitary place ,by a tiger* which led him firmly behind his shoulders with one paw, and then deliberately devoured the whole of his arm, beginning at the end and ending •at the shoulder. He was positive that he had no sensation of fear, and thinks that he felt a little pain when the fangs went ' through his hand," but is certain that he felt none during the munching of his arm.