NATURAL DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 19 October 1907, Page 3

NATURAL DEATH.

In an article in Harper's .Monthly entiled "Students df Death," Professor .Nfcicluiiki:ii, tiie iit 11 ions president of the Pasteur fn Unit-', develops his old theory that mankind will arrive at a need for death :.j:niiur io the need for *leep. In fact, lie claims that many aged people do instinctively look forward to death.

lie accepts the theory that sleep is caused by the accumulation of poisons in the system, and maintains that "natural death" is due to a similar though more profound toxic effect. "Monsieur Yves Dehige/' he writes, "in an analysis of my studies upon human nature, expresses his doubts as to the existence of an instinct serving neither for the preservation of the individual nor that of the species. In his mind the idea of the instinct of death is nonsense. I can not share the view of my learned critic. Doth in man and in animals many harmful instincts are known to exist which have nothmg to do with insuringdife or reproduction. To this class belong thy anomalies of the sexual instinct, so l'rei|iieiil among mankind, as well as the in-.tinet which impels parents to devour their young, or that whieh attracts in-r.e'-ts to the lire. These instincts al'e i':ir the gsvatfr part injurious to the individual and th" >pr<-ies. The idea that. 1 -i; 'ii-tm.'t oi' natural death is in all probability accompanied by as peaceable and pleasant a as can be conceived will still further it beneticient effect upon humanity/' In spite of the fact that in many cases the cessation of life has h-ecu actually accompanied, Professor MetchniknH' in-

sists tli.it there ;iiv 11.1f !i diseases and fatal accidents in which tin- approach of (loath has boon accompanied by no pain whatsoever. ''ln our own experience," lie continues, ''during an attack of intermittent fever, when the temperature !• ",d in a short ]>aee of time fallen more than forty-one derives below normal, we were conscious of a sensation of extraordinary weakness, resembling no doubt that which foreruns death. As a matter of fact, the sensation was grateful rather Hum painful. In two cases of poisoning by morphine the sensation was as agreeable as possible: a gentle faintness, accompanied by such lightness of body that one felt as if afloat in the air. Those observers who have given their attention to the sensations of persons who have narrowly escaped death report facts of the same character. Professor Ifeim, of Zurich, has given an account of a fall during a mountain climb, in which he came near losing his life, and accounts of other accidents of the kind befalling Alpine tourists. Til evcrv case lie has described an attendant feeling of beautitiide." If this sensation of beautitiule accompanies death l>v illness, how much more, asks the Professor, will it accompany natural death?