Death Not to be Feared. Investigation of the Phenomena Attending the Closing of Life.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2048, 22 August 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Death Not to be Feared. Investigation of the Phenomena Attending the Closing of Life.

Dn. G. L. BrAit]>-Li:Y, a medical expert, has been giving to iho public the latest investigation by physicians respecting the phenomena attending the closing of life. Itneeme that whilo thrre ia a natural dread of death on the part of all pane and wholesome people, there ia no puch repugnance among thooe whose end is near. Tho function of dying is negative ; -we fall to pieces like a flower. The organic, chemical changes ars not only natural, hut are accompanied by a senbe of relief and even of pleusure. The criteria of death are being satisfied, and tho process is consummated when this extinction of sensibility prevails at tho ultimate filaments. During the progress of this dissolution of the nerve foiee, thin creeping on of tho numbness of death, the individual is rapidly passing into a condition of repose, and, instead of torture or pangs, a dec rme n of pelf-satisfaction oft approaching to end usift ua is realised. The sensations peciH>.i to tho therapeutical operation of o^ium, hashish, ether, etc., art) not improbably akin to the mental activities of the dying. Bariing the hallucinations experienced in the stupor as it pains on the subject, Ihe moribund is familiar with naueht that borders on suffering. This carbonic acid has poisoned or narcotised the several ganglia, and reflex productions are interdicted. A consummate anr.lpe^ia prrvaila. in short, the notion of pain in forbidden the instant that any stimulus failn to excite a response. The condition to tbia irritability is that the neive center and track are Bound. If this \igor vanishes, reflex phenomena are at an end. and suiforing, physiologically Fpoeking, ia irnpot sible, because of the arnet of the function of tho sympathetic. Under these conditions there is no physical or mental recoil from death. Dr. William Hunter was sorry ha was unable to write " how ea&y i\nd delightful it is to die." Dr. Soiande/, tbe traveller, wag so delighted with relations of excess in cold that ho was the first to lio down in tbe snow to realise the luxury of such a death. Dr. Eurney tried hard to rc-iai the efforts mads to >esunticate liitn from drowniug, co bewitched wns he by his prolonged alumber. Infants die !•> seretiely aa they breathe, ar.d though baog'ng is the most cruel form of dea'h, save crucifiTior.yet after the iiret agony from strangnlation, haUurinationsiflpuily follow that are intensely pleaaurnblc. Death mans rest and lehrf from buffering. It»j ehitf terror to tho well is in v bat nitty follow m the long and lonely u •)' -nhtub comes after dissolution —Vewore,\t's Monthly