THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH. 395 



come times in the life of every individual, that might be termed peri- 

 ods of self-consciousness, during which the mind brushes aside the 

 more vulgar affairs of life, and grapples with the awe-inspiring mys- 

 teries of death. As these phenomena are considered one after another 

 in their manifold aspects, the mind, owing to the association of ideas, 

 becomes involved in such an intricate labyrinth of thought, that, after 

 wandering here and there, vainly endeavoring to solve the problem of 

 death, it gives it up as a hopeless conundrum. 



It is our purpose to discuss, as briefly as possible, some of the most 

 important aspects of dissolution. 



Addison said that there was nothing in history more imposing than, 

 nothing so pleasing and affecting as, the accounts of the behavior of 

 eminent persons in their dying hours ; and Montaigne remarks, while 

 speculating on death, that of all the passages in the annals of mankind 

 those which attracted and delighted him most were the words and 

 gestures of dying men. " If I were a maker of books," he continues, 

 ^' I would compile a register with comments of various deaths, for he 

 who should teach men to die would teach them to live." There are 

 three elements presented in this fear of death : First, the extinction of 

 life's pleasures, interests, and hopes, to which the mind looks forward 

 with a degree of apprehension, proportionate to the amount of happi- 

 ness they are capable of affording. With the young and vigorous the 

 loss of these animal enjoyments is contemplated with extreme misery ; 

 hence the custom, among the early Greeks, of bearing the lifeless body 

 of youth to the f uneral-j^yre at the break of mom, " lest the sun 

 should behold so sad a sight as the young dead." Second, the dread 

 of the unknown future, also depending upon the nervous temperament. 

 And, lastly, comes a fear more powerful than either, which is the dread 

 of pain, inherent in nature. From time immemorial the actual mo- 

 ment of dissolution has been supposed to be accompanied by a throe 

 of anguish known as the '' death-agony." This is believed to occur 

 at that moment when the spiritual and j^hysical forces that have been 

 so intimately blended for many years are torn asunder, the one to 

 molder and decay, the other to take upon itself that new life beyond 

 the ken of man. 



This last element properly belongs to the physiologist, and as such 

 we propose to consider it. Sir Francis Bacon, in one of his essays, 

 published for the first time in the year 15TT, gave to the world the 

 following profound thought : " It is as natural to die as to be bora, 

 and to the little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other." 

 In profundity of thought and depth of research Bacon stepped in 

 advance of his contemporaries, and lived in the future. Thus we find 

 that, contrary to the generally received opinion of even this latter day, 

 Nature evidently designed that the end of man should be as painless 

 as his beginning. 



At bii'th the babe undergoes an ordeal that, were be conscious. 



