396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



would be more trying than a most painful death ; yet be feels it not. 

 Born in an unconscious state, tbe brain incapable of receiving conscious 

 impressions, bis entrance into tbis bitberto unknown world is accom- 

 plisbed during a state of oblivion, known as Nature's ansestbesia : 



" Painlessly we come, whence we know not 

 Painlessly we go, whither we know not ! " 



From tbe earliest period of human history death has been consid- 

 ered as necessarily accompanied by pain ; so general is tbis belief, that 

 the terms " death-agony," " last struggle," " pangs of death," etc., 

 have been in almost universal use in every age and under all conditions 

 of society. 



Nothing could be more erroneous ; the truth is, pain and death 

 seldom go together we mean the last moments of life. Of course, 

 death may be preceded by weeks or even months of extreme suffering, 

 as occurs during certain incurable diseases. 



So exaggerated has been tbis notion that it has been considered an 

 act of humanity to anticipate the " death-struggle " by violence ; for 

 ages it was customary among the lower classes* of Europe to hasten 

 death by suddenly jerking the pillow from beneath the head of the 

 dying, thus throwing the bead backward, straining the pharyngeal 

 and thoracic muscles, rendering tbe respiration, already difficult, shortly 

 impossible. A Venetian ambassador, in the time of Queen Mary, as- 

 serted that it was a common custom among the country-people to 

 smother the dying by means of a pillow placed over tbe face, upon 

 which leaned or sat the nearest relative. This was founded upon the 

 pious belief that a short road was the best one. This custom was 

 banded down from generation to generation, parents performing it for 

 their children, and vice versa. But, perhaps, tbe saddest privilege ever 

 allowed the near friends of a dying man, occasionally occurred during 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when through executive clemency in 

 executions by hanging they were permitted to grasp the feet of the 

 suspended criminal, and, by clinging to the extremities, precipitate 

 their additional weight on the body, thereby hastening strangulation. 

 It is needless to say that these theories are false in both conception 

 and practice. Death is a physiological j^rocess, and like all other ani- 

 mal functions should be painless. 



When the fiat of death went forth, Nature kindly provided an 

 anaesthetic for the body. As the end of life draws near, the respira- 

 tions become slow and shallow, interrupted now and then by a deep, 

 sighing inspiration, as though the lungs were vainly endeavoring to 

 throw off the palsy creeping over them. As the intervals between the 

 inspirations grow longer, the blood becomes saturated with carbonic- 

 acid gas the same as that formed from burning charcoal, whose dead- 

 ly fumes have so often aided the suicide to painlessly destroy life. 



While the power of breathing is gradually failing, the heart, which 



