398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In spite of the natural antagonism to death, a moment's reflection 

 will show that it is as much a physiological process as life ; the two 

 terms are correlative, the degree of vital activity depending on the 

 extent of molecular death occurring at the same time. Strange as the 

 paradox may seem, without death we can not live : every thought 

 emanating from the brain, every blow struck by the arm, is accom- 

 panied by destruction of nervous or muscular tissue. The bioplas- 

 matic or living matter of Beal, which enters into the formation of 

 every animal tissue, is constantly germinating into cells (the origin 

 of all life), and as constantly passing into decay, their places being 

 taken by other j^rotoplasts, thus keeping up the "active dance of 

 life." 



This disassimilation or interstitial death occurs to such an extent, 

 that Nature, in her wisdom, has provided excrementory organs for 

 the purj^ose of removing from the system the effete material thus 

 produced. Every living structure, after passing through certain stages 

 of development, maturity, and finally retrogression, must come to an 

 end. This may be but the ephemeral existence of some of the lower 

 forms of fungi, which, born in the cool of the morning, die as the 

 sun goes down; or, like the famous dragon-tree of Teneriffe, may out- 

 last the Pyramids that keep watch by the Nile. 



The last topic for consideration is the pseudopia of death, or visions 

 of the dying. This subject, coming under the realm of mental science, 

 properly belongs to metaphysics rather than to physiology. Various 

 theories have been advanced to explain these phenomena, but they must 

 remain as hypotheses at best, for they are not susceptible of demon- 

 stration. It is not an uncommon occurrence for the dying, after lying 

 some hours in a semi-conscious condition, to start up suddenly, and, with 

 glowing face, point eagerly to some object invisible to the bystanders, 

 and with animated voice and gesture state that they behold the glo- 

 ries of heaven, or the familiar countenance of some friend long since 

 dead. 



The question naturally arises as to whether these visions are merely 

 the fantasies of a disordered and fast-disorganizing brain ; or are the 

 dying actually permitted a momentary view of those mysteries hitherto 

 unknown ? 



The traditions and superstitions of the past have led to a popular 

 belief in the latter theory. Shakespeare expressed the sentiment of 

 his day when he placed in the mouth of the dying Queen Katharine 

 these words : 



" Saw you not even now a blessed troop 

 Invite rao to a banquet, whose bright faces 

 Cast thousand beams upon me like the sun ? " 



Science, with its iconoclastic hand, has swept away these pleasing 

 fancies, and in their places has constructed a fabric founded on analo- 



