THE FEAR OF DEATH. 239 



cient number of facts and observations, but will record what I 

 Lave observed without assuming to give it the value of definite 

 conclusions. 



I have been much struck by the fact that patients afflicted with 

 chronic and lingering diseases appear careless about death, and even 

 have often an ardent confidence in life and hope to enjoy it long. 

 The phenomenon is especially remarkable in consumptive patients, 

 although they know well enough that science has no remedy for their 

 disease, and only one of those miracles that sometimes are wrought 

 in the organism can save them. Their belief in a near recovery is 

 sometimes so strong that it takes the form of a real hallucination 

 and a delirium. I can say nothing precise about those who suffer 

 from acute diseases. There are those who remain sick, recover, or 

 die without ever saying a word about death or showing any appre- 

 hension of it; others, on the contrary, are desperate, mourn their 

 fate, and exhibit in their talk and acts poignant and profound 

 anguish at the prospect of death. Still others manifest a resigned 

 preoccupation and a regret modified by a Stoic recognition of the 

 inevitableness of death. It is impossible now to say what the causes 

 of these differences are; but the question is an interesting one. A 

 most curious phenomenon is the fact that death sometimes loses its 

 horrible character and is contemplated with real pleasure. Few 

 psychological facts seem more strange and astonishing than this. 

 The ancient Brahmanical custom of burning the bodies of widows 

 with their husbands became almost a moral privilege for the women, 

 and to many of them represented the magnificent ending of a beau- 

 tiful existence. The attempt of the English to eradicate it was 

 met by a strong opposition from the women themselves. A similar 

 custom, though devoid of the religious surroundings, exists in China, 

 where childless widows believe that they die well if they strangle 

 themselves after the interment of their husbands. 



Examples of pleasure in death are found, too, in countries of 

 European civilization. It is true that the most remarkable cases of 

 this kind occur among nervously diseased persons; but as their 

 disorders are generally only exaggerations of normal tendencies, 

 the psychological phenomenon is well worthy of attention. Death 

 is sometimes sought as preferable to a threatened separation under 

 the impulse of a strong emotion of love; and instances are cited in 

 which couples have deliberately and elaborately prepared for it as 

 if for a party of pleasure. Persons have been known to invite 

 death, in the expectation of thereby promoting some scheme of 

 vengeance. Savages of certain tribes who have been offended and 

 have no other means of vengeance kill themselves, believing that 

 their spirits will return to torment their enemy. Under the Hindu 



