CHAPTER I. 



VARIOUS WAYS OF REGARDING DEATH. 



Different meanings of the word death — Physiological distinction 

 between elementary and general death — Non-scientific 

 opinions — The ordinary point of view — Medical point of 

 view. — The signs of death are prognostic signs. 



Different Meanings of tJie Word Death. — An English 

 philosopher has asserted that the word we translate 

 by " cause " has no less than sixty-four different mean- 

 ings in Plato and forty-eight in Aristotle. The word 

 " death " has not so many meanings in modern 

 languages, but still it has many. Sometimes it 

 indicates an action which is taking place, the action 

 of dying, and sometimes a state, the state which 

 succeeds the action of dying. The phenomena it 

 connotes are in the eyes of many biologists quite 

 different, according as we watch them in an animal 

 of complex organization, or on the other hand, in 

 monocellular beings, protozoa and protophytes. 



Physiological Distinction between Elementary Death 

 and General Death. — We distinguish the death of the 

 anatomical elements, elementary deatJi, from the 

 death of the individual regarded as a whole, general 

 death. Hence we recognize an apparent death, which 

 is an incomplete and temporary suspension of the 

 phenomena of vitality, and a real death, which is a 

 final and total arrest of these phenomena. When 



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