3O8 LIFE AND DEATH. 



we consider it in its essential nature (assumed, but 

 not known) we look on it as the contrary of life, as 

 did the Encyclopaedia, Cuvier, and Bichat ; or \ve 

 regard it with others either as the consequence of 

 life, or simply as the end of life. 



Non-scientific Opinions. What is death to those 

 outside the realm of science ? First of all we find the 

 consoling solution given by those who believe death 

 to be the commencement of another life. We next 

 find ourselves involved in a confused medley, an 

 infinite diversity of philosophical doubt and super- 

 stition. " A leap into the unknown," says one. 

 " Dreamless and unconscious night," says another. 

 And again, " A sleep which knows no waking." 

 Or, with Horace, " the eternal exile," or with 

 Seneca, annihilation. Post mortem nitiil ; ipsaqne 

 mors nihil. 



The idea which is constantly supervening in the 

 midst of this conflict of opinion is that of the 

 breaking up of the elements, the union of which 

 forms the living being. It has, as we shall see, a 

 real foundation which may perhaps receive the 

 support of science. We shall not find that the best 

 way of defining death is to say that it consists of the 

 " dissolution of the society formed by the anatomical 

 elements, or again, in the dissolution of the conscious- 

 ness that the individual possesses of himself i.c , of 

 the existence of this society." It is the rupture of 

 the social bond. The old idea of dispersion is a 

 variant of the same notion. But the ancients 

 evidently could not understand, as we do, the nature 

 of these elements which are associated to form the 

 living being, and which are liberated or dispersed 

 by death. We, as biologists, can see microscopical 



