562 THE AGONY. 



great weakness. When the patient has his nose sharp, his eyes sunk, 

 his temples hollow, his ears cold and contracted, the skin of his forehead 

 tense and dry, and the color of his face tending to a pale green or leaden 

 tint, one may give out for certain that death is very near, unless the 

 strength of the patient has been exhausted all at once by long watchings, 

 or by a looseness, or being a long time without eating." 



Even after death some of the organic functions continue for a time, 

 Post-mortem more particularly secretion and the development of heat. In 

 t^nT^d^as- a * rmer chapter, page 444, the capability of extraordinary 

 sions. muscular motions has been referred to. From other inter- 



esting observations on those who have been instantaneously decapitated 

 by the guillotine, it has been asserted that the body can display what 

 has been termed post-mortem passion and resentment. It may, however, 

 be doubted whether this is really true. Perhaps these effects are only 

 analogous to those convulsive manifestations which may be easily pro- 

 duced, in an intensely interesting way, by the application of voltaic bat- 

 teries to those who have been dead for some time. 



Physiologists often quote the sentiment of Montaigne, " With how 

 insensibilit IM 6 anxiety do we lose the consciousness of light and of 

 before the final ourselves." By this they would convey the idea that the 

 act of dying is as painless as the act of falling asleep, and 

 also as little perceived. They recall the fact which seems to support 

 this view, that those who have been recovered after apparent death from 

 drowning, and after sensation has been totally lost, report that they have 

 experienced no pain ; and, indeed, when we reflect that the sensory pow-' 

 ers are the first to decline, the eye and the ear, at an early period in the 

 article of death, failing to discharge their duty, and the general sense of 

 touch becoming rapidly more and more obtuse, we can scarcely put any 

 otner interpretation upon the final struggles which constitute what is so 

 significantly called the agony, than that they are purely automatic and 

 therefore unfelt. Doubtless the mind, in this solemn moment, is some- 

 times occupied with an instantaneous review of impressions long before 

 made upon the brain, and which offer themselves with clearness and 

 energy now that present circumstances are failing to excite its attention, 

 through loss of sensorial power of the peripheral organs, this state of 

 things having also been testified to by those who have been recovered 

 from drowning. 



Life closes at last in various ways. Some pass away as though they 

 were really falling asleep ; others with a deep sigh or groan ; others with 

 a gasp ; and some with a convulsive struggle. 



