DEATH BY LIGHTNING 468 



— that every thought or feeling has its physical correlative 

 in that organ; and nothing can be more certain than that 

 every physical change, whether molecular or mechanical, 

 requires time for its accomplishment. So that, besides the 

 interval of transmission, a still further time is necessary 

 for the brain to put itself in order — for its molecules to 

 take up the motions or positions necessary to the com- 

 pletion of consciousness. Helmholtz considers that one- 

 tenth of a second is demanded for this purpose. Thus, 

 in the case of the whale above supposed, we have first 

 half a second consumed in the transmission of the intel- 

 ligence through the sensor nerves to the head, one-tenth 

 of a second consumed by the brain in completing the ar- 

 rangements necessary to consciousness, and, if the velocity 

 of transmission through the motor be the same as that 

 through the sensor nerves, half a second in sending a 

 command to the tail to defend itself. Thus one second 

 and a tenth would elapse before an impression made upon 

 its caudal nerves could be responded to by a whale forty 

 feet long. 



Now, it is quite conceivable that an injury might be 

 inflicted so rapidly that within the time required by the 

 brain to complete the arrangements necessary to conscious- 

 ness, its power of arrangement might be destroyed. In 

 such a case, though the injury might be of a nature to 

 cause death, this would occur without pain. Death in 

 this case would be simply the sudden negation of life, 

 without any intervention of consciousness whatever. 



The time reqiiired for a rifle-bullet to pass clean 

 through a man's head may be roughly estimated at a 

 thousandth of a second. Here, therefore, we should have 

 no room for sensation, and death would be painless. But 



