SCIENCE AND DEATH 269 



To man, death means pre-eminently loss of con- 

 sciousness. Consciousness, we have seen, is in some 

 way connected with brain. When a man sleeps, 

 when molecular and molar motion are diminished, 

 and when the brain, supplied with less blood and 

 less oxygen, has less chemical activity, consciousness 

 is dulled. So in illness or old age, when the brain 

 is starved, consciousness usually becomes less 

 acute ; and finally, death is usually preceded by im- 

 pairment or loss of consciousness, and seems always 

 to mean unconsciousness, with loss of power of 

 molar motion, and chemical change. The dead man 

 hears not, sees not, feels not, and moves not ; and 

 the consciousness — the mind that thought and 

 discerned — seems quite abolished. 



All this seems to imply that thought and con- 

 sciousness are a transient chemical phenomenon, and 

 that they cannot exist apart from certain molecular 

 structure and action. That seems to be the clear 

 logical implication of the facts. Disturbance of 

 the chemistry of the cells of brain causes disturbance 

 of the consciousness in varying degrees, and de- 

 struction of the chemical structure of the cells 

 destruction of consciousness. We cannot expect 

 the same molecular edifices ever to be built again : 

 the atoms are scattered far and wide : 



" Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 

 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away," 



