DEAT EH. 
ertth by a natural death, approximates to that of the foe- 
ae in utero, or of the vegetable, which lives only ean ye 
and has no perception of external obje 
"This imequality in the duration of the two lives is, in a cer- 
thereby extinguilhes al] thofe fun&tions which keep up our 
relations to the external world. Itis nothing but the inter- 
ruption of thofe funGions, that us look on ceath with 
o not ae the pat 
of bodily pain; for moft ae ce on their death-bed would 
gladly embrace the offer of a lengthened one even al- 
though it were purchafed by uninterrupted fuffering. 
The wearieft and moft loathed worldly life, 
That age, ache, penury, and imprifonment can lay on man, 
Is paradife to what we fear of death. 
ould we imagine to ourfelves an individual, in whom 
Seat fhould affeét the internal funétions only, as circula- 
tion, si age fecretion, .&c., leaving the animal life ftill 
in vigour ; or ion contemplate with indifference 
the popracig = s organic exiftence, becaufe he 
would feel that ns plates of life are n ed 
that, and that he would ftill be able to feel and enjoy al- 
moft every thing which formerly conftituted his happinefs. 
Since then io animal life ceafes by degrees; fince each o 
the ties, which conneGs us to the pleafure of living, is ees 
a, gravaly, this pleafure leaves us at la 
ceptibly, and we have already become infenfible to ne va- 
lue ie like, ae it is ies Oe by the ftroke of death. 
This is the courfe of things that we obferve in the old man, 
who paffes, by the fucceflive and partial lofs of a exter- 
nal fun@tions, to the clofe of his exiftence. His death is 
that - a vegetable, which, having no relations to external 
and no confcioufnefs of: life, can have none of 
The organic exiftence, which ftill remains to the old 
man after the almoft entire lofs of the animal life, ends in 
and fudden deaths. In the latter we may diftinguifh two 
periods: the firft, which is marked by the fudden ceffation 
of refpiration and irculation, two functions which ceafe 
in thefe cafes nearly as foon as en animal life; the fecond, 
which comes on more flowly, is the gradual termination of 
& 
The ‘dig eflive juices {ti 
the contents of the. ftomach, which even retains, in fom 
degree, the power of propelling the food. Abforption, as 
numerous Ar acai have poi {till goes on for fome 
a haar s are by no means rare, where the blad- 
and re » by the irritable power which their - 
fell poe fd the urine and feces fome time after thea 
rent period of a fudden death. Nutrition i is ftill aencde sk in 
power of obferving oth infenfible motions in which thcfe 
funGions confit. mal heat is preferved in moft fudden 
deaths, and paticolaly in yxia, much beyond the 
time which would are A for the eee of that, 
which the body, con leas mafs of dead mattcr, con 
tains at the inftant of app eat ica. 
Many other fats might. be adduced, to prove, in concur- 
rence with thofe already ftated, that the crganic fu: Giuns 
terminate flowly and gradually in fudden deaths; that the 
harmony of the internal life, — as a whole, is fir 
affe&ied in th the general circulation and 
re i 
1 
guithes; fecretion and aoa are arrefted ; the capuilary 
d being deprived of the 
which pre efide. over it, ftops. e general 
s then fufpended in the large veffels ; ane laitly, 
raion of the heart ae fo thet is 
med the ultimum morten 
ri htly We 
& yt h exut ReEwees the 
bring the eee which 
old age, and that sla arifes from fudden ei, ae 
following view. In the former, life is firft extin nifhed i in 
the parts, and then ceafes | in the heart; fo that the influ~ 
— of death is exerted from the circumference to the cen- 
In the latter, ‘ nas firft in the heart, and then 
all the parts: fo th eau of death take slice 
rom the centre to ce cae 
Having thus defcribed the manner in which death takes 
place, when it occurs as the natural clofe of life, we proceed 
to confider the mode of its occurrence when it appears be- 
fore the are allotted by nature as theclofe of our exiftence. 
So ul indeed is the influence exerted by saeeds a 
“ s become with us a rare 
Ss 
7c 
o 
>? 
particularly worthy of our attention. 
ys; either as the fudden refult of a great difturb- 
inftance in Hane great hemorrhage, 
underftood, they naturally lead us to a knowledge of the 
former. We can, moreover, imitate thefe kinds of death 
on animals, and are thus enabled to analyfe their various 
of experiment. In the cafe of dif- 
hofe of ani- 
sheen 3 annihilate ile, on the contrary, the - 
latter never ae e the termination of the former. An in- 
dividual who hae faffered compreffion o in, or who 
has becn attacked by apelds ae lives internally for - 
veral days after he has ceafed for external obje 
If, on the contrary, death ni any effential oat 
funGtion, as the circulation in ounds or aneurif- 
tions Hae i 
mal life 
view, as leadin us to the exertions we ufe of in ine« 
flances of apparent death from hangiligs srownings see 
10 
