DEA 
the presfervatioii of life, after the animal 
functions are destroyed. At length, in the 
process of these changes, death itself be- 
comes inevitable, as tlie necessary conse- 
quence of life. But it is rare that life is 
thus long protracted, or that death succeeds 
merely from the decays and impairment of 
old age. Diseases, a long and melancholy 
train, cut the work short. 
The signs of death are in many cases 
very uncertain. Between life and death 
the shade is often so very undistingnishable, 
that even all the powers of ail can scarcely 
determine where the one ends and the other 
begins. The colour of the visage, the 
warmth of the body, and suppleness of the 
joints, are but uncertain signs of life still 
subsisting ; while, on the contrary, the 
paleness of the complexion, the coldness of 
the body, the stitfness of the extremities, 
the cessation of all motion, and the total 
insensibility of the parts, are but uncertain 
marks of death begun. In the same man- 
ner, also, with regard to the pulse and 
breathing ; these motions are so often kept 
under, that it is impossible to perceive 
them. By bringing a looking-glass near to 
the mouth of the person supposed to be 
dead, people often expect to &id whether 
he breathes or not. But this is a very un- 
certain experiment ; the glass is frequently 
sullied by the vapour of the dead man’s 
body ; and often the person is still alive, 
tliongh the glass is no way tarnished. In 
the same manner, neither burning nor sca- 
rifying, neither noises in the ears nor pun- 
gent spirits applied to the nostrils, give 
certain signs of the discontinuance of life ; 
and there are many instances of persons 
who have endured them all, and afterwards 
recovered without any external assistance, 
to the astonishment of the spectators. This 
ought to be a caution against hasty burials, 
especially iu cases of sudden death, drown- 
ing, &c. 
All our first associations with the idea of 
death are of the disgustful and alarming 
kind ; and they are collected from all quar- 
ters, from the sensible pains of every sort, 
ffoni the imperfection, weakness, loath- 
someness, corruption, and disorder, where 
disease, old age, death, animal or vegeta- 
ble, prevail, in opposition to the beauty, 
order, and lustre of life, youth, and iiealth, 
from the shame and conteuiptaf tending the 
first, in many instances; wliereas the last 
are honourable, as being sources of power 
and happiness, the reward of virtue, iac., 
and from the sympathetic passions in gene- 
DEA 
rai. And it is necessary, that the lieGif- 
lessness and inexperience of infancy and 
youth sliould be guarded by such terrors, 
and their headstrong appetites and passions 
curbed, that they may not be hurried into 
danger and destruction before they are 
aware. It is proper, also, that they should 
form some expectations with respect to, 
and set some value upon, their future life 
in this world, that so they ntay be better 
qualified to act tiieir parts in it, and make 
tlie quicker progress to perfection during 
their passage through itl 
Death watch, in natural history, a little 
insect famous for a ticking noise like the 
beat of a watch, which the vulgar have 
long taken for a presage of death in the 
family where it is heard : an error that can- 
not be too often confuted by facts. There 
are two kinds of death-watches. Of the 
first we have a good account in the Phil. 
Trans. It is a small beetle, half an inch 
long, of a dark brown colour, spotted ; 
Itaviug pellucid wings under the vagina, a 
large cap or helmet on the head, and two 
antennm proceeding from beneath the eyes, 
and doing the office of proboscides. The 
part it beats with, the writer observes, was 
the extreme edge of the fime, which he 
calls the upper-lip, the mouth being pro- 
tracted by this bony part, and lying under- 
neath out of view. This account is con- 
firmed by Dr. Derham ; with the difference, 
that instead of ticking with the upper lip, 
he observed the insect to draw back its 
month, and beat with its forehead. That 
author had two death watches, a male and 
a female, which he kept alive in a box seve- 
ral months, and could bring one of them to 
beat whenever he pleased, by imitating its 
beating. From some circumstances the in- 
genious author concludes those pulsations 
to be the way whereby these insects woo 
one another. 
Hie second kind of death watch is an in- 
sect in appearance quite different from the 
first. Tlie former only beats seven or eight 
strokes at a time, and quicker ; the latter 
will beat some hours together without in- 
termission; and his strokes are more lei- 
surely, and like the beat of a watch. This 
latter is a small greyish insect, much like a 
louse when viewed with the naked eye. It 
is very common in all parts of the house in 
the summer mouths: it is very nimble 
in running to shelter, and shy of beating 
when disturbed, but will heat very freely 
before you, and also answer the beat- 
yeu can view it without giving it 
