DEATH QUITE PAINLESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 14

DEATH QUITE PAINLESS.

A DOCTOR'S EXPERIENCES AT MANY DEATH-BEDS.' Death is not painfnlr _ •'-' This Is the emphatic declaration of the eminent French specialist, Dr. Necker. I have observed and noted with the greatest attention and care, .he says, all the phenomena of that. tt_e_ most important act of life is called;deatb,~and I can affirm that it is painles*.' -Sensibility, that compound action of the brain,, nerves, and muscles, which produces; all" our feelings, both physical aud psychological, is the first thing to die. It becomes extinct before tbe animal life ends, and consequently there Is no pain in death.

Death, like sleep, is an absolutely inconscieut and painless act. Nobody can remember the exact moment he fell asleep, and no one has a notion of the exact moment when he dies. In some cases, when the brain is clear enough to permit the patient to think aud reason, the man about to die realises his position, but even then he is only ahle to have a very faint and nebulous idea of what happens to him. His mind is too confused to make deductions that would' necessarily cause intense moral pain. As to phjslcal pain, there is none. When a person becomes so ill that be is about to die, no matter what the direct cause of his condition might be—in other words, when a man is about to die. a natural or violent death, the atrophia or physical sensibility is so complete that he would not feel any pain even if he be pinched or slashed or in any other way hurt. It is logical, therefore, to think that if. previous to reaching the agonic or preagonic period, he was suffering from any pain, it had disappeared, for there can be no pain where there is an absolute absence of sensibility.

I am acquainted with the case of a man who jumped overboard from a steamer In mid-ocean, with the object, as he afterwards testified, to find out what the feelings of a drowning man were.

He struggled desperately for two or three hours, aud during that time, he said, his sufferings, both physical and moral, were intense: but then, with the approach of death, all feeliugs disappeared. His brain worked _st.il. but it had been so weakened that, while he had a notion of what happened, it was so faint and imperfect that he could not fully realise his position. He was picked np and saved when he was, in his own opinion, "more than dead."

A little child had his two legs cut off by a train. H" was brought to the hospital, and according to the ambulance surgeon, he did not complain of any pain. Up only hogged the doctors that his legs be not amputated. I conversed with him. for a few minutes of different things, and to all my questions the child Answered with perfect accuracy. Suddenly he looked at mc, and said: "How good this is!" "What?" I asked. "Nothing."' replied the child, "but I feel all over my body something that is very nice!" And he died. It is knon-n that the sensation felt by a mortal wound inflicted with a rifle bullet is that of a light blow. In many lustances, when the wound, while dangerous, is not necessarily mortal, the blow is felt in another part of the body. A man who was shot in the liver in one of the battles of the Cuban Revolution felt merely a verr slight pain under the right eye. It was only after several hours that he discovered his mistake. Death by hemorrhage, according to the most famous medical authorities, lg "delicious." as death by hanging is also said to be. HT DEFENCE OF FAIRY TALES. The Duchess of Somerset has lately beca expressing her opinion that fairy st-rie.3 are undesirable reading for juve"lile minds, and that children had much oelur devote t/hemselves to the biography of Julius Caesar and similar excerpts j'rom universal history. Her Grace of Buckingham and Chandos has • .ur.tered this with -a book of her grantlfairy tales, and, we believe, tbe Duchess oi Sutherland has also entered the lists in favour of Cinderella and Jack the Giant Killer. Into this p-articular and duc»l arena of debate we do not propose to except to point out, in view of the approach of Christmas, that well-established legends like those of Alfred and the Cakes, Canute and his Courtiers, or Brace and the Spider, have also their pantomimic value, and would seem to combine |he requirements of the opposing parties. We have no doubt the influential nursery public will decide the question on its merits by -a referendum.

As adults, however, we must enter a caveat against possible iconoclasm of the sort. We have our own contemporary Fairy Tales to cherish and maintain. We believe in them so loyally and profoundly that it would be a erring s_..ime for any prosaic, matter-of-fact individual to disiilusianise us. If one is robbed of a child-like faith in these, it may well be asked, what arc we to believe? We need only quote a few of their titles from a long list, familiar as household expletives to most of us:— "line Largest Circulation of any Three-halfpenny Paper." "Trafalgar Square; or the Finest Site in Europe." "A Set of Pearl-like Teeth for Haif-a-Crown." "Umbrellas Mended while you wait." "The Wild Cat Gold Mine; or Fortunatus's Purrs." "Not a Money-lender, but a Gentleman with Capital." "Glen-fuseJ—the Finest Old Scotch." "The Sporting Prophet, or our Midday Double." "The Music-hall Serio and her Keal Diamond Chest-protector." "The House-Agent and -All That Messuage." "The Registry-Office Lady and Jher Priceless Domestic Jewels." "The Party Politician and His New Hea/vens and New Earth." And so on, and so forth. Let us, we ! repeat, cling to the romances or, rather ' articles of creed which these headings suggest. No lady, _owev_r distinguished, shall tamper with the beliefs of our grown-np years.—"Zig-Zag," in "Punch." A FRIENDLY SUGGESTION. Cremnitz White: " I'd do anything | in the world for art." i J. Caustic: "Well, why don't you quit painting' I — FELL OVER. Astonished Friend: What is the matter, George—been in a fight or attacked by a bulldog?" George: Neither, thank you. I have just discovered a short cut from .the-top oi tJM4cJ_ to this beach.'*