IS IT PAINFUL TO DIE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11686, 22 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

IS IT PAINFUL TO DIE?

DO THE DYING SEE BEYOND?

A wkll-K-vowk Scottish doctor, with a large practice, was recently interviewed on this subject by a newspaper correspondent. lie talked freely on the subject of death. He has looked into the eyes of dying men and women and children of every hind and condition, am] this is the summing up or it all-— is as much of a mystery to me now as it was when I first saw a human being die. Nature is never so kind to man as when she is severing the ties that bind Lira to his eailhly life. She removes all fear, ameliorates every harsh surrounding, softens even- sound, and smooths the narrowpathway to' the grave with kindly hands. The easiest thing in life is to die. In your experience, Dr. Andrews. I asked, have you ever found a. cast* in which fear of death" rose to the point where men fought and screamed at its approach'.' Never. In severe sickness death comes in the guise ot p. welcome visitor. On the battlefield or as the result of accident or sudden shock, when it comes to a man swiftly, who but a moment before was in perfect health and hall an hour later will be dead, a fortituue which I cannot describe and have never been able to analyse sustains the victim. 00 men and w«,m«m in the bigiicr grades of intelligence exhibit any different emotions ns death approaches from those gifted with fes mental power? Does the professional man or the scientist betray any different feelings or emotions from those exhibited l.iv the dav labourer or the moat ignorant of Bien: No and res. was the reply. Ihe scientist, the man or woman of keen intelligence and trained faculties, unless their lives have been conspicuous for an exhibition of faith in religion and its teachings, are slower to accept ministrations of clergymen and others. The man of low intelligence yields at the first approach anil calls for religions consolation. The reason for this is. I think, that the vast majority of professional men, outside of the clergy, and particularly doctors and scientists genera!!-., are not inclined to believe or accept what th'ev cannot demonstrate as a scientific fact. And vet; as a rule, these men and women willingly accept religious ministration when death is only a, matter of hours. ■I recall an instance during the war. One of the most distinguished men was brought to me for treatment. i saw at once that death was a matter of hours only. He was one of the most brilliant and charming men I ever met. I told him that he could not Jive, and asked him if he desired to talk with a clergyman. He replied in rather a careless wav that he did not feel disposed to change his views—that death, as he believed, ended all. and there was no use of dragging religion in at the last hour. That was in the morning. He then felt Strong and clear headed. When I saw him in the afternoon he was weaker, and referring to our earlier conversation told me that he lad been raised to the Methodist faith, and that-it* teachings had left an impress on his miud. He asked me to send for a Methodist clergyman, which I did. When I saw him just before he died, he told me what comfort the talk with the minister had given him. and that he could now face death with a braver heart than he could have done before. Has there ever been any demonstration, physical or otherwise, on the part of all the hundreds whom vou have seen on the threshold of death which you could interpret as B. positive indication of a future life? Not one. Have you ever encountered instances in which dying persons have told you of visions which they have seen, of voices they have heard? Yes, I recall particularly one instance. It was that of a man who had apparently died, and revived for a little time before "lie finally passed away. He told me about the lights and sounds and chaos of magnificent things he had seen " beyond the river," as he put it. Of course, he really believed that he saw them, but it was the hallucination of his disordered brain. Persons of fervid imagination and strong religious convictions may be dominated by some illusion of this kind just prior to death. It cannot be accepted as convincing evidence of a future life. 1 have found, continued Dr. Andrews, that persons of clean life, of honourable, upright religious character, not only do not display an indifference to the approach of death, as those of grosser life do, but welcome it as a relief from caret and toil. There is something about the approach of death that reconciles men to it. The senses are dulled, the perceptive faculties are blunted, and the end comes quietly, painlessly, like a gentle sleep. In this condition, I mean on the approach of death, those who retain their faculties to any degreebecome more or less philosophers. "They know that death is inevitable, that it is 'only a question of hours, and they accept the verdict without any demonstration and in a philosophical way. In all mv experience 1 have never found a case in which the dying man or woman complained against the inevitable, attempted to fight its approach, or even feared it. It is only in good health that we fear death. When we become ill. when we have sustained some serious injury of a very serious nature, the fear of death seems to disappear. The one great unsolved problem, before which science thus far has stood disarmed, is the secret of the mystery of the origin of life. Side by side with it I may say is the mystery of death. I have never seen, and I have never heard of any authentic evidence from the deathbed of anyone, which could be accepted as scientific proof of the existence of a life beyond. Thai is a matter of faith. It has been a. matter of faith all through the ages, and 1 believe that it will be a matter of faith to the end of time. I have, as I said before, discovered this, that the men and women of the purest lives and the strongest faith exhibit that fact conspicuously in their last hours, in a manner that undoubtedly tends to rob death of even the semblance of terror.