THE PAINLESSNESS OF DEATH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13847, 28 August 1919, Page 1

THE PAINLESSNESS OF DEATH.

BY FREDERICK STUBBS, F.R.G.S. (Rights reserved.) There are few that dp not fear death. This arises partly from physical terror of the anguish of chssolutioh,'-partly from the apprehension of a "something after death," which may prove a more dreadful reality than any experience - known to us iii this life. It is this consideration that makes Hamlet, in his famous soliloquy, shrink from the idea of suicide—- l 'T6. be or not-to be, —that is the. question-: "Whether -'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, . Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them ?-M» die — to sleep— '. No more; and by-a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the 1 thousand natural ' shocks. That flesh is heir to—'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die —to sleep;— To sleep! perchance to dream: —ay. there's the rub, " For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. . . . Must give us pause. . . . The dread of something after death The undiscovered country from whose bourn- - . No traveller returns —puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have. Than 11 v to others that we know not • of/' The old pagans dwelt mainly on the physical aspects of death. The founder of' Christianity and his Apostles made little of the' physical fact, and laid emphasis on the possibility of spiritual ruin, of everlasting shame and banishment. From the religious point of view, the mystery of death remains where it was at the first preaching of Christianity. No word comes'to us out of the silence on which we can rely. Our "dead" mav not only live, but live not far from us in the invisiblesphere, viewing, and .even influencing our lives. Many of us are persuaded that thev do. Men as eminent as Sir Oliver Lodge. Professor Alfred Russell Wallace. Sir W. F. Barrett, and Sir A. Conan Dovle. share this conviction. But to the majority of educated men the evidence, though interesting, is inconclusive. .... From the physiological point ot view, however, a great deal of light has been thrown in recent years upon the tact of death. The observations of science seem to show that, contrary to popular belief, death is nearly always painless Not onlv the power to think and move. but. the power to suffer also ceases towards the end. Even in the case of the most awful death known to man. death bv burning, pain usually ceases to exist at an early stage by suffocation- It is the first moment s experience of intense heat that is so painful. Called many years ago to attend a voting man who had been ingmfnllv and fatally-burned, I was. amazed to find how little acute pain he really «nffered. I remember noticing. on one of mv visits that it was the flies that seemed to trouble him most. In various wav* nature contrives to limit physical torture. The tragedy that seems so frightful to us. often causes .little pain 'to those, immediately concerned, inns the. African missionary and explore?. Dr Livingstone, tells us that when he was seized and mangled by a lion to such an extent that his arm was never afterwards of any use, it caused a sort of dreaminess m which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror. . . - The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast. ■ Sir iiuward Whvmper, in dropping from point to point down a precipice, found himself occupied in calmly counting the bumps and wondering winch would finish him." The experience ot another mountaineer, who fell down a precipice, Professor Heim. is even more remarkable. "At first, he says. "I seemed to be flying through the air. At intervals I heard, but did not feel, the impact of head and body against rocky precipices. But- through my long, swift descent, I felt no pain or terror J was* floating in a heaven of glonous blue I was wafted to and fro, borne up painlessly and pleasantly, while a vast and moving snowfield seemed if accompany me. " Then came a dull thud which I heard but did not feel, and mv fall was ended." . It was onlyafter he recovered consciousness that he felt any pain. To- drop 1000 feet from a cliff is a horrifying sight to the spectator, but to the victim it will probablv cause no pain. Though the.loss of floating palaces like the Titanic and Lusitania." with their precious freight of human lives, must ever fill us with •M-ief vet it is a tremendous consolauon to' know that death by drowning is one of the most merciful, and compared with many so-called natural deaths, is almost, if not quite painless. A young New Zealander who had a narrow escape from drowning a few years ago, in afterwards describing his sensations, -aid that after a few moments he ceased to think of anything but.going to Mccp "I heard-' he said, "the sound of music, strong and loud like a band, and then I knew no more.' I mysell had a somewhat similar experience once, with the exception of the unconsciousness. When eight years of age, I was <uddenlv pushed into deep water by a thoughtless companion. So sudden was the immersion that I had not even time to close my eyes, for I remember looking at the pretty color of the transparent water, until I saw a man s arm coming through it, catching me.by-the hair and hauling me to the surface. Te refer again to one's own experiences, some 35 years ago I met with a terrible accident. I was dreadfully ...knp,cked : about, mv shoulder dislocatecL-and my arm broken, but I remember .that at the time I suffered no pain, and the sensation as I swooned was positively acreeable. just like that which one feels when ' thoroughly tired and -just dropping off to sleep. Some years later •i, friend of mine had a serious carriage accident. For three, days he lay perfectly unconscious, and we all .thought That"he must die. He made a speedy: recovery, however, and a few days-later I asked him' whether .he had suffered much before he lost' consciousness. "No " he replied, "the sensation was quite pleasant. If there is no more pain than that, death is riot very dreadful." Plinvj from much observation, declared that in his opinion the moment of death was the most exquisite instant of life. Dr.Solander was so delighted with the sensation of perishing in" the snow from extreme cold, that-he afterwards resented his rescue. The soldier, who is instantaneously killed by a bullet, feels nothing —he does not even hear the report of the., rifle that kills him. Here, •- then, is a solid, established source of comfort; death is seldom accompanied by great pain; still less is violent death. Nature provides' an anodyne. ' Seeing the apparent distress of the dying, the cold sweat upon the; brow, the coit: vulsive shiverings - and twitchings ' or this mortal frame, the 'desperate struggle for breath. ,we have not- unnaturallv: thought that these must..be accompanied by much suffering, .and . have shuddered at the- thought that we. too. must some day, suffer this. But probably the dving-man knows nothin" of these- dis*W symptons; -nor will we when our last' _,hour ponies.. All this is-Very: comforting, arid'-fact| and experiences such v as> are narrated above, and winch could be mdefimtely multiplied, tend to rob death of much of its terror, and, at the T same i: time, bear witness Hothe'inercifulness of the Creator. It is quite likely in ' regard to the mvstery '■ of- death" we- resemble the good oia knight: Don Quixote. He hung'by his wrist from the I stable window imagining that a trenir ewlous abvss va.wned beneath him, arid when at last'he. fell and'thought he

must be dashed to pieces, he iell but four inches! Nevertheless, death must, of course, still remain a source ot distress and loss to the survivors.. to part perhaps for ever, irom those wo love must always be pamrul. But even here there is reason for courage aitd hope There are many grounds for believing, even though we may "ot be able to demonstrate the tact, that the animating spirit may survive .lie dissolution of the body. In nature, so fa. as we know it. the conditions and appearances of tilings are changed but never destroyed. The lite-lorce appears in other and more perfect and beautiful forms. Who shall say that it mav not be so with man a so. Jo sav the least, there are good grounds for hope, and a cheerful optimism is las likelv to Prove itself near the truth us the most dismal pessimism. T intentionally refrain from discussing here, the more distinctively Christian grounds for hope, for that is lcvond the scope of the present article. and is being done by others every bundav Conscientiously doing oui duty day by day, Jet us "trust and not' bo afraid."