Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1880 — Do the Dying Sufter Pain ? [ARTICLE]

Do the Dying Sufter Pain ?

People do not like to think of death. It is an unpleasant subject; but it constantly obtrudes itself, and there has been much speculation as to whether mental or physical pain attends the final act. Observation teaches us that there is little pain of either kind in dying. Experience will come to us all one of these days, but it will come too late to benefit those who remain. It seems to be a kind provision of nature that, as we approach the dread event, our terrors diminish, and the coward and the hero die alike'—fearless, indifferent, or resigned. As to physical pain, Dr. Edward H. Clark says: “ The rule is that unconsciousness, not pain, attends the final act. To the subject of it, death is no more painful than birth. Painlessly we come; whence we know not. Painlessly we go; whither we know not. Nature kindly provides an anaesthetic for the body when the spirit leaves it. Previous to that moment and in preparation for it, respiration becomes feeble, generally slow and short, often accomplished by long inspirations and by short, sudden expirations, so that the blood is steadily less and less oxygenated. At the same time the heart acts with corresponding debility, producing a Blow, feeble, and often irregular pulse. As this process goes od, the blood is not only driven to the head with diminished force and in less quantity, but what flows there is loaded more and more with carbonic acid gas, a powerful amesthetic, the same as that derived from charcoal. Subject to its influence, the nerve centers lose consciousness and sensibility, apparent sleep creeps over the system; then comes stupor, and then the. end.”