Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — DEATH IS RARELY PAINFUL. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IS RARELY PAINFUL.

But Sensations of Approaching Dissolution Are Little Known to Physicians. Descriptions of the sensations of those who thought they were about to die, but who passed into a more or less profound state of unconsciousness and afterward recovered, though intense and realistio, cannot be accepted as authentic portrayals of the sensations of the dying, since these persons did not die. The temporary suspension of all the physical signs of life, as in a trance or lethargy, may so exactly simulate death that all may agree that the person is dead, while yet that indefinable something which holds the soul to the body remains and is capable of reinstating the common phenomena of life. We have no reason to assume that the sensations experienced in passing into this state of unconsciousness resemble the sensations of those who have actually felt the earthly house of this tabernacle dissolved. Unconsciousness is not death. It only objectively resembles it. Physicians at the bedside of the dying, while holding the flickering, weakening pulse beneath the finger, eagerly watch for some word or sign expressive of the sensations of approaching dissolution. Nothing, however, of value ever comes to us. Indeed many a life goes out, leaving be- . hind clear indications that there is no appreciation whatever of the great overshadowing change that is upon it, even though the mind remains clear and active to the last. A mother, hearing me whisper at her bedside, “She is dying," opened her eyes and replied, “I’ll be better in a minute,’’ though when the minute had elapsed she had given hor last sigh—her last heartthrob. A little girl clinging to her father's hand one sunny morning, said: “Papa, light the lamp; It is getting so dark," and immediately expired. A young man asked, “Why do you all cryT 1 shall get well soon,” and fell back on his pillow, dead. These expressions show clearly that the putting on of immortality was unaccompanied by sensations indicative of the change. In the groat majority of cases death is preceded oy a period of unconsciousness, more or lees profound, and of greater or less duration. In this state the vital spark goes out painlessly and without any evidence of the mind being illumined for a single instant by returning consciousness. Deathbeds are rarely painful.—[Kate Field’s Wsshington.