Death Not A Painful Process

We ihink that most persons have heen led to regnrd dying nsa much more pflrinftd chango than it generally i?, first, breause tliey have fimnd by what lliey experiencod in themselves and evperienred in otliprs, thnt fentipnt le!ngs often striiggle when in distrpss; henee strus;pling to thpin is a sign, an invariable sign ofrlisti-esfi. But we may remark, ihat struggles are very far f rom being invariable signs of distress; muscular action and corxeiousness are two dist inct things, ofipn existing separntply; and we have nbundant reason to believe tliat in a great proporlinn of case, those stniggles of a dying man wliich ar só disIressing to behold are ns entiréTy independent of consciousnpss as the strugglos of a recenlly deeapitated fowl. A SRCond reason why men are led to regard dying as a very painful change, sbecause men ofien endure great pain without dying, and forgetting that like cases produce ]ike eflects only under similar circumstances, t'ney infer that l;fe cannot be destroyed without still greater pain. - Rut the painsol death are much less than must persons have been led to believe, and we doubt not thnt many persons wiio live to the ngeof pubsrty, undergo ler.fold more misery than they woulf, did they understand correct views roncerning the change. In all cases of dying, the individual suffers no pain after the sensibility of his nervous systein is often destroyed without much and somctime without any previous pain. Those who nre slnick dead by a stroke of üghtning, those who aredecapitatcd with oneblow of the nxp, and those who are instantly destroyed by a crush of ihe brain, experi ence no pain at all ín passing from a state of life to a dead slate. One momeni's expeclation of being thus destroyed, far cxceeHs in misery the pnin during the act. ThosR who faint in hnving a linie hlood laken from the arm, or on any other occasion, have already enduredaü the misery they ever would in this world. did ihey not again revive. Those whn die of fevers and most other disea=es, suffer their greatest pain asa general thing, ho'íip,or even days before they expire. The sensibility of the nervous svstem beeoines gradually diminished; their pain becomes less and les a cute under the snme existing causp; and ot the moment when thpir friends think ihem in the greatest distres?, they are more at ée than they have been (br many days prpvious; their disease, as far as respects their feelings, bcgins to act upon them liko au opiate. Indeed, rrnny are nlready dead as it respects themselves, when ignorant by-stanHers are rntfch the most ld be pilie.l, not for the loss of their friend, hut Tor their sympathies anguish. Those diseases which destrnylife wit'iout immedintely aflectingthe nervous svstem. give rise tp more pain than 'hose that do affect thesystemso as la impair ils sensibiliiy. The mot painful denthswhicli liuman beings inflict upon each olher, are produced by rack and faggot. The halter is not so cruel as eiiher of these, but more savage than the axe. Horror and pain considered, it seems to us ihat we should choose a narcotic to either.