Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, June 22, 1873, Page 6

| E "The Phenomena. of Dissolu- THE CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE: SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 1873. ~ PHYSIOLOGY -OF DEATH. tion---Flourens’ Vital © Enot..:. Activities of Which ‘the Corpse Is Capable-—Interesting Ex- periments, The Process of Pulrefaction---Imita- tiens of Death---Prema- ture Burials. Yow to Know Apparent from Real Death---Destiny of the Psychi- cal Principles. BY FERXAND PAPILLOX (I THE “ REVUE DES DEUX woNDEs ), TRASSTATED PROM THE YRENCH BY A, B, MACDOROUGH. Of old, the spoils of death fell to the anato- mist's shere, while the physiologist took for his part the phenomena of life. Now we submit tho corpse to the same experiments as the living or- genism, and pry into the relics of death for the secrots of life. Instead of seeing in the lifeless body mere forms tesdy to dissolve and vanish, we detect in it forces and persisting sctivities full of deep instructiveness in their mode of working. As theologians and moralists exhort us to study the spectre of desth faco to face at times, and strengthen our souls by coursgeous meditation on our last hour, so medicine regards it a4 csgential to direct our attention toward all ths deteils of that mournful drams, and thus to Ic2d us, throngh gloom and shadows, to s alearer knowledge of life. But it is only with respect to medicine in tho most modern days that this is true. Leibnitz, who held profound and sdmirable theories of life, bad one of death also, which he “has unfolded in a famons letter to Arnsuld. He believes that generation is only the development and evolution of an animal alresdy existing in form, and that corruption or deathis only the re-envelopmert orinvolution of the same snimal, which does mot cease to subsist and contmue liviog. Thesum of vital energies, consubstan~ tial with monads, doss not varyin the world; goneration and death are but changes in tho or- der snd sdjustment of the principles of vitality, simple transformations from small to great, and vico verss. In other worde, Leibnitz sees overy~ whero oternal and incorruptible germs of life, which neither perish at all nor bogin. What Joes begin and perish is tho organic machine of which these germs compose theoriginal astivity: the elementary gearing of tlie machine is broken epart, but not destroyed. This is the esrlier view keld by Leibnitz. He has snother, con- ceiving of generation 83 a progress of tife throagh degrees; ho can conceive of death also & & gradual regresa of the ssmo principle, that ia to eay, that in death life withdraws little by little, just ss it cume forward little by little its geperation. Deathis no sudden phenome- pon, no: instantancous ovanishing—itis a slow operation, & “retrogradation,” s the Hanove- risn philospber phrases it. When death shows to us, it hasbeen a long timo wearing away the or- gavism, though we have not perceived it, be- ceuse * dissolntion st first attacks parts invisi- Iy small.” Yes, death, before it betrays itself to the eyo by livid pallor, to the touch by marble coldness, before chaiving the movements and #tiffening the blood of the dying pereon, creeps with insidious secresy into the smallest and most nidden points o his organs and bis humors. Here it begina to corrupt the fluid, to disorgan- ize the tiseues, to destroy the equipoise and en- Bunger the harmony. This process is more or leas lingering end doceitful, and, when wo note the ‘aanifest axgne of death, wo may be sure that the work Iacked no deliberate preparation. These ideas of Leibnitz, Jiko most of the con- coptions of genias, ®sited long after the time af tlioir appearance for confirmation by demonstra- tive experiment. Bofore his day, bodies wers Aissected only for tho enke of studying in them the conformation snd normel arravgement of the organs. When this study was once_completed, science took up the methodical inquiry into the changes g\!flodnced in_the different parts of the body by dicesses. . Not until the end of the eighteenth contury did death in_action become $he subfect of investigution by Bichat. Bichat is the greatest of the physiological his- torinns of death. The famous work he bas left on this subject, his_* Physiological Researchea upon Life eud Death”is 08 notemorthy for the grandeur of its gonersl ideas, and ita beauty of Style, us for ita precision of facts and nicoty of experiment. T this day it romains the richest and different forms of. phthisia, the oxidation of the blood becoming imposaible on account of the disorganization of the pulmonary globules, ve- nous lood goos back: to tho hosrt without gaining Tovivification. In tho case of werious sud pro- Tonged fevers, and of infectious diseases, whether epidemio or ofborwise, which nre, chergateristic: . blopd-poisonings, _ death oceurs through o :\;‘Zer&\l Shango in natition. Tida ia sl moro the fact ms to doath consequent upon cor- tain chronic disorders of the digestive organs. When theso aro affectod; the secrotion of those, Juices fitted to dissolvo food dries up, and those fuide go through tho intestinal conal unem- ployed. In this case the invalid'dies of real starvation. Homorrhago is one of the common- est canses of death. Whenever a groat artery is opened from any cause, permitting tho copious outflow of blood, the &kin grows pale, warmth declines, the breathing is intermittent, vertigo and dimness of sight follow, the exprefsion of the featares changes, cold 'and _clsmmy swent covers part of the face and tho limbs, the pulse gots graduslly wesker, and st last the-heart. Stops. Virgil describes homorrhago with striking fidelity in the story of Dido's death. Budden death, unconnected with outward and accidentsl causios, may ocour in varions weys. Very violent impressions on the feclings somo- tmes abruptly check the movements of tho heart, and produce & mortal swoon. Instances ate well lnown of many persons dying of joy—Leo X, ia ono—and of persons who Buc- cumbed to fesr. In foudroyant apoploxy, if real death i not instantsDeous, thero is ot least the sudden occurrence of the phonomena of death. The sufferer is plunged in profound aloop, called by physicians coms, from Which wakening is im- ossible ; his breathing is difficult, his eyos sot, Pis mouth twisted snd_ distortod. Tho pulsa tions of the heart cesso little by little, 2nd soon Iifo utterly vanishes. Tho brealing of an anour- im very often occasions suddon death. Not less often the causo of death is found in what is called an embolism, that is, & check of the oir- calation by s lot of blood suddenly plugeing up zome {mportant vessol. And thero dro also cases of sudden death still unaccounted for, in the sense that subsequent dissection discovors noth- tions of life. Desth is usnally preceded by s group of phe- nomens that has receivod the name of the death- sgony. In most cases of disease tho boginning of this concluding period is marked by & sudden improvement of the functions. It is the last leam springing from the dying flame ; but soon 0 eyes becoms fixed and insenaible to the ac- tion of light,the noso grows pointed and cold, the month, wide open, s0ems to call for_the air that {ails it, the cavity within it is parched, and the Tips, as if withered, cling to the curves of tho testh. The last movements of respiration are spasmodic, and s wheezing, and sometimes & marked gurgling sound, may be heard at some distance, caused by obstruction of the bronchisl tubes with & quantity of muous. Tho broath is cold, the tomperature of the skin lowerad, If the heart is examined, wo note tho woakening of its sounds and pulsations. The hand, placed in its neighborbood, feels mno throb. 'Buch ia the hysiognomy of o person in the last moments of Beath n_ tho groater numbor of cases, that is, when death follows upon a period of illnesa of some duration. The dcath-strnggle is seldom painful, and Almost alwaye the patient fecls nothing of it. He is plungoed into s comatose stupor, 8o that ho is no_ longer conscious of his situation, or his suterings, and ho passos fn- sensibly from lifs to death, ina manner that Tenders it sometimes difficult to fix the exact inatant st which s dying person expires. This is true, st least, in chronic maladies, and especially in those that consmmothe human body slowly and silontly. _Yet, when the hour of death comes for ardent orfanizations,—for great srtists, for inatance, atd thoy usually die young, —therd is quick and sublime new burst of life in tho creative genius. There ia no bettor ex- ample of this than the angelic eud of Beothoven, who, before ho breathed out his sonl, that tune- fal ‘monad, regained his lost specch and hoaring, nnd spent them in - repesting for the last time some 0f those sweet barmopies which he called his *‘ Prayers to God.” Some disesses, moreover, are most ccaliarly marked by the gentioness of tho dy- ing agony. - Of all the ills_that cheat us while Killing by pin-pricks, consumption is that which longest wears for us the illusive look of health, and best conceals tho misery of living and -the horrors of dying. Nothing can be compared with that hailucination of tho senses and that liveliness of hopo which mark tho last days of tho consumptivo. Ho takes the burning of his destroying fover for a healthful ¥ymptom ; he forma hin ‘plans, and smiles cslmly and cheor- fully on his friends, and suddenly, some mor- Tow of & quist night, he falls into the aloep that never wakes. If life is evorywhere, snd if, consequently, death occurs overywhero, in all the elements of the system, what muat bo thought of that point in the spinal marrow which a famcas phys- and_in which iologist_styled the vital kmot, Le professed -to lodge the inciple of Iito "itself? The point which Flourcns ro- garded s this vital knot is situsted nearly a the middle of the prolonged spinal cord—that is, the middle of that portion of tho nervo-aub- stance which copnecta the brain with the spinal marrow. This region, in fact, has & fine and dsngerous excitability. A prick, or the penotra- tion of & noedlo into it, is enough fo cause the ingtant death of any animal whatever. It is the ~very means used in physiological Iaboratories to destroy life swiftly and surely in dogs. That susceptibility is_explained in the most natural wey.. This Bpot is the starting-point of the Borvia that o o tho lungs ; the moment that the siightest injury is produced in it, there fol- Iows o chock on the movements of respiration, and ensuing death. This vital knot of Flonrens mine of recorded truths as to the physiology of @cath, Having determined the fact that life is seriously endangered only by alterations_in one of the tiirce essential organs, tho brain, the heart, and the lungs, a group forming the vital tripod, Bichat examines how the death of one of these thres organs assures that of $he others, and in successjon the gradualatoppage of all the functions. _In our day, the advance of experi- mentel physiology in the path so succeesfaly tra- oraod by Bichat. hes broaght o Hght in their minutest details the varions mechsnical process- esof desth, and, what is of far greater conse- quance, hias dieclosod an entire order of activi- tieseretofora only suspected to be st work in the cwrpse, The theory of death has been buily up by ilow degrees along with that of life, snd severaloractical questions that had remained in state O uncertainty, such as that of the signs of real dewth, have roceived the most decisive answer in he course of thege researches. L Bichat point@ ogt that the complete life of animals 18 made o of two orders of phenomens, thoee of circulatio, and nutrition, and those thal fix the relations of hg living being with its en- vironment. He distygniches orgenic life from animal life, properly Sicalled. Vegotables have only the former; &Dillig possess both, inti- - mately blonded.’ Now, n ’tho occurrenco of death, these two sorts of life do not disappear st ano and the same ,mm‘“‘i. It is the animal Iife that 'emrflx‘tz frst strok ; tho most mant- fest activities o 6 TErvOUS witem are thos: liich com 0 & halt before. Al meer? ot is this stoppage brought about? we must con- sider separately the order of Otqrrences in death from old age, in. thit 0CCASmed by dis- cese, mdinuhudden_dufl:.m e, The man who oxpires at tho closo of & clino in, years, dieh in detail, All bis 05 oer euccoseion are seeled. Sight becomes diq and unsteady, and at last loses the picturo of objaty, Hearing grows_gradually insensible to souizg Touch it blunted into dullvess, odors produr; but & weak impression, only taste lingers lip tle. Al the same time that the argans of sensa- tion waste and loss their excitability, tho func- tions of the brain fads out little by little, Imag- ination bocomes unfixed, memory neerly fails, judgment wavers. Further, motious are slow and dificalt on ®ccourt of stiffness in tho muscles; the volce bresks; in short, all_the - functions of outward life lusa their spring. Each _ of the bonds attaching the 9d man to existance parts by elor degrees. Yat the internal life pereista.. - - Nutrition still tskes place, but very rcon the forces desert ‘the 'most essential -organs. Digestion languishes, the gecretions - dry 1p, capillsry circalation is clogged: that of the large vessels in their turn is ‘ked, and, s last, the heart’s contractions This is tho instant of death. The heart sze. fs tho lnst thing to die. -Buch is the serios of slow and pertisl deaths which, with the old man spared by disese, result in -the lsst end of all. The individue! who falls into the slecp of eterni- irin these conditions, dies Like the vegetable «hich, baving no conscjousneas of life, can have 1o conscionancss of death. He passes insensi- Uiy from one to the other, and to die thus isto know o fain. The thongdt of the last hour alarms us only because it puts & sudden end to - our relatioxs with sll ow surroundings; but, if __thie fepling of these relations hes long ago faded &~z there can be 1o plnge for foar at the brink of the gruye. Tho does not tremble in tbé Instant 1yforo it casen to be‘;m ke ortunes<i¥; desth of this kind i rare for humaaty. ~ Desth from old ed hui?cnms 8D ertreordinary phenomenon, Most commoni; e guccamb to a disturbence in the funetions of ur vitalgystem, which 18 gometimes sudden, ruzgtimes gradual. In this cess. =atu the for: frst, e, wo obsprye gnil isappearing nitefy v the == 0F its conclusion are it through sfis One of the most uemal is deaty enjoys no Bort of special prerogativa. Lifo is not more concentrated nor more essential in it than elsewhero ; it simply coincides with the initial point of nerves animating one of the or- gans indispensible to vitality, tho organ of san- guification; and in living organisms any alter- ation of tho nerves controlling & fanction brings a serious risk a5 to ita complate porform- anco. There is, therefore, no such thing as s vital knot, s contral fire of life in snimals. They are collecfions of an infinity of infinitely small living croaturos, snd each ono of these micro- scopio living points is its own life-contra for itaelt. Esch on its own account grows, produces Leat, xnd display those charscteristo sctivtics Which depend upon its etructure. Each one, b virtue of stablishod ony, meots the rest in the ways that they require ; but, just 88 each lives on it8 own - sccount, #0 on its own 8coount each dies. And the proof thatthis is sois found in the fact that cortain parts taken from s desdbody can betransferred to s liviug one with- out suffering any interruption in their physiolog- ical nctivity, and in the fact that many organs which seem dead can be excited anow, awakened out of their forpor, snd animated to extremoly remarkablo vital manifestations. This subject Wenow proceed to consider. 1. Death seems to be absolute from the instant that the pulsations of the heart are stopped without renewal, becenge, the circulation of the blood no longer proceeding, the nutrition of tho organs becomes impossible, and nutrition is de- manded for tho maintenance of physiological barmany; but, 28 wo bave snid above, thero ara _a thonsand little springs in the organism which keepup s certain degres of sctivity siter the gTost main-spring has ceased to sct. Thereis an infinite number of partial energies that out- live the destruction of the principal enorgy, and ‘withdraw only by slow dogroes. In cases of sud- den death especially tho tissucs koep their pecu liar vitality 8 very long time. In the firet place,’ the heat declinos only quite slowly, snd the mors 50 in proportion 85 death hes been quick. For several hours aftor desth tho bair of tho head snd body, and the nails, continue to grow, nor e absorption either stop at once. Even diges- S, t00, keeps on. The experiment performod ¥ nallanzani to test this is very curious: -He COnCied the idea of meidng & cfow ot 8 cer- tain quntity of food, and killing it immediately after th,mea), Then he put it 1n & place kept &t the 8aug temperature s tbat of & live bird, 20d open it gix hours_lster. The food was thoroughly Feested.” - Besides thex: paneral manifestations, the dead body i8 capable,nring some continued time, of differont kinds f getivity, It is not easy to study these on the bodies of porsons dying of sickness, because tey are not permitted £o make tho subject of anstnical examinations until twenty-four hours nfte death ; but the bodies of behesded criminals, which aro given up to! savants a fow momenta after their oxecution, 9an ba of 450 in the investeation of what takes Place immediately after the stopping of the liv- ing mechine. If the heart k uncovercd a few Iinates aftor execution, pulsatins are remarked hich contivue during au hour or Jonger, at the Tate of forty to forty-five a minuts, even after the removal of the liver, tho stomch, and tho intestines. For several hours the mesolos Tec tain their excitability, and undergo reflex_con- tractions from the effect of pincling. L. Robin Doted the following phenomenon in the case of 8 ariminal &0 hour after his exocation: *The right arm," to guote bia description, *being placed oblignely extended at the side of the trunk, with the hand about teninches away from the hip, I ecratchod the skin of tho chest, at sbont the height of the- nipple, with the point of 8 ecalpel, over a space of nexrly four inches, without making any pressure on' the muscles Iying beneath, We immediatcly saw the great muscle, then the bicsps, then the ante- g pectoral ""Ig8; 88 & result of pnenfonis «ioz brachial, successively and oniokly contract. ing that could expiain the stoppege in tho opera- | The result was a movement of_approach of tl whole arm toward the trunk; -with- rotation- in- ward,of the limb, and halt flexion of the fore- arm npon the arm, » true dofensivo movement, which throw the band forward toward tho chost a8 far a8 the pit of the stomach.™ These spontaneous exhibitions of life in & corpse are trifies compared with those excited by means of certain stimulants, particularly of elec- tricity. Aldiui, in 1802, subjected two criminals, beheaded at Bologns, 0 tho action of a powerful battery. Influenced by the current, tho facial muscles contracted, producing the offect of horrid grimacos. ALl tho limbs wero geized with con- vulsive movements ; the bodies seemed to feel tho stir of resurrection, and to mske efforts to riso. Tho springs of ihe ystom rotained the powar of answering the clscirc stimulus for sev- eral hours after bebeading. A fow years later, at Glasgow, Ure made some equally noted ex- periments on the body of a criminal that had re- - mainod more than‘sn hour hanging on the gal- lows. Ono of tho poles of a battery of 700 pairs having boen connocted with tho spinsl marrow below the nape of the neck, and the other bronght in contact with the heel, the log, be- fore %nut back on itself, was thrust violently forward, almost throwing down ono of the assistsnts, who bad hard workto keep it in place. When one of the poles was placed on the seventh 1ib, and the other on one of the norves of the neck, the chest rose and fell, and the abdomen Tepeated the liko movement, as takes place in Tespiration. On touching amorve of the eve- brow at the same time with the head, tho facisl muscles contracted. “ Wrath, terror, despair, anguish, and frightful grins blended in horrible expression on tho assasein's countenance.” The most remarkablo instance of & momentary reappearance of vital grnparties, not in the Tholb organiams, but in the hesd. slone, is the famoua experiment suggested by Logallois, and carried out for the first time in 1858 by M. Brown-Sequard. This skillful physiologist be- heads » dog, taking pains to make the section below the point at which the vertobral arteries ontor their bony shoath. Ton minutes afterward ho sends the galvanic current into the differsnt arts of the head thus severed from its ody, without producing any result of movement. He then fits to the four arteries, the exiremities of which appear in the cutting of the nock, little pipes connocted by tubes with a rogorvolr full of fresh oxygenated blood, and guidos thoe injection of this blood into the vessels of the brain. Immediately irregular motions of the eyes and the facisl musclos occur, succoeded by the appearance of regular harmonious con- tractions, seeming {o be prompted by the will. The head has rogained life, The motions con- tinue to be performed durin? a quarter of an hour, while the injection of blood into the core- bral arteries lasta. On stopping the injoction, the motions cesse, and give place to the spasma of ngony, and then to death. Pyhsiologists askod whether such & momenta- 7y Tosurrection of the fanctions of life might not be brought about in the human subject—that is, ‘whether movement might not be excited and ex- pression reanimated by injecting fresh blood into & head just sovered from » mon's body, &9 in M. Brown-Sequard’s n:}):rimum—. It was suggested to try it on the het of decapitated oriminals, but anatomical observations, partioularly those of M. Charles Robin, ahowed that the arterics of the neck are cat by the guillotine in such a way that air penotratos and fills them. It follows that it is impracticable to injest them with blood that can produce the effect noted by M. Brown-Sequard. Iudeed, we know that blood circulating in the vessels bocomes {rothy on con- tact with air, and loses fitness for its functions. M. Robin supposes that the experiment in gues- hoad of a man killed by a ball that shonld striko below the nock; in that case it would bo pos- sible to affoct such a eection of the arteries that Do entrance of_air would occur, and, if the head were soparated st the place pointed out by M. Brown-Sequard, those manifestations of func- tion remarkod in the dog's head would probsbly be obtained by the _injection of oxygenatod blood. M. Brown-Sequard is convinced that they might boobtained, if certain precautions were obscrved, even with' the head of a decapitated criminal ; and so strong_is his conviction, that, whon it waa proposed to him to try the experimeént,—that is, to perform the in- jection of blood into tho hesd of & person exe- cuted,—he refueed to do 8o, not choosing, as he eaid, to witness tho tortures of this fragment of » belng recalled for an jnstant to seneibility and life. Ve undorstand 3. Brown-Sequard's scru- ples, butit is allowsble to doubt whether he Sould have inflicted great sufening on the hesd of the subject ; at most, ho would only have ‘aroused iu it a degroe of very dim and uncertain sensibility. This is ocasily oxplained. In lifo, the slightest pertarbation in the cerebral circu- lation is enough to prevent thought and scnsa- tion utterly. Now,if a fow drops of blood too much_or too littlo in the brain of an api- mal in_full heslth' suffice to alter the regularity of its peychicsl manifeetations, ‘much more certainly will the complotouces of the ‘brain’s action be deranged if it is awakened by an injection of foreign blood, s forcible entry to0, which, of nocessity, cannot causo the blood to cirenlsto with uitablo pressure and aquipoise. Corpse-like rigidity is ono of the most charao- teristic phonomona of death. This is 5 general hardening of the mugcles, 80 great that they loso the proporty of oxtonsion till even the joints cannot be bent; this phenomenon bogins' somo hours after death. The muscles of the lower jaw are tLie first to stiffen ; then rigidity invades in succession tho abdominal muscles, those of the neck, and at last tho' thoracio ones. hardening takos place through the coagulation of the half-ffuid albuminoid maiter which composea tho muscular fibres, 08 the solidification of the blood results from coagulation of its fibrine. Aftor & fow hours tho coagulated musculin grows fluid sgain, rigidity passes away, and tho muscles rolax. Bomething not dissimilar takes placoalsoin theblood, The globules change, lose shape, and suffer the boginning of dissociation. The agents of putrefaction, vibrios and bacteris, thus enter upon their great work by insidionsly bronking up the least soon parts. At last, when pactial tevivals are no longor ‘poesiblo, when the last flicker of life has gono out and ‘corpee-like rigidity has coasod, a new work bogins, The living germs that had col- lected on the surface of tho body and in the di- gestive canal develop, multiply, pierco into all tho points of the organism, snd produce in1t a complete soparation of the fiseues and humors; this is putrefsstion. The moment of its ap- pearance varies with the causes of death and tho degres of outward temperature. When death is the result of & puirid malady, putrefaction begins almost -immediately waen the body bes grown cold. It is the ssme when tho stmosphero is warm. In general, in our climates, tho work of decomposition be- comes ovident aiter from thirty-eight to forty hours, Ite first effacts aro noticeable on tho kin of the stomach ; this takos on & groon- ish discoloration, which goon apreada and covers succesaively the Whole surface of the body. At tho samo time the moiat parts, the eyo, the in- side of the mouth, soften and decay; then the cadavorous odor is gradually developed, at firat faint and slightly felid, 8 mouldy smell, thon pungent and smmoniacal stench. Little by lit- tlo the flesh sinks in and grows watery; the or- gans ceaso to be distinguishable. Everything is seized upon by what is termed pueridity. 1t iho tiseuos are examined under the microscopo at this moment, wo no longer rocognize any of the anatomical elemonts of which the organic fabric ismadeupin its normal stato. *Our flesh,” Bossuét exclaims in his funeral sermon on Han- Tiotts of England, *s0on changes its mature, our body tekes another name; even that of a corpse, used because it atill cxhibits somethin of the'human figure, does not long remain wit it. It becomes thing without & shapo, which in every langusge i3 withont o yemo When structure has wholly dissppested, notiing more remains but a mixture of Aaline, fat, and proteio matters, which aro either dissolved and carried away by water, or slowly burned up by tho air’s oxygen, and tranemuted into ner . products, and the whole substance of the" body, except the skeloton, returns piccemesl to the oarth whence it camo forth, Thus the ingredients of our or- gans, tho chemical eloments of our bodies, turn 1o mud ond dust again. From this mud and this dust issuo_anceasingly now life and encrgetic actity.: but a cley It for the commonest usss ‘may wlso be got from it, end, in the words of Bhakspoare's Hamle!, the dust of Alexander or Cemear nay plug tho vent of a beor-cask, or “stop 2 lnle to keep tho wind awsy,” Theso “ bage uses,” of which the Princo of Denmark speaks to Horatio, mark the extrome Limits of the transformation of matter. In any caso the beiugs of lowest order that toil and engender in the bosom of putre- faction are really sbeorbing and storing away life, sinco without their aid the corpse could not servo as nutriment to plants, which in thoir turn are tha necessary reservoir whence snimelity draws its sap and strength. It is in this senze that Buffon’s doctrine of organic molecules is o true one, . Death s the necessary end of all organic ex- _istence. We may hope more or less to sot at & distance its inovitable hour, but it would bo mad- ness to dream of its indefinite postponement 1 auy spocies whatsoover. No doubt thera is no contradiction in conceiving of & perfect squili- brium belween assimilation and. disagsimiletion, such that the eystem would be maintained in immortal health. In any cagse, no ono has yet even gained a glimpse of the modes of realizin such an oquilibrium, and_desth continues ti farther orders, a fixed law of Fate. SEll, though immorts efi for a complete organism Beems chimerical, perhaps it is not the tion could be successinl only if made upon the- | Beme __with _ mmortality . of.n _ sop: Tate Gigan - in -tho semso-wo mow explain. Wo . kave alreads. alluded to the - experi- ments of A1, Paul Bott on snimal-grafting. He a8 proved that; on tho head of & rat, certain or- gans of the game animal—as the fail, for in- stanco—may bo grafted. -And this physiologist asks himself tho question, wht'ier it Would Dot be posgible, when 8, rat . providea with such an appendiga draws noar the closo of his existence, to remove the appendsge from him, and trans- plant it to a young animal, which in his turn would Lo deprived of thie’ orament in-the same way in his old age in favor of some specimen of a now genoration, and 80 on in succession. This tail, tranaplanted in rogalar cousso to oung snimals, and imbibing at oach transferenco blo full of ‘vitality, perpetuslly ronewed, yet ever romaining the 'same, would thus escape desth. Tho experiment, delicate and difficalt, sa we sball s0e, was yot undertaken by M. Bert, but circam- stances did not allow it to. b prolonged for any considersblo time, and tho fact of the perpo- tuity of an organ, periodically rojuvenated, ro- mains to be demonstrated. feia Toal denth, then, is characterized by the posi- tivec easing of vital properties and fonctions both in the organic or vogetablelifo, andintho animal life, proporly o termed. When animal lfe dis- appoars without sny interrnption occurring in organ life, the system is in a stato of seeming desth, In this state the body is possossed by profound sleop quite similar to that of hibernat- ing animals ; all the nsual expressions snd all signs of intornal activity have disappeared, and give place to invincible torpor. The must pow- erfal chemical stimulants exert no control over the organs, the walls of the chest are motion- less ; “in short, saeirg the body presenting this appearance, it is impossible not to think of it as desd. There are quite numerous atates of the or- anism which may thus imitate death more or 88 closely; the commonest one is that of faint- ing. In' this caso nefther gensstion nor move- ments of eirenlation or respiration are any longor porceptible; the warmth is lowered, the skin pallid snd ‘colorless. Instances of hystoris are cited in which the attack has been prolonged for soveral days, attended with fainting. In this strange condition all physiological manifestations Tomain suspended ; yot they are not, as it was loog supposed, susponded mbeolutely, M. Bouchess has proved that, in the gravest cases of fainting, the pulsations of the heart continue, woakor and rarer, and harder to be heard than in normal lite, but clearly distinguishablo when the ear ia laid upon the precordial region. On the othor hand, the musclos rotain their supplo- ness and the limbs their pliability. Asphyxis, which is properly suspension of breathing, and consequently of tho blood's re- vivification, sometimos passes into a serious fainting condition followed by seeming death from which the sufferar rocovera after a period of varyimg length. This state may be induced cither by drowning or by inhaling a gas unfit for respiration, such 8 carbonio sacid in deep wells, emanations from lstrines, or the cholo-damp of mines, or by suffocatior, Ia 1850 & woman named Ann Groon was Bengod st Oxford, Bho ‘had been hanging for balf an hour, and several eoplo, to shorten kor suffering, had pulled her 5 tho'foot wita all their straigth. ~After sho was placed I her coffin it was observed that sho sutl breathed. . The executioner's assistants at. tompted to end her existence, but, thanks to the holp of -phyaiclans, she_ came_ bick to lite, snd continued to live some time afterward. Drown- ing occasions an equally deep insensibility, dar- ing which, very singularly, the paychical factilties rotain some degroe of sctivity. Sailors, aftor timoly resuscitation from drowning, declaro that, while under wator, they had roturned in thought to their families, and sadly fanciod the of about to ba caused by their death. After s ow minutes of physical rest, they sufferod vio- lent coliv of the heart, which seemed to twist itsolf sbout in thoir chests; afterward this snguish was followed by utter aunihilation of couciousness. It is very difficult, moreover, to dotermite how long apparent death may be pro- tracted in an organism under wator. It varics greatly with temperamenta. In theslands of the Greek Archipelago, where thio business of gathering sponges rom the bot- tom of the ses is pursued, children are not al- Jowad to drink wine until, by practice, thoy have ‘grown accustomed to remain & certain time un- der water, -Old divers of the archipolago say that the time to_return and take breath at the surfaco is indicated to them by painfal convulsions of the limbs, and Vory se- vera conractions in the Tegion of the heart. This power of enduring ssphyxia for somo time, aud resisting by force of will the movements of respiration, has been romarkoed under othor circamstances. The case of & Min- doo is mentioned, who used to creep into the alisnded enclosnres used for bathing, in tho iangen, by the Iadies of Calcults, seizo one of thom Dy tho legs, drown her, and rob her of hor rings. It was supposed that a_crocodilo carried her off. Ona of his intended victims succecding in scaping, the 2ssassin was scized and oxe- cutedin 1817. He confossed that ho had prac- tised the horriblo business for seven years. Anather instance is that of a spy, who, Secing preparations making for his exacution, endeay- orod to exeape it by feigning death. He hold his breath, and suspended all voluntary motions for twelvehours, and endured all the tests appliod to him to put_the roslity of his death beyond doubt. Anmsthetics, t00, like chloroform and ethor, sometimes produco stronger offocts than the surgeons using them desire, and_occasion & stato of seeming death instead of temporary insenaibilty. 1t is eaey to recall persons to life who ars in s stato of sceming death; it is only neodful to stimalate powerfally the two mechanical systems that aro more or loss complotely suspended in action, namely those of respiration and circula~ tion, 'Buch movoments are communicatod to the framo of the chest, that tho lunga are alternately compressed snd dilated. A sort of shampooing is applied over the whole body, which_restores tho capillary circulation ; chemical stimulants, such a8 ammonia or acetic acid, -are_brought under the patient's nostrils, This is the mode of treatment for drowned persons, whasge con- dition is brought on by ceasing to breathe the air, not by taking in too much water. A very offective method in cases of apperont doath, caused by inhaling & poisonous gas, such as car- bonic acid or sulphuretted bydrogen, consists in making ‘he patient draw in large quantities of pure oxreen, And, again, it has very lately een proposed, as Halle suggested without suc- cess ewly in this century, to adopt tho use of strong etectric currents for stimulating move- ‘ment in persons who are in 8 stato of syncope. In all the cases of seeming death we have just ‘mentionsd, one mark of vitality persistently re- maias, taat is, pulsation 6f the heart. Iis throbs are leds strong and_frequent, hut they continuo perceptile on auscultasion. ' Thoy are regularly discernitle in the deepost fainting-fits, in the various kinds of asphyxis, in poisonings by the most vioknt narcotics, in'hysteris, in the torpor of epilopey, in short, 'in tho mast diverse and protracted states of lethargy and seoming death. Yet, this result, now a practical certainty, was unknown to physicians of old, and it cannot be deniod thas, in former times, fooming death was quite often mistaken for truo death. The annals of science have rocorded s certain number of errors of this kind, mapy of which heve rtesulted in tho interment of unfortinate . wratches who wore not dead.- And for ope of theso mistakes that chanco hasbronght to light either toa late, or in time for tae rescue, even then, of tha victim, how manyaro thers, particularly in times of ignorance end carclessness, that no one hna ever known! How many livo men have only given up their last breath afteravain struggle to blealk 0w of their cofinl - The facts coloctod by Brubibr and Lallemand in two works that bave beioma classic composo » most moaurnful d dranstic history. Thesesre somo of its epitiodes,marked by tlio strango part that chance plays in tem. A rural , having no family, diea in & ittle village of Lower Cherento. Hard: ly grown 20ld, his body is taken out of bed, and Inid on estraw_ticking coverod with o conrse cloth. . An old hired woman is charged with the watch ovir the-bod of death, At the foot of the corpse vore s brauch of Dox, put into o vessol filad with holy water, and & lighted taper, midnight tho old watcher, yielding_ to the invincible need of foll imo & deep slumber. hours Jater she awokesurronnded by flames from afire that 1ad caught her clothes, She rushed out, erying with afl her might for help, and tho neighbora running togethor at her screams, saw in & momat & naked 8pectre iseue from the hut, Jimping ed bobbling on limbs covered_with burns. - While the old woman slopt, & spark had probably cropped on the straw bed, and the fire it kindledpad_aroused -both the watcher from her sleep ind tho guard from his seeming death. With timdy sssistance he recovered from his burns, ancgrew sound and well again. On the bth of October, 1842, & farmer in the neighborhyod of Neufchstel, in the Lower Seine, climbiod ino & loft over his barn to eleep, 8s he usually di¢_among the hay. Early the next day, his cistomary hour of rising being past, his 'wife, vishing to know the cause_of hid delay, wert to look for him, snd found him desd. At the time of interment, moro than twent;-four hours atter, the bearers placed the body ina coffin, which was closed, and car- riod it slowy down the ladder by which they had gained the oft. Suddenly one of the rounds of the ladder mappod, and the besrers fell with the coffln, which burst open with the shock. The slecp, Two _by “returned to life, and hastened to got out of his shroud with the askistsnco of those of the by- standers who had not been frightened away by his sudden resurrection _An hour later he could recognize his friends, and felt no unessiness ex- copt a slight confusion in his head, and the next day he was able to go to work sgain. -At about tho same time 5 resident of Nantes gazo up lifo after o long illness, His heirs made arrange- ments for & grand funeral, and, while the per- formance of & requiem was going on, the dead man returned tolife and stirred in the cofiin, that stood in tho’ middlo of the church. When carried home, ho scon rogsined his Boalth. Somo time afterward, tho cure, not caring to be &t the trouble of tho burial coromo- nios for nothing, sent s bill to the ox-corpso, who declined to pay it, and referrod the cure o the heirs who had given orders for the funeral. A lawsuit followed, with which the papers of the day kept tho public greatly amused. A few Jours 850 ‘ardinal Donnet, in the Senate, told is own story of tho circumstances under which ho narrowly escaped being buried alive. Besides these instances of premature burial in which the victim escaped the fearful conse- quences of the mistake made, othors may be cited in which hie blunder was discovered only too Iate. Quito s number of puch cases aro kmnown, some of which are told with details too romantic to entitle them to implicit beliof, whilo, however, many of them show unques- tionable signs of authonticity. Thero loig pre- vailed & tradition, not casily tracesblo to any source, which attributed the death of the Abbe Prevost vo & mistake of this kind. All his biographers relste that the famous suthor of #Manon Loscaut,” falling sonseless from the of- fect of a rush of blood, in the beart of the forest of Chantilly, was supposed to be dead ; that the surgeon of the villago having made an incision into his stomach, by direction of the Magistrate, to ascertain the cause of death, Prevost utterod & cry, and did then die in sarnest. But it has sinco been proved that the story is imaginary, tod that ¢ was mado op aftor Provost's denth nor do any of tho necrological acconnts, publish- od at the time, refor it to the consequences of a rematuro sutopsy. Though the account of rovost dissected alive seoms doubtful, that is Dot the case with the story told with regard to an operation by tho famous sccoucheur, Philip Small. A woman, aboat to be confined, foll into astate of seeming death., Bmall relates that when Do was summoned to perform the Cesarcan operation, the by-standers, convinced that tho woman was dead, urged him to procced with it. “1 aupposed 80, too,” he ssys, * for I felt no pulso in the region of tho heart, and a glass held over her face showed no sign of respiration,” Then he plungod his knifo juto the body, and was cutting among the bloeding tissnes, when the subject awoke from her lethargy. We cite somo still moro startling instances. Thirty years ago, » resident of the villaga of Eymes, "in Dordogne, had been suffering for & long time from a chronic disordor of littla con- Boquence in itsolf, but markod by the distressing iptom of conatant wakofulness, which forbade tho patient any kind of rest. Worn out with this condition, he consulted a dactor, who prescribed opium, advising great caution in its use. Tho invalid, poasessed with that common-enough no- tion that the eflicacy of a drug is proportioned to ity quantity, took at one time s dose_sufficiont for several days. Ho s0on foll into s deep sleep, which cuniinied ubbroken ior more than tweaty- four hours. The village dactor, being summon- ed, finds the body without warmth, the pulse extinct, and, on opening the veins of both arms in succession, obtains but a fow drops_of thick blood. The day atter, they prepared for his burial. But, s fow days later, closor inguiry revealed the imprudenco the poor wretch hsd committed in taking an excossive quantity of the proscribed parcotic, ~The report spreading among tha villagers, they insist on disintermont, which is allowed. Gathering in'a crowd at the cemetery, they take up tho coffin, open it, and are mot by a horriblo sight. The miserablé man bad turnod over in his coffin, tho blood gushing from tho two oponed veins had sosked the shroud ; his foatures wera frightfully contorted, and his convulsed limbs bore witnees fo tho cruel anguish that hod precadod death. Most of the facts of this kind aro of rather remote date. The latest instances have happeuod in tho coun- try, among un ignorant population, usually in neighborhoods where no physician was called on to ascertain tho disosse, that 1, to distinguish the cages of seeming dosth from’ those of true doath. How, then, can we certainly know apparent from roal death? There is a certain number of Ppocitive signs of death; thatis tosay. signs which, when absolutely discorned, leave no room for mistake. Yet some physiciins, and many ople who know nothing of science, aro atill so oubtful about tho cortainty of these signs as to wish that physiology conid detect others of a more positive character. A zealous philanthro- Ppist, quite lately, gave a sum for a prize of 20,000 francs to the discoverer of an infallible sign of death. Doubtless, the intention is excel- lout, but wo aro safo henceforward in regarding the sexton's work without alarm; the eigns al- Teady known are cloar enough to provent any mistzke, snd to mako tho fatal risk of premature burial impossible. We must point out, in the first place, tho im- mediato signs of death. The first, and tho most decisivo, is the absolute stoppago of the heart's puleations, noted for & duration of b least ive minntes, not by tho touch, but by the ear. “Death is certain,” says tho reporter of the commission named in 1843, by tho Academy of Sciences, to award the prize of competition a8 to tho aigns of true death, * whon positive ces- eation of pulsations of beart in_the aubject has been ascertained, which is immediately followed, ifit_hos not been preceded, by ccssstion of respiration, and of functions of sensation and motion.” “The romoto signs equally deserve at- tontion. Of these, throo are recognized : corpso- like rigidit, resistance to the action of galvanic carrents, and putrefaction. As we have already saon, rigidity doos not begin until soveral hours after death, whilo genoral and complete_disa; poarance of muscular contractility, undor tho stimulus of currents, and, lact of all, pntrefac- tion, are only manifest at o still later period. Those remote signs, particularly tho last, have this advantago, that thoy may be ascertained by those unacquained with-medicino, and it is vory well to pay some attention to them in countries where physicians aro not charged with tho veri- fieation of tho discase, but thoy aro of no impor- tance wherever there aro doctors to examine tho heart with instruments, and to decide promptly and suraly upon tho doath, from the complete stoppago of pulsation in that organ. At tho be- ginnine of tho century, Hufeland, and soveral other physicians, convinced that all the signs of doath then known were uncertain, oxcapt putre- faction, proposed and obtsined, in Germany, tho cstablishment of a certain number of morti- ary hooses, intonded to received, and keep for some time, the bodies of doceased porsons. During the whole existonce of these establish- ments, not one of the bodies transported into those asylums has been Lnown to return to life, 13 the authentio declarations of tho attendant doctora agree, The uscfulness of such mortu- ary houses is still more questionablo in our time, when we bave & positive and certsin means of recognizing real death. Those police rogulations that forbid autopsics sud inter- monts until the full torm of delsy for twenty-four hours, measured from the dec- loration of desth, still remain prudent pre- cantions, but they do not lessen at all the cer- tainty of that ovidenco furnished by the stopping of the heart. When the heart has dofinitely censed to boat, then resurrection is no longer possible, and the life which desorts it ia prepar- ing to enter upon a new cycle. Hamlt, in his famons soliloquy, speaks of “ that undiscovered country from whose bourno 00 traveler returns,” and mournfully asks, what must be the dreams of the man to whom death has opencd the portals of those gloomy regions, Wo can give no clearer answer, in the namo of Ehysivlngy,» than Shakspoare's prince gives. hysiology is dumb as to tho destiny of the sonl aftor death ; of thatit toachos, 1nd it cen tosch us, nothing. It is plain, and 1t would be child- islito dony it, that any psychical or sentient man- ifestation, and any concrete representation of the personality, arc impossible after doath, The dis- solution of ' the organism annihilates surely, and of neceseity, the functions of sonsation, motion, and will, which aro inseparable from a cer- tain combination of material conditions. We can feel, move, and will, only 80 far as we have organs for reception, transmission, and exoen- tion, Thoee assurances of seience are above dis- cuseion, and sbonld bo accepted without reserve. Dotheytellusanything of the destiny of the pay- chical principles themsolves ? Again we say, No, and for the very simple reason that science does not attain to those principles; but metaphysics, which does attain to them, authorizes us, nay, further, compels us, to believo that they are im- mortal.” They aro immortal, s the principles of motion, the principles of perception, all the ac- tive unities of the world, are immortal. What is the general characteristic of those unities? It is that of being gimplo, which means being indestructible, which means being in harmonious mutual connection, aftor such » manner that each one of them perceives the infinite order of 6 —_— as roused {rom bis lothargy. by tho concussion, | than tho othera?._ Why. if sll theso, forces, all | tho Viceroy to givo them their opium, oven it i Why, these activities, aro eternal; should those alone Rot poasess eternity which hiave this high privi- loge, that of knosring the infinite relations which tho othera suatain without knowog that they To form & conception of the immortality of the soul, then, we must place ourselves at that point of view to which men rarely and hardly rise, of the simplicity and indefectibility of: all those priociplea of zoroe it the universe. o must, train ourselyes to understand that what we 6ee is nothing in comparison with what wo do not seo. The wholo forcs, the whole spring, of the most complex movement: the mast magnificent phenomona of Nature, an the most subtlo operations of life, thought in- cluded, proceee from thoinilnite commingling ot sn infinity of scries of invisible and unextended principles, whose activities ascend in the scale of porfection from um%le powar of movement up to supreme reason. Human personality, such 88 wo se0 and know it, ia only & coarse and com- plex result from thoeo of these primitive activi- ties which aro the best and deepost thing in us. It is not that porsonality which is immortal— that is no moro immortal than the motive force of a steam-engine is, or the electricity of & vol- taic battery, although movement and_ eleotricity aro of themselves indestructible, It io not that personality which can sspire to a Bome o tho 80w of God. Our true éxananlmy, our real 7, that which may without illnsion count on a faturo life, is unity released from every material bond, and all concrote alloy ; it is that force, nocessarily pure, which has & more or less clear conscionsness of its own relations with the infinity of like unities, and which more or less draws near to them by thought and by love. It is beyond our power to conceive what will be- coms of that unity when, quitting ita prison of flesh, and soaring into tho idoal ether, it will no longer have organs with which to act ; bat what we can affirm i5 that, precisely by reason of this froedom, it will riso {0 & clearer knowledge of all that it had only known obecurely, and to » purer Tove of what it had adored only through the veil of sense. And this certainty, which is the en- nobling and elevating force of life, is also the consolation for death.— Popular Sciénce Monthly. piclebicteilot dee o PHASES OF LIFE. “ Sic transit gloria mundi." What is1ifo? A fleeting shadow Caxt upon the track of Time ;" But its euro experionce tesches 3Many a trath, profound, sublime, the other. If this connection did mot ex- ist, thers would be mno world . What is’ the characteristio of the peychic cal unities more especially ? T, is that of having, besides the consciousness of such perception, the fecling also of the relations which bind the whole together, and those facul- ties, more or less doveloped, which that con- accident, wiich might have been fatal to a live man, Was yiry serviceablo to the dead one, who sciousness and that perception imply. But why should these unities bepmy mol;s periuh:blz We are all poor, erring creatures, Guided by each {mpulse weak, Striving ever for somo abject In the distance which we seek; Far and farther till receding, 8till wo follow In ita flight, Discontentod, rostless over, Standing 0 each other's light, Once attained, soms Other phaniom, Mocking, lures us on ts Way ; Wild excitement, restless craving, Track our footstops day by day. Rivers still go rushing by ‘Busy crowds go hurrying o Sunlight smiles, yet hearts in anguish Broak, and * brokenly live on.” Fools, we dive tnto the fature, Fancy 'tis baforo us stretched ; But the things therein enshrouded Fuman oye hath never reached. Philosophers, thro’ years of atads, Time’s great mystery ne‘er have solred, Tet we, in our erring Slindness, All ita sctions have resolved. 4Life's u dream, and man's » shzdow Thrown npon’s bolsterous ses,” And our longest spans but scemeth Atoms in cternity. Such it 15, and such tho lesson ‘That it feaches day by day: Mortals all pursuing visions, Dreaming thus their years away, Eartbly things aro false, unreal ; Faircat faces only hide ‘Hearts corrupt with meanest passions, Tnsincerity and pride. We should all have sel{-rcliance, Interested, slfish, v Ts tho world, for, f it sorves us, Double it expects to gain. Misers hoard up golden treasures 3 p.0tiem to smbition bend ; ch st somathing striving, 3 Teedliss of thess certaty caa. T In the brido now at the altar, In ber robes of virgin white; She, n words of solemn meaning, Vows of love and truth doth plight, Esely bope 50 fondly cherished In that bour scoms all falllled ; Yet, could sho the future gaze on, Soul and feeling would bo chilléd, ‘Like tha dowers in Spring-time Llawing, Summer sces them {aded lio; Thog set forth o feir cxample, “ Bloam to-day, to-morrow die.” Next behold 5 funiersl passing ; Ask who 18 tho victim now Last year's bride,—the cpress minglod In the blossams on her brow. Look upun that baby-cherub Smilirg in & mother's faco; 8o with life-loug love is walching Tvery witching, dawning grace; Boon, alae ! theg lips grow Livid, Cheeks have lost their rosy hus, Eyes bave lost their lacyhing brightoess, "Desth hath stolen that sweet bud t Bother's heart is wildly throbbing, ‘Throbbing with a yearning pain, For the little “ bird 0f passage,” Gone ne'er to return again. Tho’ Jong years, with lengthened shadow, Puas, o bitter frult they’ll besr,— Vacant seat and missing footsteps Tattering down the nursery-stalr. Death alone we can but count on ; See, it hovers by our door; At its'portals we are standing ; One brief struggls—all 18 o'er. “Then béfore us, panoramic, Spoctre-like, come forms oghast, Shaped {n all the faults and follied Of 3 stern recording past. And thers is an oye thst catches, In one scratinizing look, ‘Years misspent, without a harvest, Liko some foul, ill-written Look . All our thoughta, and words, and actions; ‘There are viewed with eirbestness ; Cowering at tho Throne of Justice, We can offer no redress. Lot us, then, with hearts unsullied, Consclonce clesr, look up to God ; Patient, boar with wrong and insult,— Tread the steps the Savior trod. Wo could scatter joy around us, Siweet as dew upon the rose ; Heal tho heart In sorrow pining, Dry tha tear of gricf that flows, ‘Words of kindness, gently uttered, Toom with hoge, liko Noab'a dove, + And, for erring sinful mortals, Gild a path to Heaven above, ‘Earth might be one scene of sunshine Were it not for ain's dark blight, Crystal streams are murmuring music, Flowers are blooming, akies aro bright ook inta the glorions etarlight,— Teaceful smiles the vault of Heaven; Every kmea should bend to worship Him who thus such gifts hath given. Wander forth into the mesdow; ‘Take the tiniest floweret tharo, Look at its minute perfaction, God hath formed its petals Tatr. Fair and spotless as that fomerot e created every beart, But in some unguarded oment, Sin hatk: claimod the better part, There the sced hath grown and Sourlahed Tnto sine of darkest dya, To coma forth a deadly hervest When tho hour af death 15 nigh, *Oh1 the bright, the bliasfal futurg In that realm boyond tho eiies | Oh! the bappy, bleat reunion With tho loved we'll realize, 1t we gontly bow,—not murmur 3 “ Bear thip croes and win the crown ;7 Tread with footstep firm, unshrinking: Every petty gricvance down ; It wel anly love each otker, And temptation ever fly, As it 1s for man appointed, Once, and ouly once, to die. Chiarity and truth but study ; Faults in others meekly chide; ‘Holy angels then will steer us Safely to the ather sido, Tree SrrexT, CHICAGO. Dussr. I e One Way of Living at Newport. A Nowport correspondent writes: “On the 20th of June the Cliff Cottage Hotel opens, un- der tho proprictorship of Mr. Hodge, formerly of the Aquidneck Honse. His method of living, started two years since as an experiment, ha proved a groat success. Tho colony comprises 5 emall hotel, eight prefty furnishod cottages, and handsomb grounds ; the location on the clift of the sea. Yon hire a cottage for the sesson, you name your hours for. yonr meals, and open Jour dining-room door to find them o the table, our cottago has no_kitchen, you never hear of a cook, but your food sppears mysteriously four times & day, emoking_hot. With each cottage you get a Bervant, who sttends to your wants. A femmo de chambro comes from tha big house, and while you are at broakfast puts your cham. bers to rights, and the grounds are woll kept, without even an order being given. - ———— Keying’s Opium Test. When Koying was sent down, almost with & Viceroy's power, from Pekin to Canton, to In- vestigate tho opium smuggling, he began by in- vestigating the lives of tho Chinese merchanta. It is gaid thet he invited all tho importers to a magnificent dinner ; and they attended it with great joy, grestly honored at the invitation. But when it came time to go homo, they were polite- 1y informed that they wera to epend the night with their host. This was the civil w of finding out how many of them cauly live withont smoking opium. The mext morning they found that they were still kept in hig palace for another festival. Nor when the next night came were they released. Boforo long one after another surrendered, Though every man of them knew that to confess that he was &n opium-eater or opium-smoker was wero for the last_ time.. And o, before man: duye, he had proved to his own satisfaction, by their own confcasion, that most of his own countrymen who were engaged in foreign trads were themselves the victims of the appatite which his Government was trying to suppress The story shows what happens srhen peaple hizte not complete control of their appatice. i i e, e FAIR CLEOPATRA. 1 Falr Cleopatra _ Was locked up a'ter s Diszatrous defeat of Mark Antony, ;rv:n s l).;m.ng aspect to her, ut a biting asp apake to her : “ Of the bita T inilict there 't any.” —New York Graphic. koo HUMOR. Sroct Homo—A beo-hive. —Jr. Bailey, of Danb in lecture myzelf; Tam macrieg 7 T 0 mot —An exchango says: * Some men are born for 8 niche.” “Yes," snys the Boston Bulltiy = “ but they dgn'tnflwms up nzlc. the scratch.” A uery—Can a geological clorgyman with collection of ores, etc., bo called a casie; minister? —An Towa paper remerks that Our rosdsrs needn't try to get sny points out of our political articles ; we put 'om in this waek because opr paiont medicino sterootypes have been mis- —A young lady in Greenville, Tenn., recently | presorited ber Tover with an’ slaborataene ltrn_ctsd pen-wiper, and was astonished, the f lowing Sundsy, to See him wearing it as'a crav —A protentious hypocrite who waa in the habit of praying so vociferonsly that his neighbors and persons passing in the street could hess him, waa quietly informed by his pastor, ons day, that if “Lo would get a littlo noarer gy God, he wouldn't have to pray 5o load.” —The Descont of Man.—Figurative party: “Bolongss I am & man, sore what dosy it matter to me whether me great-; dfather wag | “an anthropoid ape or not, sorr?” Literalpartyy | “Haw, wather disagwooablo for your gmaie. gwandmother, wasn't it ? —The boy with tho big watch said tims hung Beavy on bis bands. —The Prolates puzzled: Archbishop of Can. terbury—*‘ If I know how to deal with the quese tion, miay T be—ahem !—diseatablished " Arch. bishop of York—“If T know what to sy in the mnm;_, may I be—ahem!—disendowed!"— f Pung —Of a certain popular dramatic reader, ra- marks the Hornet, it msy bo said that he 'is a man of color, for his eyes aro black, his glores are mauve, his mannar *rosdy,” his hair white, and his name Bel-lue. : ~—Sho Suited.—A lady recently applied &t a lifo insurance company for & position as agent, Wiien ssked what her quslifications were, sbe touched her unblushing chel —Fast young mon declare ‘that the great beauty of an ocoan voyage ia * that you can gel as tight as you pleasa, and people think youra elysale, e e —Rasper, being e looked scedy, an ssked what business ho was in, mumf’“nd, hard-wear business ; look at my wardrob " —A sagacious paps oxceedingly mortified his daughter’ by orderiog to bo printed an her wad. ding cardv, * No presents oxcapt those adepted t0 an incomo of S1,500.” —One of the solliers sent against the Modoca received a letter from his sister containing the following besutiful and touching sentiment : “And if snything should happen to you, do make some arrangement to haveyour hair re. covered and sent on. 1t 13 tho exact colarar mine, and I can't get & air of curls of tha righ; shadd ampabero boro” e —The ion.—Our correspar, tolegraphs us a striking instance of the e enco in the domestio habits of the Bst and West. Here, the Queen and every woman in England is wont to keop hot waler in & cans there, tho Czar and all his courtiars delight ia keeping the Khan in hot water.—London Tudy. ——A Parisien musical directory defnes & shost to be ** an unpleasant noise produced by over- straining tho throat, for which groat sinfemars | well paid and small ¢hildran well paniabeds —° | _AA d:nllarl ;fim goods heada = advertise. ment in tho local newspapera with this trar of Dr. Watts: g How vain are all things here below— How false and yet how fair ! But if for faise things you will go, Invest at once in hair | —A Kontucky farmer refusod tolook at simpls sowing-machine Tecently, as he alwaya * cowed Whest by hand.” He is rolated to the man who did not want a threshing-machine on bis farms * for,” sid he * give me n harness-tng or & bir- rel-stave, and I can make my family tos the ‘mack according to law and Scripter. —* That ate you sbout, my dear#”’ sxid n grandmother to'a littlo boy, who wss idling about the room and casting furtive glances at & gentleman who was paying & visit. I am ing, grandma, to steal papa’s hat out of the room without letting the gontleman sea it, far Ppaps wants him to think he's ont."” —A farmer and his wife called at & Detroid plotograph gallory last wook to order some pho- | tbgraphs of her, and while the operator was gat- | ting ready the Liusband gave the wife littlo ad- vice s tohow she must sct: ‘ Fasten your mind on something.” he enid, *or elso yonll laugh, and epile the job. Think about early days ; how your father got in jail, and your mother was an old acoldor, and what you'd hsva Dbeen if I hadn't pitied you. Jest fasten yomt mind on to that 1"~ Bhe didn't have any photos O eame Iady in Nashill b —A young ly N ille is changing her views somewhat relative to the uu:i:ng‘:{ mate rimony. She saya that when aho ‘ camo out” in society she determined that she would not marry & man unless he was an Episcopali Time passed on and she did not get married, and thon ‘modified her views and concloded she would marry no man_who was not & Christisn. That yonng lady is still unmarried, and says now that all she is looking for is & man that dot drink whisky. —TYesterday we overheard a couple of home- made gavans discussing the cause of the salins character of the water in Grest Salt Lake. Said ono: ““Well, it's my opinion that thera't sx undorground cannection _ with the Pasiig Ocoan, and it's filled with water from the Pacifi. “But,” said tho other, **Salt Lake is 7,000 fes§ Bigh''n tho ocean ; what do 5ou thiak of hat? “Think of it | why I think it bursts my theary all to h—L."—Eureka (Nevada) Sentincl. . _—The Danbury News man, now in San Fra~ cisco, does nat like the Californis style of mak- ing change, aad asks it itis customary thers 13 gh;irgs five cents commission for handling s halt lollar.” : —Emulation: Masud—T've had whooping-. cough! Ethel—Oh, that's nothing; why, I've- had menslos || Mand—Well, I'se bad bron- | chitis!!| " Fthel (after o pause)—1 lesm. - Froneh {111 (Collapes of Auud,—Punch, - —Inquisitive Freshman fo s Senior—Wker do the Faculty get ‘‘shoep-skina " for Ssniors | to carry off at Commencement? Benior—They kill Frenchmon. ~ Frenchman walks off, wonder entor Colloge fail to graduste.—Harvard Adw- cate. —A Legal Point.—A jury once returned into court in order that one of their number might he instructed upon the following point of Isw: **If T beliove that tho evidenco is one way, sl the other eleven believe different, does thst ° juatify any other juryman in knocking me dovn “with & chair?” —It ia s startling fact in natural history thal children who are ** perfect little lambs ™ usualiy grow up to be * mutton-heada.” —During the warm weather the cupation of the “girl of the perio ) to sitting on tho stoop waiting for the “comisg ing whother he has learned why 80 many WiG i I k o3 g _—*Ia there any one here who tak tiona to the rulings of this coort” saids Nev Juatice, putting s six-shooter on the table, There wasn't ono. ; —Profeseor—What are the uses of starch it gormination? Studant (reciting on cheek)—Ia ‘the German nation starch is usea very muchtb¢ #ame as in thia conuntry—in doing up linen & such gooda. Profcssor—If you givo angther! anawer as.that I will show ou how thay take bt starch out of students in the German patios- —A woman's modesty is liko her color~e% tremely becoming if not put on. —This incident comes from Oxford, New York: * Threo Inds of a Fi.scl:nry turn, absented thex selves from achool in quest of bites and nibbls; but the next morning, esch being al Hogging by tho echool myam, put on three piy of pantaloons before seeking the temp! Iki:! leamxngih Tho day was warm, and 60 w6 boys, They perspired, uqnafied, oozed st eve? pore, but no flogging came. For 8iX lfi" ] they eweltored, and then, with s & ¢ lecture on the imdpmpriety of running 8¥v they warfidx;]axmisu i 8 fodblo :aud f ! ition, all three agreeing that a logging H havo been profcsablo %o tho wearng of Vst | pantaloons in warm weather.” ; i —On ono of our Esstern trains, the oer &1 } 8 newly-married couple starting om ¥ieir ding four, after comfortably arravging &= selves in thoir seats, gave vent So teis smese?! 3 ) o i as follows: Husband (leaniog oyer toward the partner of his joyeand samo “*Qose little pot lamb ia ou " Wife 2-“3;; sponsive tenderness)—‘''0s.” Husband—, does "on love 7 Wile—'00.” The jndivis] who heard thia convorsation, being sogls B waa_completely overcom at this pointof 2 conversation, and joined the euchropTE to sign his own death warrant, still, one by one, the poor wretches had to givqt’gnt.xu‘l’hay zgsmi crowd ig the smokipg-car, e