Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/412

398 In spite of the natural antagonism to death, a moment's reflection will show that it is as much a physiological process as life; the two terms are correlative, the degree of vital activity depending on the extent of molecular death occurring at the same time. Strange as the paradox may seem, without death we can not live: every thought emanating from the brain, every blow struck by the arm, is accompanied by destruction of nervous or muscular tissue. The bioplasmatic or living matter of Beal, which enters into the formation of every animal tissue, is constantly germinating into cells (the origin of all life), and as constantly passing into decay, their places being taken by other protoplasts, thus keeping up the "active dance of life."

This disassimilation or interstitial death occurs to such an extent, that Nature, in her wisdom, has provided excrementory organs for the purpose of removing from the system the effete material thus produced. Every living structure, after passing through certain stages of development, maturity, and finally retrogression, must come to an end. This may be but the ephemeral existence of some of the lower forms of fungi, which, born in the cool of the morning, die as the sun goes down; or, like the famous dragon-tree of Teneriffe, may outlast the Pyramids that keep watch by the Nile.

The last topic for consideration is the pseudopia of death, or visions of the dying. This subject, coming under the realm of mental science, properly belongs to metaphysics rather than to physiology. Various theories have been advanced to explain these phenomena, but they must remain as hypotheses at best, for they are not susceptible of demonstration. It is not an uncommon occurrence for the dying, after lying some hours in a semi-conscious condition, to start up suddenly, and, with glowing face, point eagerly to some object invisible to the bystanders, and with animated voice and gesture state that they behold the glories of heaven, or the familiar countenance of some friend long since dead.

The question naturally arises as to whether these visions are merely the fantasies of a disordered and fast-disorganizing brain; or are the dying actually permitted a momentary view of those mysteries hitherto unknown?

The traditions and superstitions of the past have led to a popular belief in the latter theory. Shakespeare expressed the sentiment of his day when he placed in the mouth of the dying Queen Katharine these words:

Science, with its iconoclastic hand, has swept away these pleasing fancies, and in their places has constructed a fabric founded on