This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...a rough approximation to the truth, even in the mind endowed with insight and education. For the mystery of death is profound, being, as it is, the pendant to the mystery of life. An alteration which leaves the body unaltered in form, and without obvious structural change while depriving it and its constituent parts of ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...a rough approximation to the truth, even in the mind endowed with insight and education. For the mystery of death is profound, being, as it is, the pendant to the mystery of life. An alteration which leaves the body unaltered in form, and without obvious structural change while depriving it and its constituent parts of their functions, must always excite in the highest degree the interest of the thoughtful intelligence, and cause it to seek a deeper understanding of its essential meaning. Inscrutable as biological science must still admit the death mystery to be, it can, nevertheless, throw out some hints that may operate as a corrective for certain gross errors that are widely prevalent. When the circulation of the blood ceases within the body of a human being, he is pronounced to be dead, and the fact that he never comes to life again under these circumstances leaves no room for us to doubt that death has indeed come. Yet the situation is not so simple as might at first sight appear to be the case. The body is made of various tissues, and the cessation of the circulation does not have the same effect on all. The nervous system is peculiarly sensitive to the withdrawal of its blood supply, which is quickly followed by the appearance of an acid reaction and permanent alterations in the protoplasm which are incompatible with the restoration of consciousness--that most refined and subtle of all bodily functions. Other structures stand in a very different relation to the withdrawal of the blood supply. It is true that they suffer change from this deprivation and that they tend to undergo that solution in their own juices which physiologists call autolysis. But, if within a short time after the cessation of the supply of oxygen-laden blood this supply be restor...
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