death develops. M. Cancalon denies the possibility that death can be pleasant, as it is the arrest of the physiological functions; but as sleep and syncope are often preceded by very pleasant sensations, why may not this also happen in natural death? Several facts prove it beyond dispute. It is even probable that the approach of natural death is one of the most pleasant sensations that can exist. It is indubitable that in a large number of cases of death, the cessation of life is associated with very painful sensations. One has only to see the horror shown in the faces of many dying people to be convinced of this, but there are diseases and serious accidents in which the approach of death does not arouse sorrowful sensations. I myself, in a crisis of intermittent fever, in which the temperature descended in a very short time from about 106° Fahr. to below normal, experienced a feeling of extraordinary weakness, certainly like that at the approach of death. This sensation was much more pleasant than painful. In two cases of serious morphia poisoning, my sensations were more agreeable; I felt a pleasant weakness, associated with a sensation of lightness of the body, as if I were floating in the air. Those who have noted the sensations of persons rescued from death have related similar facts. Prof. Heim, of Zurich, has described a fall in the mountains which nearly killed him, as well as several similar accidents to Alpine tourists. In all these cases he states that there was a sensation of pleasure.1 Dr. Sollier has told of a young woman addicted to morphia, who had been convinced that she was at the point of death. On recovering from a most serious attack of syncope, from which she was restored only by giving another dose of morphia, she cried: "I seem to 1 Egger, "Le moi des mourants," Revue philosophique, 1896, i, p. 27. come from far away; how happy I was!" Another of Dr. Sollier's patients, a lady who had an attack of peritonitis from which she expected to die, felt herself "suffused with a feeling of well-being, or rather the absence of all pain." In a third case of Dr. Sollier, a young woman suffering from puerperal fever, feeling herself at the point of death, had a similar sensation "of physical well-being and of detachment from everything."1 As a sensation of happiness occurs even in cases of pathological death, it is much more likely to occur in natural death. If natural death be preceded by the loss of the instinct of life and by the acquisition of a new instinct, it would be the best possible end compatible with the real organisation of human nature. I do not pretend to give the reader a finished study on natural death. This chapter of Thanatology, the science of death, only opens the subject; but it is already apparent that study of the circumstances of natural death in plants, in the animal world, and in human beings, may give facts of the highest interest to science and humanity. 1 Ibid., pp. 303-307; v. also Bulletin de PInstitut général phycholog., 1903, p. 29. PART IV SHOULD WE TRY TO PROLONG HUMAN LIFE? I THE BENEFIT TO HUMANITY Complaints of the shortness of our life-Theory of "medi- ALTHOUGH the duration of the life of man is one of the longest amongst mammals, men find it too short. From the remotest times the shortness of life has been complained of, and there have been many attempts to prolong it. Man has not been satisfied with a duration of life notably greater than that of his nearest relatives, and has wished to live at least as long as reptiles. In antiquity, Hippocrates and Aristotle thought that human life was too short, and Theophrastus, although he died at an advanced age (he lived probably seventy-five years) lamented when he was dying “that nature had given to deer and to crows a life so long and so useless, and to man only one that was often very short."1 Seneca (De brevitate vita) and later, in the 18th century, Haller, strove in vain against such complaints, which have lasted until our own days. Whilst animals have no more 1 Cicero, Tusculanes, chap. xxviii. than an instinctive fear of danger, and cling to life without knowing what death is, men have acquired an exact idea of death, and their knowledge increases their desire to live. Ought we to listen to the cry of humanity that life is too short and that it would be well to prolong it? Would it really be for the good of the human race to extend the duration of the life of man beyond its present limits? Already it is complained that the burden of supporting old people is too heavy, and statesmen are perturbed by the enormous expense which will be entailed by State support of the aged. In France, in a population of about 38 millions, there are two millions (1,912,153) who have reached the age of 70, that is to say, about five per cent. of the total. The support of these old people absorbs a sum of nearly £6,000,000 per annum. However generous may be the views of the members of the French Parliament, many of them hesitate at the idea of so great a burden. Without doubt, men say, the cost of maintaining the aged will become still heavier if the duration of life is to be prolonged. If old people are to live longer, the resources of the young will be reduced. If the question were merely one of prolonging the life of old people without modifying old age itself, such considerations would be justified. It must be understood, however, that the prolongation of life would be associated with the preservation of intelligence and of the power to work. In the earlier parts of this book I have given many examples which show the possibility of useful work being done by persons of advanced years. When we have reduced or abolished such causes of precocious senility as intemperance and disease, it will no longer be necessary to give pensions Rapport de M. Bienvenu-Martin à la Chambre des députés, Paris, 1903. at the age of sixty or seventy years. The cost of supporting the old, instead of increasing, will diminish progressively. If attainment of the normal duration of life, which is much greater than the average life to-day, were to overpopulate the earth, a very remote possibility, this could be remedied by lowering the birth-rate. Even at the present time, while the earth is far from being too quickly peopled, artificial limitation of the birth-rate takes place perhaps to an unnecessary extent. It has long been a charge against medicine and hygiene that they tend to weaken the human race. By scientific means unhealthy people, or those with inherited blemishes, have been preserved so that they can give birth to weak offspring. If natural selection were allowed free play, such individuals would perish and make room for others, stronger and better able to live. Haeckel has given the name "medical selection " to this process under which humanity degenerates because of the influence of medical science. It is clear that a valuable existence of great service to humanity is compatible with a feeble constitution and precarious health. Amongst tuberculous people, those with inherited or acquired syphilis, and those with a constitution unbalanced in other ways, that is to say, amongst so-called degenerates, there have been individuals who have had a large share in the advance of the human race. I need only instance the names of Fresnel, Leopardi, Weber, Schumann and Chopin. It does not follow that we ought to cherish diseases and leave to natural selection the duty of preserving the individuals which can resist them. On the other hand, it is indispensable to try to blot out the diseases themselves, and, in particular, the evils of old age, by the methods of hygiene and therapeutics. The theory of medical selection must be given up as contrary to the good of the |