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DEATH

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 901 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEATH , the permanent cessation of the vital functions in the bodies of animals and See also:

plants, the end of See also:life or See also:act of dying. The word is the See also:English representative of the substantive See also:common to See also:Teutonic See also:languages, as " dead " is of the See also:adjective, and " See also:die " of the verb; the ultimate origin is the pre-Teutonic verbal See also:stem dau-; cf. Ger See also:Tod, Dutch dood, Swed. and See also:Dan. did. For the scientific aspects of the processes involved in life and its cessation see See also:BIOLOGY, See also:PHYSIOLOGY, See also:PATHOLOGY, and allied articles; and for the See also:consideration of the prolongation of life see See also:LONGEVITY. Here it is only necessary to See also:deal with the more See also:primitive views of death and with certain legal aspects. See also:Ethnology.—To the See also:savage, death from natural causes is inexplicable. At all times and in all lands, if he reflects upon death at all, he fails to understand it as a natural phenomenon; nor in its presence is he awed or curious. See also:Man in a primitive See also:state has for his dead an almost See also:animal indifference. The researches of archaeologists prove that See also:Quaternary Man cared little what became of his See also:fellow-creature's See also:body. And this lack of See also:interest is found to-See also:day as a See also:general characteristic of savages. The Goajiros of See also:Venezuela See also:bury their dead, they confess, simply to get rid of them. The Galibis of See also:Guiana, when asked the meaning of their curious funeral ceremony, which consists in dancing on the See also:grave, replied that they did it to See also:stamp down the See also:earth.

Fuegians, See also:

Bushmen, See also:Veddahs, show the same lack of concern and interest in the memory of the dead. Even the Eskimos, conspicuous as they are for their intelligence and sociability, See also:save themselves the trouble of caring for their sick and old by walling them up and leaving them to die in a lonely hut; the Chukches See also:stone or strangle them to death; some See also:Indian tribes give them over to tigers, and the See also:Battas of See also:Sumatra eat them. This indifference is not dictated by any realization that death means annihilation of the See also:personality. The savage conception of a future state is one that involves no real break in the continuity of life as he leads it. If a man See also:dies without being wounded he is considered to be the victim of the sorcerers and the evil See also:spirits with which they See also:consort. Throughout See also:Africa the death of anyone is ascribed to the magicians of some hostile tribe or to the malicious act of a See also:neighbour. A See also:culprit is easily discovered either by an See also:appeal to a See also:local diviner or in torturing some one into See also:confession. In See also:Australia it is the same. Mr See also:Andrew See also:Lang says that " whenever a native dies, no See also:matter how evident it may be that death has been the result of natural causes, it is at once set down that the defunct was bewitched." The Bechuanas and all Kaffir tribes believe that death, even at an advanced See also:age, if not from See also:hunger or violence, is due to See also:witchcraft, and See also:blood is required to expiate or avenge it. Similar beliefs are found among the See also:Papuans, and among the See also:Indians of both Americas. The See also:history of witchcraft in See also:Europe and its attendant horrors, so vividly painted in See also:Lecky's Rise of See also:Rationalism, are but echoes of this universal refusal of savage man to accept death as the natural end of life. Even to-day the ignorant peasantry of many See also:European countries, See also:Russia, See also:Galicia and elsewhere, believe that all disease is the See also:work of demons, and that medicinal herbs owe their curative properties to their being the materialized forms of benevolent spirits.

This animistic tendency is a marked characteristic of primitive Man in every See also:

land. The savage explains the processes of inanimate nature by assuming that living beings or spirits, possessed of capacities similar to his own, are within the inanimate See also:object. The growth of a See also:tree, the spark struck from a See also:flint, the devastating floods of a See also:river, mean to him the natural actions of beings within the tree, stone or See also:water. And thus too he explains to himself the phenomena of human life, believing that each man has within him a mannikin or animal which dictates his actions in life. This See also:miniature man is the savage's conception of the soul; See also:sleep and See also:trance being regarded as the temporary, death as the permanent, See also:absence of the soul. Each individual is thus deemed to have a dual existence. This " subliminal " self (in See also:modern terminology) has many forms. The See also:Hurons thought that it possessed See also:head, body, arms and legs, in fact that it was an exact miniature of a man. The Nootkas of See also:British See also:Columbia regard it as a tiny man, living in the See also:crown of the head. So See also:long as it stands erect, its possessor is well, but if it falls from its position the misfortunes of See also:ill-See also:health and madness at once assail him. The See also:ancient See also:Egyptian believed in the soul or " See also:double." The inhabitants of See also:Nias, an See also:island to the See also:west of Sumatra, have the See also:strange belief that to everyone before See also:birth is given the choice of a long and heavy or See also:short and See also:light soul (a parallel belief may be found in See also:early See also:Greek See also:philosophy), and his choice determines the length of life. Sometimes the soul is conceived as a See also:bird.

The Bororos of See also:

Brazil See also:fancy that in that shape the soul of a See also:sleeper passes out of the body during See also:night-See also:time, returning to him at his awakening. The Bella Coola Indians say the soul is a bird enclosed in an See also:egg and lives in the nape of the See also:neck. If the See also:shell bursts and the soul flies away' the man must die. If however the bird flies away, egg and all, then he faints or loses his See also:reason. A popular superstition in Bohemia assumes that the soul in the shape of a See also:white bird leaves the body by way of the mouth. Among the Battas of Sumatra See also:rice or See also:grain is sprinkled on the head of a man who returns from a dangerous enterprise, and in899 the latter See also:case the grains are called padiruma tondi, " means to make the soul (tondi) stay at See also:home." In See also:Java the new-See also:born babe is placed in a See also:hen-coop, and the See also:mother makes a clucking See also:noise, as if she were a hen, to attract the See also:child's soul. It is regarded by many savage peoples as highly dangerous to arouse a sleeper suddenly, as his soul may not have time to return. Still more dangerous is it to move a sleeper, for the soul on its return might not be able to find the body. Flies and butterflies are forms which the souls are believed by some races to take, and the Esthonians of the island of See also:Oesel think that the gusts of See also:wind which whirl See also:tornado-like through the roads are the souls of old See also:women seeking what they can find. But more widespread perhaps than any belief, from its simplicity doubtless, is the See also:idea that the body's See also:shadow or reflexion is the soul. The Basutos think that crocodiles can devour the shadow of a man See also:cast on the See also:surface of water. In many parts of the See also:world sorcerers are credited with supernatural See also:powers over a man by an attack on his shadow.

The sick man is considered to have lost his shadow or a See also:

part of it. See also:Dante refers to the shadowless spectre of See also:Virgil, and the See also:folklore of many European countries affords examples of the prevalence of the superstition that a man must be as careful of his shadow as of his body. In the same way the reflexion-soul is thought to be subject to a malice of enemies or attacks of beasts and has been the cause of superstitions which in one See also:form or another exist to-day. From the Fijian and Andaman islander who exhibits abject terror at seeing himself in a See also:glass or in water, to the English or European See also:peasant who covers up the mirrors or turns them„ to the See also:wall, upon a death occurring, lest an inmate of the See also:house should see his own See also:face and have his own speedy See also:demise thus prognosticated, the idea holds its ground. It was probably the origin of the See also:story of See also:Narcissus, and there is scarcely a See also:race which is See also:free from the haunting dread. Lastly the soul is pictured as being a man's breath (anima), and this again has come down to us in literature, evidenced by the fact that the word " breath " has become a synonym for life itself. The " last breath " has meant more than a See also:mere See also:metaphor. It expresses the savage belief that there departs from the dying in the final expiration a something tangible, capable of See also:separate existence—the soul. Among the See also:Romans See also:custom imposed a sacred See also:duty on the nearest relative, usually the See also:heir, to inhale the " last breath " of the dying. Moreover the See also:classics See also:bear See also:evidence to the sanctity with which sentiment surrounded the last See also:kiss; See also:Cicero, in his speech against See also:Verres, saying " Matres ab extremo complexu liberum exclusae: quae nihil aliud orabant nisi ut filiorum extremum spiritum ore excipere See also:sibi liceret." Virgil, too, refers in the Aeneid, iv. 684, to the custom, which survives to-day as a ceremonial practice among many savage and semi-civilized See also:people. From the inability of the savage in all ages and in all lands to comprehend death as a natural phenomenon, there results a tendency to personify death, and myths are invented to See also:account for its origin.

Sometimes it is a " See also:

taboo " which has been broken and gives Death See also:power over man. In New See also:Zealand Maui, the divine See also:hero of See also:Polynesia, was not properly baptized. In Australia a woman was told not to go near a tree where a See also:bat lived: she infringed the See also:prohibition, the bat fluttered out, and death resulted. The Ningphoos were dismissed from See also:Paradise and became mortal because one of them bathed in water which had been " tabooed " (See also:Dalton, p. 13). Other versions of the Death-myth in Polynesia relate that Maui See also:stole a See also:march on Night as she slept, and would have passed right through her to destroy her, but a little bird which sings at sunset woke her, she destroyed Maui, and men lost See also:immortality. In See also:India See also:Yama, the See also:god of Death, is assumed, like Maui, to have been the first to " See also:spy out the path to the other world." In the See also:Solomon Islands (Jour-Anth. Inst., See also:February 1881) " Koevari was the author of death, by resuming her cast-off skin." The same story is told in the See also:Banks Islands. The Greek myth (See also:Hesiod, See also:Works and Days, go) alleged that mortals lived " without ill diseases that give death to men " till the See also:cover was lifted from the See also:box of See also:Pandora. This personification of Death has had as a consequence the introduction into the folklore of many lands of stories, often 900 humorous, of the tricks played on the Enemy of Mankind. Thus See also:Sisyphus fettered Death, keeping him prisoner till rescued by See also:Ares; in Venetian folklore Beppo ties him up in a bag for eighteen months; while in See also:Sicily an innkeeper corks him up in a See also:bottle, and a See also:monk keeps him in his pouch for See also:forty years. The See also:German parallel is Gambling Hansel, who kept Death up a tree for seven years.

Such examples might be multiplied unendingly, but enough has been said to show that the attitude of civilized man towards the See also:

sphinx-riddle of his end has been in part dictated and is even still influenced by the savage belief that to die is unnatural. Law—Registration.—The See also:registration of burials in See also:England goes back to the time of See also:Thomas See also:Cromwell, who in 1538 instituted the keeping of See also:parish registers. Statutory See also:measures were taken from time to time to ensure the preservation of registers of burials, but it was not until 1836 (the Births and Deaths Registration Act) that the registration of deaths became a See also:national concern. Other acts dealing with death registration were subsequently passed, and the whole See also:law for England consolidated by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874. By that act, the registration of every death and the cause of the death is compulsory. When a See also:person dies in a house See also:information of the death and the particulars required to be registered must be given within five days of the death to the registrar to the best of the person's knowledge and belief by one of the following persons: (1) The nearest relative of the deceased See also:present at the death, or in attendance during the last illness of the deceased. If they fail, then (2) some other relative of the deceased in the same sub-See also:district (registrar's) as the deceased. In See also:default of relatives, (3) some person present at the death, or the occupier of the house in which, to his knowledge, the death took See also:place. If all the above fail, (4) some inmate of the house, or the person causing the body of the deceased to be buried. The person giving the information must sign the See also:register. Similarly, also, information must be given concerning death where the deceased dies not in a house. Where written See also:notice of the death, accompanied by a medical certificate of the cause of death, is sent to the registrar, information must nevertheless be given and the register signed within fourteen days after the death by the person giving the notice or some other person as required by the act.

Failure to give information of death, or to comply with the registrar's requisitions, entails a See also:

penalty not exceeding forty shillings, and making false statements or certificates, or See also:forging or falsifying them, is punishable either summarily within six months, or on See also:indictment within three years of the offence. Before See also:burial takes place the clergyman or other person conducting the funeral or religious service must have the registrar's certificate that the death of the deceased person has been duly registered, or else a See also:coroner's See also:order or See also:warrant. Failing the certificate, the clergyman cannot refuse to bury, but he must forthwith give notice in See also:writing to the registrar. Failure to do so within seven days involves a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. See also:Children must not be registered as still-born without a medical certificate or a signed See also:declaration from some one who would have been required, if the child had been born alive, to give information concerning the birth, that the child was still-born and that no medical man was present at the birth, or a coroner's order. The registration of deaths at See also:sea is regulated by the act of 1874 together with the See also:Merchant See also:Shipping Act 1894. See further BIRTH and BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS. Registers of death are, in law, evidence of the fact of death, and the entry, or a certified copy of it, will be sufficient evidence without a certificate of burial, although it is desirable that it should also be produced. Presumption of Death.—The fact of death may, in English law, be proved not only by See also:direct but by presumptive evidence. When a person disappears, so that no direct See also:proof of his whereabouts or death is obtainable, death may be presumed at the expiration of seven years from the See also:period when the person was last heard of. It is always, however, a matter of fact for the See also:jury, and the onus of proving the death lies on the party who asserts it. In See also:Scotland, by the Presumption of-Life (Scotland) Act 1891, the presumption is statutory.

In those cases where people disappearunder circumstances which create a strong See also:

probability of death, the See also:court may, for the purpose of See also:probate or See also:administration; presume the death before the See also:lapse of seven years. The question of survivorship, where two or more persons are shown to have perished by the same See also:catastrophe, as in cases of shipwreck, has been much discussed. It was at one time thought that there might be a presumption of survivorship in favour of the younger as against the older, of the male as against the See also:female, &c. But it is now clear that there is no such presumption (In re See also:Alston, 1892, P. 142). This is also the See also:rule in most states of the See also:American See also:Union. The See also:doctrine of survivorship originated in the See also:Roman Law, which had recourse to certain artificial presumptions, where the particular circumstances connected with deaths were unknown. Some of the systems founded on the See also:civil law, as the See also:French See also:code, have adopted certain rules of survivorship. Civil Death is an expression used, in law, in contradistinction to natural death. Formerly, a man was said to be dead in law (1) when he entered a monastery and became professed in See also:religion; (2) when he abjured the See also:realm; (3) when he was attainted of See also:treason or See also:felony. Since the suppression of the monasteries there has been no legal See also:establishment for professed persons in England, and the first distinction has therefore disappeared, though for long after the See also:original reason had ceased to make it necessary grants of life estates were usually made for the terms of a man's natural life. The act abolishing sanctuaries (1623) did away with civil death by See also:abjuration; and the See also:Forfeiture Act 1870, that on See also:attainder for treason or felony.

For the tax levied on the See also:

estate of deceased persons, and some-times called " death duty," see See also:SUCCESSION DUTY. For the See also:statistics of the death-See also:rate of the See also:United See also:Kingdom as compared with that of the various European countries see UNITED KINGDOM. See also the articles See also:ANNUITY; See also:CAPITAL See also:PUNISHMENT; See also:CREMATION; See also:INSURANCE; MEDICAL See also:JURISPRUDENCE, &C. DEATH-WARNING, a See also:term used in psychical See also:research for an intimation of the death of another person received by other than the See also:ordinary sensory channels, i.e. by (I) a sensory See also:hallucination or (2) a massive sensation, both being of telepathic origin. (See See also:TELEPATHY.) Both among civilized and uncivilized peoples there is a widespread belief that the apparition of a living person is an See also:omen of death; but until the Society of Psychical Research undertook the statistical examination of the question, there were no data for estimating the value of the belief. In 1885 a collection of spontaneous cases and a discussion of the evidence was published under the See also:title Phantasms of the Living, and though the See also:standard of evidence was See also:lower than at the present time, a substantial body of testimony, including many striking cases, was there put forward. In 1889 a furtherinquiry was under-taken, known as the " See also:Census of Hallucinations," which provided information as to the percentage of individuals in the general See also:population who, at some period of their lives, while they were in a normal state of health, had had " a vivid impression of seeing or being touched by a living being or inanimate object, or of See also:hearing a See also:voice; which impression, so far as they could discover, was not due to any See also:external cause." To the census question about 17,000 answers were received, and after making all deductions it appeared that death coincidences numbered about 30 in 1300 cases of recognized See also:apparitions; or about I in 43, whereas if See also:chance alone operated the coincidences would have been in the proportion of I to 19,000. As a result of the inquiry the See also:committee held it to be proved that " between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone." From an evidential point of view the apparition is the most valuable class of death-warning, inasmuch as recognition is more difficult in the case of an auditory hallucination, even where it takes the form of spoken words; moreover, auditory hallucinations coinciding with deaths may be mere knocks, ringing of.bells, &c.; tactile hallucinations are still more difficult of recognition; and the hallucinations of See also:smell which are sometimes found as death-warnings rarely have anything to See also:associate them specially with the dead person. Occasionally the death-warning is in the form of an apparition of some other person; it may also take the form of a temporary feeling of intense depression or other massive sensation. See also:BIBL1oGRAPHY. Podmore, See also:Gurney and See also:Myers, Phantasms of the Living (1885) ; for the Census See also:Report see Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, part See also:xxvi.; see also F. Podmore, Apparitions and Thought Transference.

For a See also:

criticism of the results of the Census see E. Parish, Hallucinations and Illusions and Zur Kritik See also:des telepathischen Beweismaterials, and Mrs See also:Sidgwick's refutation in Proc. S.P.R. part xxxiii. 589-601. The See also:Journal of the S.P.R. contains the most striking spontaneous cases received from time to time by the society. (N. W. T.) DEATH-See also:WATCH, a popular name applied to See also:insects of two distinct families, which burrow and live in old See also:furniture and produce the mysterious " See also:ticking " vulgarly supposed to foretell the death of some inmate of the house. The best known, because the largest, is a small See also:beetle, Anobium striattum, belonging to the See also:family Ptinidae. The " ticking," in reality a sexual See also:call, like the chirp of a See also:grasshopper, is produced by the beetle rapidly striking its head against the hard and dry woodwork. In the case of the smaller death-watches, some of the so-called See also:book-lice of the family Psocidue; the exact way in which the See also:sound is caused has not been satisfactorily explained. Indeed the ability of such small and soft insects to give rise to audible sounds has been seriously doubted but it is impossible to ignore the See also:positive evidence on the point.

The names See also:

Atropos divinatoria and Clothilla pulsatoria, given to two of the commoner forms, bear See also:witness both to a belief in a causal connexion between these insects and the ticking, and to the superstition regarding the fateful significance of the sound. DE BARY, HEINRICH ANTON (1831-1888), German botanist, was of Belgian extraction, though his family had long been settled in See also:Germany, and was born on the 26th of See also:January 1831, at See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main. From 1849 to 1853 he studied See also:medicine at See also:Heidelberg, See also:Marburg and See also:Berlin. In 1853 he settled at See also:Frank-fort as a surgeon. In 1854 he became privat-docent for See also:botany in See also:Tubingen, and See also:professor of botany at See also:Freiburg in 1855. In 1867 he migrated to See also:Halle, and in 1872 to See also:Strassburg, where he was the first See also:rector of the newly constituted university, and where he died on the 19th of January 1888. Although one of his largest and most important works was on the See also:Comparative See also:Anatomy of Ferns and Phanerogams (1877), and notwithstanding his admirable acquaintance with systematic and See also:field botany generally, de Bary will always be remembered as the founder of modern mycology. This See also:branch of botany he completely revolutionized in 1866 by the publication of his celebrated Morphologic and Physiologic d. Pilze, &c., a classic which he rewrote in 1884, and which has had a world-wide See also:influence on biology. His clear appreciation of the real significance of symbiosis and the dual nature of See also:lichens is one of his most striking achievements, and in many ways he showed powers of generalizing in regard to the See also:evolution of organisms, which alone would have made him a distinguished man. It was as an investigator of the then mysterious See also:Fungi, however, that de Bary stands out first and foremost among the biologists of the 19th See also:century. He not only laid See also:bare the complex facts of the life-history of many forms; e.g. the Ustilagineae, Peronosporeae, Uredineae and many Ascomycetes,—treating them from the developmental point of view, in opposition to the then prevailing anatomical method, but he insisted on the See also:necessity of tracing the evolution of each organism from spore to spore, and by his methods of culture and accurate observation brought to light numerous facts previously undreamt of.

These his keen See also:

perception and insight continually employed as the basis for hypotheses, which in turn he tested with an experimental skill and See also:critical See also:faculty rarely equalled and probably never surpassed. One of his most fruitful discoveries was the true meaning of infection as a morphological and physiological See also:process. He traced this step by step in Phytophthora, Cystopus, Puccinia, and other Fungi, and so placed before the world in a clear light the significance of See also:parasitism. He then showed by numerous examples wherein See also:lay the essential See also:differences between a See also:parasite and a saprophyte; these were by no means clear in 186o-187o, though he himself had recognized them as early as 1853, as is shown by his work, Die Brandpilze. These researches led to the explanation of epidemic diseases,and de Bary's contributions: to this subject were fundamental, as witness his classical work on the See also:potato disease in 1861. They also led to his striking See also:discovery of heteroecism (or metoecism) in the Uredineae, the truth of which he demonstrated in See also:wheat See also:rust experimentally, and so clearly that his classical example (1863) has always been confirmed by subsequent observers, though much more has been discovered as to details. It is, difficult to estimate the relative importance of de Bary's astoundingly accurate work on the sexuality of the Fungi. He not only described the phenomena of sexuality in Peronosporeae and Ascomycetes—Eurotium, Erysiphe, Peziza, &c.—but also established the existence of parthenogenesis and See also:apogamy on so See also:firm a basis that it is doubtful if all the combined workers who have succeeded him, and who have brought forward contending hypotheses in opposition to his views, have succeeded in shaking the doctrine he established before modern cytological methods existed. In one case, at least (Pyronema confluens), the most skilful investigations, with every modern appliance, have shown that de Bary described the sexual See also:organs and process accurately. It is impossible here to mention all the discoveries made by de Bary. He did much work on the Chytridieae, Ustilagineae, Exoasceae and Phalloideae, as well as on that remarkable See also:group the Myxomycetes, or, as he himself termed them, See also:Mycetozoa, almost every step of which was of permanent value, and started lines of investigation which have proved fruitful in the bands of his pupils. Nor must we overlook the important contributions to algology contained in his earlier monograph on the Conjugatae (1858), and investigations on Nostocaceae (1863), Chara (1871), Acetabularia (1869), &c.

De Bary seems to have held aloof from the Bacteria for many years, but it was characteristic of the man that, after working at them in order to include an account of the group in the second edition of his book in 1884, he found opportunity to bring the whole subject of See also:

bacteriology under the influence of his See also:genius, the outcome being his brilliant Lectures on Bacteria in 1885. De Bary's See also:personal influence was immense. Every one of his numerous pupils was enthusiastic in admiration of his See also:kind nature and genial criticism, his humorous See also:sarcasm, and his profound insight, knowledge and originality. See also:Memoirs of de Bary's life will be found in Bot. Centralbl. (1888), xxxiv. 93, by Wilhelm; Ber. d. d. bot. Ges. vol. vi. (1888) p. viii., by Reess, each with a See also:list of his works; Bot. Zeitung (1889), vol. xlvii. No. 3, by See also:Graf zu Soems-Laubach.

, (H. M.

End of Article: DEATH

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