| Show modern science still uncertain as to whether one dies suddenly or piecemeal of the nebraska supreme court compelled recently to decide whether a baby whose heart beat but who never breathed was born alive or dead repeats what is perhaps the oldest problem of biology no battet solved today than in the days of imhotep first physician of egypt so difficult is it to decide just what is the essence of life Is this the brain the heart the breathing machinery or some other organ normal operation of which is to be considered synonymous with being alive asks a writer in the new york herald tribune the breath may stop for at least thirty minutes and the victim still recover perceptible heartbeats may be absent for at least that long without fatality although experts maintain that some degree of circulation of blood must be maintained during this interval undoubtedly the organ most easily damaged by interruptions of breath or heartbeat is the brain for it is estimated that stoppage of supply of oxygen to this organ for as long as twelve twelve minutes works damage which is irreparable ir perhaps no single observation in the history of biology bi logy has had so much effect on human h man thinking as the tha prehistoric identification of life with its most visible sign the breath here began the greek doctrine of the psyche that imagined immaterial something which went in or out with breath and whose departure was assumed to mean lifes end to this plus the fact that individuals may cease to breathe for a time and yet recover may be traced most of human thoughts about spirits immaterial beings and the soul the egyptians had a different idea accepting as I 1 lifes essential seat and center the beating heart and other organs of the trunk ideas which still survive in such faded metaphors as heartsick or that one has no stomach for a task modern science is not much better off in defining life than were these a ancients nc I 1 ants who hesitated between heart brain and breath as being its essence no one dies all at once but only piecemeal breathing stops for a time or the circulation of the blood probably the first y organ then to succumb permanently is the brain others including the heart muscle live for hours or even days in may the sense that the protoplasmic protoplasm cens cells of these organs still live and could grow if removed to say precisely at what instant a person dies seems to be impossible |
