One of the wisest of our countrymen, Lord Verulam, saw reason to censure the physicians of his own time for not making the Euthanasia a part of their studies.[1] And, although more than two centuries have since elapsed, it may be doubted whether as much attention is even yet given to the subject as might be done, to the obvious benefit and comfort of the dying. There is little to be found in medical writings on the management of the dying, or on the treatment best adapted to the relief of the sufferings incident to that condition. The subject is not specially taught in any of our medical schools; and the young physician entering on the active duties of his office has to learn for himself, as best he may, what to do, and what not to do, in the most solemn and delicate position in which he can be placed,--in attendance on the dying, and administering the resources of the medical art, in aid of an easy, gentle, and placid death. The whole subject of the Euthanasia,[2] or of a calm and easy death, in so far as it respects the physician is in need of special study; and of a systematic treatment that has not hitherto been accorded to it.[3] In the following pages I can but trace the outlines of this subject, leaving to abler hands that fuller treatment which its interest and importance claim for it. Lord Verulam held it to be as much the duty of the physician to smooth the bed of death, and render the departure from this life easy and gentle, as it is to cure diseases and restore health.[4] And this doctrine, so accordant with the best principles of our nature,[5] is commended to us by that most estimable and judicious of modern physicians, Dr. Heberden;[6] as it was also by the example and counsel of one of the most popular and successful physicians of the present century--the late Sir Henry Halford.[7] The process by which death is brought about varies greatly in different instances, and this according to the disease, or the organ of the body, from which it essentially results. On these diverse modes of dying, and of death, modern science has thrown much light; and with the consolatory result of showing that the process of dying, and the very act of death, is but rarely and exceptionally attended by those severe bodily sufferings, which in popular belief are all but inseparable from it, and are expressed and emphasized in the terms “mortal agony” and “death struggle.”