Death-bed Superstition

See *Guy Mannering*, ch. xxvii. and note upon it:— "The popular idea that the protracted struggle between life and death is painfully prolonged by keeping the door of the apartment shut, was received as certain by the superstitious eld of Scotland." In my country (West Gloucestershire) they throw open the windows at the moment of death. The notion of the escape of the soul through an opening is probably only in part the origin of this superstition. It will not account for opening *all* the locks in the house. There is, I conceive, a notion of analogy and association. "Nexosque et solveret artu…