PREMATURE BURIAL,
AND
HOW IT MAY BE PREVENTED.
PREMATURE BURIAL
AND
HOW IT MAY BE PREVENTED
_WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TRANCE, CATALEPSY, AND
OTHER FORMS OF SUSPENDED ANIMATION_
BY
WILLIAM TEBB, F.R.G.S.
_Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Medical Sciences, Palermo;
Author of “The Recrudescence of Leprosy and its Causation”_
AND
COL. EDWARD PERRY VOLLUM, M.D.
_Late Medical Inspector, U.S. Army; Corresponding Member of the
New York Academy of Sciences_
[Illustration: LOGO]
LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.
1896
“What if in the tomb I awake!”--_Romeo and Juliet._
“How comes it about that patients, given over as dead by their
physicians, sometimes recover, and that some have even returned to life
in the very time of their funerals?”--CELSUS.
“Such is the condition of humanity, and so uncertain is men’s judgment,
that they cannot determine even death itself.”--PLINY.
PREFACE.
A DISTRESSING experience in the writer’s family many years ago brought
home to his mind the danger of premature burial, and led ultimately
to the careful study of a gruesome subject to which he has a strong
natural repugnance. His collaborator in the volume has himself passed
through a state of profound suspended animation from drowning, having
been laid out for dead--an experience which has induced him in like
manner to investigate the various death-counterfeits. The results of
the independent inquiries carried on by both of us in various parts
of Europe and America, and by one of us during a sojourn in India in
the early part of this year, are now laid before the reader, with such
practical suggestions as it is hoped may prepare the way for bringing
about certain needed reforms in our burial customs.
The danger, as I have attempted to show, is very real--to ourselves,
to those most dear to us, and to the community in general; and it
should be a subject of very anxious concern how this danger may
be minimised or altogether prevented. The duty of taking the most
effective precautions to this end is one that naturally falls to the
Legislature, especially under a Government professing to regard social
questions as of paramount importance. Fortunately, this is a non-party
and a non-contentious question, it imperils no interest, so that no
formal obstruction or unnecessary delay need be apprehended; and it
should be urged upon the Government to introduce and carry an effective
measure at the earliest opportunity, not only as a security against the
possibility of so terrible an evil, but to quiet the widespread and not
altogether unreasonable apprehension on this subject which is now so
prevalent.
It has been found convenient to retain throughout the body of the work
the use of the singular pronoun, but every part of the book receives
the cordial approval of both authors, and with this explanation we
accept its responsibility jointly.
We have to acknowledge our great indebtedness in preparing this volume
to many previous writers, including such as have investigated the
phenomena of suspended animation and the signs of death, and such
as, with a more practical intention, have dwelt upon the danger of
death-counterfeits being mistaken for the absolute extinction of life,
illustrating their counsels or warnings by numerous instances. Grouping
both classes of writers together, we may mention specially the names of
Winslow and Bruhier, Hufeland, Struve, Marcus Herz and Köppen, Kite,
Curry, and Anthony Fothergill; and, of more recent date, the names
of Bouchut, Londe, Lénormand, and Gaubert (on mortuaries), Russell
Fletcher, Franz Hartmann, and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.
A work to which we are particularly indebted for the literature of
the subject is that of the late Dr. Félix Gannal, “Mort Apparente
et Mort Réelle: moyens de les distinguer.” Paris, 1890. Dr. Gannal,
having qualified in medicine and pharmacy, occupied himself with the
business of embalming, which he inherited from his father. He employed
the considerable leisure which the practice of that art left to him in
compiling the above laborious work. He examined many books, pamphlets,
theses, and articles, from which he cited expressions of opinion on
the several points--in a lengthy form in his original edition (1868),
in a condensed form in the second edition. His Bibliography is by
far the most comprehensive that has been hitherto compiled. Our own
Bibliography had been put together from various sources before we made
use of Dr. Gannal’s. It includes several titles which he does not give;
while, on the other hand, it has been considerably extended beyond its
original limits by transcribing titles which we have found nowhere but
in his list. The Bibliography, it need hardly be said, is much more
extensive than our own reading; but it seemed useful to make it as
complete as possible, whether the books had been seen by us or not, so
as to show in chronological order how much interest had been aroused in
the subject from time to time--in one country more than another, or in
various countries together. The titles of articles in journals, which
belong for the most part to the more recent period, have been taken
from the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon-General’s Library, Washington,
a few references being added to articles which have otherwise come
under our notice.
W. T.
_CONTENTS._
PAGE
_Preface_ _1_
_Introduction_ _9_
_CHAPTER I._
_Trance_ _21_
_CHAPTER II._
_Catalepsy_ _32_
_CHAPTER III._
_Animal and So-called Human Hibernation_ _40_
_CHAPTER IV._
_Premature Burial_ _51_
_CHAPTER V._
_Narrow Escapes from Premature Burial_ _64_
_CHAPTER VI._
_Formalities and their Fatal Consequences_ _105_
_CHAPTER VII._
_Probable Cases of Premature Burial_ _113_
_CHAPTER VIII._
_Predisposing Causes and Conditions of Death-Counterfeits_ _120_
_CHAPTER IX._
_Premature Burial and Cremation in India. The Towers of
Silence_ _129_
_CHAPTER X._
_The Danger of Hasty Burials_ _144_
_CHAPTER XI._
_The Fear of Premature Burial_ _153_
_CHAPTER XII._
_Sudden Death_ _159_
_CHAPTER XIII._
_The Signs of Death_ _180_
_CHAPTER XIV._
_The Duration of Death-Counterfeits_ _208_
_CHAPTER XV._
_The Treatment of the Dead_ _215_
_CHAPTER XVI._
_Number of Cases of Premature Burial_ _220_
_CHAPTER XVII._
_Embalming and Dissections_ _229_
_CHAPTER XVIII._
_Death-Certification_ _238_
_CHAPTER XIX._
_Suggestions for Prevention_ _257_
_CHAPTER XX._
_Cremation as a Preventive of Premature Burial_ _275_
_CHAPTER XXI._
_Waiting Mortuaries_ _285_
_CHAPTER XXII._
_Conclusion_ _316_
_APPENDIX A._
_Historical Cases of Restoration from Apparent Death_ _325_
_APPENDIX B._
_Resuscitation of Still-Born and other Infants_ _341_
_APPENDIX C._
_Recovery of the Drowned_ _347_
_APPENDIX D._
_Miscellaneous Addenda_ _350_
_APPENDIX E._
_The Jewish Practice of Early Burial_ _353_
_APPENDIX F._
_Summary of Ordinances, etc., Relating to the Inspection of
Corpses and of Interments_ _360_
_Bibliography_ _363_
_Index_ _389_
INTRODUCTION.
A CONCURRENCE of peculiar circumstances, beginning in May, 1895, has
directed public attention in England to the subject of premature
burial, probably to a greater degree, so far as the author’s
recollection serves, than at any time during the past half-century.
Amongst these may be mentioned the publication of several recent cases
of premature burial in the English and American papers; the narrow
escape of a child found in Regent’s Park, London, laid out for dead at
the Marylebone Mortuary, and afterwards restored to life; the issue
in Boston, U.S., of Dr. Franz Hartmann’s instructive essay, entitled,
“Buried Alive: an Examination into the Occult Causes of Apparent Death,
Trance, and Catalepsy” (a considerable number of copies having been
sold in England), and the able leading articles and correspondence on
the subject in the _Spectator_, _Daily Chronicle_, _Morning Post_,
_Leeds Mercury_, _The Jewish World_, _Plymouth Mercury_, _Manchester
Courier_, _To-Day_, and many other daily and weekly journals.
It is curious, that while many books and pamphlets relating to
this important subject have been issued in France and Germany, no
adequate and comprehensive treatise has appeared from the English
press for more than sixty years past, nor writings in any form, with
the exception of a paper by Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson in No. 21
of the _Asclepiad_, published in 1889, on the “Absolute Signs of
Death,” sundry articles in the medical journals from time to time,
and a London edition of Dr. Hartmann’s volume in January, 1896. The
section upon “Real and Apparent Death” in the 1868 edition of the
late Professor Guy’s _Forensic Medicine_ begins with the words, “This
subject has never attracted much attention in England, and no medical
author of repute has treated it at any length”--a remark not less true
after the lapse of a generation. The following chapters have been
prepared with the view, not so much of supplying this omission, as of
guiding the public to the dangers of our present mode of treating the
apparent dead, in the hope that reforms and preventive measures may be
instituted without delay in order to put an end to such unnecessary
domestic tragedies.
In introducing the subject the author is aware that the great majority
of the medical profession in this country are either sceptical or
apathetic as to the alleged danger of living burial. Many do not
believe in the existence of death-trance or death-counterfeits, and the
majority of those who do believe in them declare that cases are very
rare, and that if consciousness is ever restored in the grave it can
only last a second or two, and that those who live in fear of such an
occurrence should provide for a _post-mortem_ or for the severance of
the jugular vein. Many persons, on the other hand, after much careful
inquiry, are of opinion that cases of premature burial are of frequent
occurrence; and that the great majority of the human race (outside of
a few places in Germany, where waiting mortuaries are established, or
where the police regulations, such as those described in this volume as
existing in Würtemburg, are efficiently and systematically carried out)
are liable to this catastrophe. Important as the subject is allowed to
be, and numerous as are the reported cases, no effective steps, either
public or private, appear to have been taken, outside of Germany and
Austria, to remedy the evil. At present a majority of the people appear
content to trust to the judgment of their relations and to the ordinary
certificates of death to safeguard them from so terrible a disaster.
That death-certificates and death-verifications are often of a most
perfunctory description, both as to the fact of death and the cause
of death, has been proved by overwhelming evidence before the recent
House of Commons Committee on Death-Certification. Such certificates,
when obtained, may be misleading and untrustworthy; while in many
cases burials take place without the doctor having either attended
the patient or examined the body. Nor, in spite of the appointment
of death-verificators by our neighbours across the Channel, is this
important precaution effectively carried out by them. M. Devergie
reports that in twenty-five thousand communes in France no verification
of death takes place, although the law requires it; and he demands
that no diploma shall be given without the candidate having proved
himself conversant with the signs of death. (_Medical Times_, London,
1874, vol. i., p. 25.) On personal inquiry from medical authorities in
France, during the present year (1896), we learn that this laxity still
prevails.
It appears strange that, except when a man dies, all his concerns are
protected by custom and formalities, or guarded by laws, so as to
insure his interests being fairly carried out to completion. Thus we
see that heirship, marriage, business affairs of all kinds, whether of
a public or private nature, are amply guarded by such precautionary
and authoritative measures as will secure them. But one of the most
important of all human interests--that which relates to the termination
of life--is managed in such a careless and perfunctory way as to permit
of irreparable mistakes. To be sure there are laws in most of the
Continental States of Europe that are intended to regulate the care and
burial of the dead, but few of them make it certain that the apparently
dead shall not be mistaken for the really dead, and treated as such.
None of them allow more than seventy-two hours before burial (some
allow only thirty-six, others twenty-four, and others again much less,
according to the nature of the disease), unless the attending physician
petitions the authorities for reasonable delay--a rare occurrence.
And even if postponement is granted, it is doubtful if the inevitable
administrative formalities would leave opportunities for dubious cases
to receive timely and necessary attention, or for cases of trance,
catalepsy, coma, or the like, to be rescued from a living burial.
In the introduction to a Treatise entitled “The Uncertainty of the
Signs of Death, and the Danger of Precipitate Interments,” published in
1746, the author, Mr. M. Cooper, surgeon, says:--“Though death at some
time or other is the necessary and unavoidable portion of human nature,
yet it is not always certain that persons taken for dead are really and
irretrievably deprived of life, since it is evident from experience
that many apparently dead have afterwards proved themselves alive by
rising from their shrouds, their coffins, and even from their graves.
It is equally certain that some persons, too soon interred after their
supposed decease, have in their graves fallen victims to a death which
might otherwise have been prevented, but which they then find more
cruel than that procured by the rope or the rack.” The author quotes
Lancisi, first physician to Pope Clement XI., who, in his Treatise _De
subitaneis mortibus_, observes:--“Histories and relations are not the
only proofs which convince me that many persons supposed to be dead
have shown themselves alive, even when they were ready to be buried,
since I am induced to such a belief from what I myself have seen; for
I saw a person of distinction, now alive, recover sensation and motion
when the priest was performing the funeral service over him in church.”
After reporting and describing a large number of cases of premature
burial, or of narrow escapes from such terrible occurrences, in which
the victims of hasty diagnosis were prepared for burial, or revived
during the progress of the burial service, Mr. Cooper continues:--“Now,
if a multiplicity of instances evince that many have the good fortune
to escape being interred alive, it is justly to be suspected that
a far greater number have fallen victims to a fatal confinement in
their graves. But because human nature is such a slave to prejudice,
and so tied down by the fetters of custom, it is highly difficult, if
not absolutely impossible, to put people on their guard against such
terrible accidents, or to persuade those vested with authority to take
proper measures for preventing them.”
Nothing seems to have been done to remedy this serious evil; and
forty-two years later Mr. Chas. Kite, a well-known practitioner, called
attention to the subject in a volume, entitled “The Recovery of the
Apparently Dead,” London, 1788. This author, on p. 92, says:--“Many,
various, and even opposite appearances have been supposed to indicate
the total extinction of life. Formerly, a stoppage of the pulse and
respiration were thought to be unequivocal signs of death; particular
attention in examining the state of the heart and larger arteries, the
flame of a taper, a lock of wool, or a mirror applied to the mouth or
nostrils, were conceived sufficient to ascertain these points; _and
great has been the number of those who have fallen untimely victims
to this erroneous opinion_. Some have formed their prognostic from
the livid, black, and cadaverous countenance; others from the heavy,
dull, fixed, or flaccid state of the eyes; from the dilated pupil;
the foaming at the mouth and nostrils, the rigid and inflexible state
of the body, jaws, or extremities; the intense and universal cold,
etc. Some, conceiving any one of these symptoms as incompetent and
inadequate to the purpose, have required the presence of such of them
as were, in their opinion, the least liable to error; but whoever will
take the trouble of reading the Reports of the (Humane) Society with
attention, will meet with very many instances where all the appearances
separately, and even where several associated in the same case,
occurred, and yet the patient recovered; and it is therefore evident
that these signs will not afford certain and unexceptionable criteria
by which we may distinguish between life and death.”
Mr. Kite furnishes references to numerous cases of recovery where the
apparently dead exhibited black, livid, or cadaverous countenances;
eyes fixed or obscure; eyeballs diminished in size, immovable and
fixed in their sockets, the cornea without lustre; eyes shrivelled;
froth at the mouth; rigidity of the body, jaws, and extremities;
partial or universal cold.[1]
The crux of the whole question is the uncertainty of the signs which
announce the cessation of physical existence. Prizes have been offered,
and prizes have been awarded, but further experience has shown that the
signs and tests, sometimes singly and sometimes in combination, have
been untrustworthy, and that the only certain and unfailing sign of
death is decomposition.
Commenting upon actual cases of premature burial, the _Lancet_, March
17, 1866, p. 295, says:--“Truly there is something about the very
notion of such a fate calculated to make one shudder, and to send a
cold stream down one’s spine. By such a catastrophe is not meant the
sudden avalanche of earth, bricks, or stones upon the luckless miner or
excavator, or the crushing, suffocative death from tumbling ruins. No;
it is the cool, determined treatment of a living being as if he were
dead--the rolling him in his winding sheet, the screwing him down in
his coffin, the weeping at his funeral, and the final lowering of him
into the narrow grave, and piling upon his dark and box-like dungeon
loads of his mother earth. The last footfall departs from the solitary
church-yard, leaving the entranced sleeper behind in his hideous shell
soon to awaken to consciousness and to a benumbed half-suffocated
existence for a few minutes; or else, more horrible still, there he
lies beneath the ground conscious of what has been and still is,
until, by some fearful agonised struggle of the inner man at the weird
phantasmagoria which has passed across his mental vision, he awakes to
a bodily vivification as desperate in its torment for a brief period as
has been that of his physical activity. But it is soon past. There is
scarcely room to turn over in the wooden chamber; and what can avail a
few shrieks and struggles of a half-stifled, cramped-up man!”
To prevent such unspeakable horrors as are here pictured, the Egyptians
kept the bodies of the dead under careful supervision by the priests
until satisfied that life was extinct, previous to embalming them
by means of antiseptics, balsams, and odoriferous gums. The Greeks
were aware of the dangers of premature burial, and cut off fingers
before cremation to see whether life was extinct. In ancient Rome the
recurrence of cases of premature burial had impressed the nation with
the necessity for exercising the greatest caution in the treatment of
the supposed dead; hasty conclusions were looked upon as criminal, the
absence of breath or heat or a cadaverous appearance were regarded
as uncertain tests, and the supposed dead were put into warm baths
or washed with hot water, and other means of restoration adopted.
Neither in the greater part of Europe nor in the United States are
any such means resorted to now, except in the case of apparent death
by drowning, by asphyxia, or by hanging. Premature burials and narrow
escapes are of almost every-day occurrence, as the narratives in the
newspapers testify; and the complaint made by a surgeon, Mr. Cooper,
a hundred and fifty years ago, that the evil is perpetuated because
we are slaves to prejudice, and because those vested with authority
refuse to take measures for prevention, remains a serious blot upon our
advanced civilisation. The _Spectator_, September 14, 1895, commenting
upon this unsatisfactory state of affairs, observes:--“Burning,
drowning, even the most hideous mutilation under a railway train, is
as nothing compared with burial alive. Strangely enough this universal
horror seems to have produced no desire to guard against burial alive.
We all fear it, and yet practically no one takes any trouble to avoid
the risk of it happening in his own case, or in that of the rest of
mankind. It would be the simplest thing in the world to take away all
chance of burying alive; and yet the world remains indifferent, and
enjoys its horror undisturbed by the hope of remedy.”
The authors’ own reasonings, opinions, and conclusions are here
briefly presented; but as the majority of the public are more or less
influenced by authority, it has been thought advisable to furnish a
series of authenticated facts under the several headings to which they
belong, and to cite the judgments of eminent members of the medical
profession who have given special attention to the subject. The source
of difficulty has been an _embarras de richesse_, or how from a mass
of material, the extent of which will be seen by reference to the
Bibliography, to select typical cases without needless repetition.
The premature burials and narrow escapes from such disasters, which
are reported by distinguished physicians and reputable writers, may
be numbered literally by hundreds, and for every one reported it is
obvious from the nature of the case that many are never heard of.
Amongst the names of notable persons who have thought the subject
sufficiently practical for their attention may be mentioned those of
Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Pliny, Celsus, Plutarch, and St.
Augustine in antiquity; of Fabricius, Lancisi, Winslow, Haller, Buffon,
Lavater, Moses Mendelssohn, Hufeland, and Alexander von Humboldt in
modern times.
The subject has several times engaged the attention of the French
Senate and Legislative Chamber, as well as the Legislative Assemblies
in the various States of Germany. In 1871, Dr. Alex. Wilder, Prof. of
Physiology and Psychological Science, read a paper before the members
of both houses of the New York State Legislature at the Capitol,
Albany; but we are not aware that the subject has ever been introduced
in any of the other State Legislatures, or in the British Parliament,
or in any of the Colonial Assemblies.
In an editorial note, as far back as November 27, 1858, the _Lancet_,
referring to a case of death-trance, remarked that such “examples are
sufficiently mysterious in their character to call for a more careful
investigation than it has hitherto been possible to accord to them.”
The facts disclosed in this treatise, the authors hope, may encourage
qualified scientific observers to study the subject of death-trance,
which, it must be admitted, has been strangely overlooked in England,
though it would not be easy to mention one which more deeply concerns
every individual born into the world.
In order to prevent unnecessary pain to the reader on a subject so
distressing in its nature, the more sensational and horrifying cases
of premature burial have been omitted. They can, however, be found
in abundance in the writings of Bruhier, Köppen, Kempner, Lénormand,
Bouchut, Russell Fletcher, and the Boston (U.S.) edition of Hartmann.
In England and in America it is the fashion amongst medical men to
maintain that the tests known to medical art are fully equal to the
prevention of live burial, that the cases quoted by the newspapers
are introduced for sensational purposes, and that most of them are
apocryphal. The perusal of the cases recorded in this volume, and a
careful consideration of the weight of cumulative evidence represented
by the very full bibliography, must satisfy the majority of reflective
readers that the facts are both authentic and numerous.
PREMATURE BURIAL,
AND
HOW IT MAY BE PREVENTED.
_SOME FORMS OF SUSPENDED ANIMATION._
CHAPTER I.
TRANCE.
OF all the various forms of suspended animation and apparent death,
trance and catalepsy are the least understood, and most likely to lead
the subject of them to a premature burial; the laws which control
them have perplexed pathologists in all ages, and appear to be as
insoluble as those which govern life itself. Dr. Le Clerc, in his
“History of Medicine,” records that “Heraclides, of Pontus, wrote a
book _concerning the causes of diseases_, and another _concerning
the disease in which the patient is without respiration_, in which
he affirmed that in this disorder the patient sometimes continued
thirty days without respiration, in such wise that he appeared dead,
notwithstanding that there was no corruption of the body.”[2]
Dr. Herbert Mayo, in “Letters on Truths Contained in Popular
Superstitions,” p. 34, says that “death-trance is the suspension
of the action of the heart, and of breathing, and of voluntary
motion--generally little sense of feeling and intelligence. With these
phenomena is joined loss of external warmth, so that the usual evidence
of life is gone. But there has occurred every shade of this condition
that can be imagined, between occasional slight manifestations of
suspension of one or other of the vital actions and their entire
disparition.”
Macnish, who also asserts that the function of the heart must go on,
and even of the respiration, however slightly, says--“No affection
to which the animal frame is subject is more remarkable than this
(catalepsy, or trance).... There is such an apparent extinction of
every faculty essential to life, that it is inconceivable how existence
should go on during the continuance of the fit.”--_Philos. of Sleep,
Glasgow, 1834, pp. 225-6._
In Quain’s “Dictionary of Medicine,” ii., p. 1063, Dr. Gowers
says:--“The state now designated hypnotism is really induced trance,
and trance has been accurately termed ‘spontaneous hypnotism’....
“The mental functions seem, in most cases, to be in complete abeyance.
No manifestations of consciousness can be observed, or elicited by the
most powerful cutaneous stimulation, and on recovery no recollection of
the state is preserved. But in some cases volition only is lost, and
the patient is aware of all that passes, although unable to give the
slightest evidence of consciousness....
“In the cases in which the depression of the vital functions reaches
an extreme degree, the patient appears dead to casual and sometimes to
careful observation. This condition has been termed ‘death-trance,’
and has furnished the theme for many sensational stories, but
the most ghastly incidents of fiction have been paralleled by
well-authenticated facts. [The last clause appears in the new edition
as follows:--“Persons have certainly been buried in this state, and
during the recent epidemic of influenza an Italian narrowly escaped
interment during the consequent trance.”]
“The duration of trance has varied from a few hours or days to several
weeks, months, or even a year.
“Occasionally it is attended by some vaso-motor disturbance. In a
well-authenticated case of death-trance the intense mental excitement
produced by the preparations for fastening the coffin lid occasioned a
sweat to break out over the body.”
[CASE OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI.]
Many notable men have at one time or another been subject to this
disorder. Speaking of Benjamin Disraeli, Mr. J. Fitzgerald Molloy, in
his “Life of the Gorgeous Lady Blessington,” vol. ii., pp. 37, 38, says
that in his “youth he was seized with fits of giddiness, during which
the world swung round him, he became abstracted, and once fell into a
trance from which he did not recover for a week.”
LETHARGIC STUPOR, OR TRANCE.
The _Lancet_ of December 22, 1883, pp. 1078-80, contains particulars
from the pen of W. T. Gairdner, M.D., LL.D., etc., Professor of
Medicine in the University of Glasgow, of a remarkable case of trance,
extending continuously over more than twenty-three weeks, which
attracted a considerable amount of notoriety at the time and led to
an extensive discussion. In his comments upon the case, the author
continues, in the issue of January 5, 1884, pp. 5, 6:--
“The case recorded in the _Lancet_ of December 22, 1883, p. 1078, has
been left up to this point without remarks, other than those obviously
suggested by the direct observation of the facts in comparison or
contrast with those of other cases coming more or less under the
designation above mentioned. But in perusing, even in the most cursory
manner, the multitudinous literature pertaining to the subjects of
‘trance,’ ‘ecstasy,’ ‘catalepsy,’ etc., not to speak of the popular
narratives which from a very remote antiquity have handed down the
tradition of preternatural sleep as an element in the fairy tales
of almost all languages, one is struck by the almost uncontrollable
disposition to regard such cases as altogether outside the limits of
true physiological science: as being, according to the expressive
Scotch phrase, ‘no canny’--or, in other words, miraculous--and as
involving questions connected with the unseen world, ‘the undiscovered
country from whose bourn no traveller returns.’ So much is this the
case, that, if in this nineteenth century the questions which presented
themselves to Hippocrates in the treatise, _περὶ ἱερῆς νούσου_
(‘Concerning the Sacred Disease’), had to be rediscussed, it would
certainly be in regard to some of the disorders mentioned above, and
not as to epilepsy in its well-recognised clinical types, that the
theory of a supernatural origin of the phenomena, whether favourably
entertained or not, would fall to be argued. The irreconcilable
differences of opinion in the Belgium Academy, as regards the quite
modern instance of Louise Lateau, are sufficient to show that all the
culture and the scientific instincts of the present age have not quite
inaugurated the ‘reign of law,’ nor established finally the position
that ‘miracles do not happen.’ On the other hand, the researches of
M. Charcot and others seem to be ever extending the domain of science
further into the region of the marvellous and the obscure, so that
even the most pronounced cases of ‘demoniac possession’ of the olden
time have become the commonplaces of hystero-epilepsy in the clinique
of the Salpétrière. The peculiar interest of the present case is that
it is altogether devoid of any of these adventitious, and more or less
romantic, incidents. The patient is the mother of a family, and has
lived a strictly domestic and (up to a short time before her seizure)
healthy and regular life. There are no peculiar moral and religious
problems to perplex the situation. There is no history of inveterate
hysteria, or of long continued rapt contemplation; nor has there been
the slightest evidence of any craving after notoriety, either before
the attack or since its termination. The moral atmosphere, in short,
surrounding the phenomena is altogether unfavourable to exaggeration
and imposture, for which, indeed, no reasonable motive can be assigned.
Nevertheless, under these very commonplace conditions, concurring
with some degree of melancholy or mental despondency after delivery,
but during a convalescence otherwise normal, Mrs. M’I---- presents
to our notice a condition of suspended consciousness and disordered
innervation in no degree less extreme than the ‘trances’ or cataleptic
attacks which have been recorded as the result of the most aggravated
hysteria, or as the miracles of religious ecstasy and profound mental
emotion. She becomes for the long period of over a hundred and sixty
days continuously an almost mindless automaton, connected with the
external world only through a few insignificant reflexes and through
the organic functions. She is absolutely passive as regards everything
that demands spontaneous movement, and betrays almost no sign of
sensation, general or special, when subjected to the severest tests
that can be applied short of physical injury.”
[CASE REPORTED BY PROF. W. T. GAIRDNER.]
In further notes upon the case, in the _Lancet_ of January 12, 1884, p.
58, Professor Gairdner says:--
“The only other case to which I desire to make allusion at present
is one in which I am, fortunately, in a position to furnish a
sequel to an incomplete narrative, not without resemblance to the
one lately published in this journal. ‘A Case of Trance’ was the
subject of a paragraph in the _British Medical Journal_ of May 31,
1879, p. 827, from which it appeared that in the London Hospital a
woman, twenty-seven years of age, was at the time under the care
of Dr. Langdon Down, being of rather small stature and weak mental
capacity, and affected for at least two years with organic disease of
the heart. About three weeks before the date of the report she had
become suddenly somnolent, with most of the peculiarities in her sleep
which have been already alluded to. She was fed partly by nutrient
enemata, and for some days by a tube passed through the nostrils into
the stomach. The resemblance is noted between this case and that of
‘the famous Welsh fasting girl,’ then attracting much attention in
newspapers and otherwise. There being no further reference to this
case in the journal, I wrote to Dr. Langdon Down, who kindly furnished
me with the following additional particulars, which will, no doubt,
be read even now with interest:--‘My patient, who was in a state of
trance, recovered somewhat suddenly after about four weeks, and left
the hospital. The first indication of returning consciousness was
observed when I was reading to my class at her bedside one of the
numerous letters that I had received entreating me not to have her
buried until something which the writers recommended had been done.
The paragraph of the medical journal got into some Welsh paper, and
then went the round of the provincial press, hence the number of
letters I received. This special one was from an old gentleman of
eighty-four years, who, when he was twenty-four, was thought to be
dead, and whose friends had assembled to follow him to the grave, when
he heard the undertaker say, “Would anyone like to see the corpse
before I screw him down?” The undertaker at the same time moved the
head a little and struck it against the coffin, on which he aroused
and sat up. On reading this aloud a visible smile passed over the face
of my patient, and she returned to obvious consciousness soon after.
She has not come under observation since she left the hospital.’
“Although this case is probably only one among many, I mention it here
because the receipt of the letter just given led me to investigate more
particularly the state of the hearing in Mrs. M’I.’s case, and also to
try the experiment of reading aloud Dr. Down’s letter in her presence
and that of the class. I had often remarked to bystanders that,
although the subjects of these apparently unconscious states appeared
inaccessible to the ordinary tests of sensibility, it was on record
as regards some, even of those regarded as cases of ‘apparent death,’
that after recovery they affirm to have heard everything that passed,
although unable to lift hand or foot to save themselves from premature
burial. Neither the reading of the letter nor a violent shout into her
ear produced any visible effects.”
[DEATH’S COUNTERFEIT.]
Thomas More Madden, M.D., F.R.C.S. (Edin.), in an article on “Death’s
Counterfeit,” in the _Medical Press and Circular_, vol. i., April 27,
1887, pp. 386-8, relates the following case “of so-called hysteric
trance”:--
“A young lady, Miss R----, apparently in perfect health, went to her
room after luncheon to make some change in her dress. A few minutes
afterwards she was found lying on her bed in a profound sleep, from
which she could not be awakened. When I first saw her, twenty-four
hours later, she was sleeping tranquilly; the decubitus being dorsal,
respiration scarcely perceptible, pulse seventy, and extremely small;
her face was pallid, lips motionless, and the extremities very cold.
At this moment, so death-like was her aspect, that a casual observer
might have doubted the possibility of the vital spark still lingering
in that apparently inanimate frame, on which no external stimulus
seemed to produce any sensorial impression, with the exception
that the pupils were normal and responded to light. Sinapisms were
applied over the heart and to the legs, where they were left on until
vesication was occasioned without causing any evidence of pain.
Faradisation was also resorted to without effect. In this state she
remained from the evening of December 31 until the afternoon of
January 3, when the pulse became completely imperceptible; the surface
of the body was icy cold, the respiratory movements apparently ceased,
and her condition was to all outward appearance undistinguishable
from death. Under the influence of repeated hypodermic injections of
sulphuric ether and other remedies, however, she rallied somewhat,
and her pulse and temperature improved. But she still slept on until
the morning of the 9th, when she suddenly woke up, and, to the great
astonishment of those about her, called for her clothes, which had
been removed from their ordinary place, and wanted to come down to
breakfast, without the least consciousness of what had occurred. Her
recovery, I may add, was rapid and complete.
“The next case of lethargy that came under my notice was that of a
boy, who, after an attack of fever, fell into a state of complete
lethargic coma, in which he lay insensible between life and death for
forty-seven days, and ultimately recovered perfectly.
“In a third instance of the same kind, in a lady under my care, the
patient, after a lethargic sleep of twenty-seven days, recovered
consciousness for a few hours, and then relapsed into her former
comatose condition, in which she died.
“The fourth case of lethargy which I have seen was, like the first,
a case of trance, which lasted for seventy hours, during which the
flickering vital spark was only preserved from extinction by the
involuntary action of the spinal and nervous centres. In this instance
the patient finally recovered.
“The fifth and last instance of profound lethargy that has come within
my own observation occurred last autumn in the Mater Misericordiæ
Hospital in a young woman.... In that instance, despite all that
medical skill could suggest or unremitting attention could do, it was
found impossible to arouse the patient from the apparently hysterical
lethargic sleep in which she ultimately sank and died.”
I have referred to the foregoing cases, occurring in one physician’s
experience, as disproving the general opinion that lethargy or trance
is so rarely met with as to be of little medical importance. For my own
part, I have no doubt that these conditions are of far more frequent
occurrence than is generally supposed. Moreover, I have had reason to
know that death is occasionally so exactly thus counterfeited that
there is good cause for fearing the probability of living interment in
some cases of hasty burial.
[DR. MORE MADDEN’S OPINION.]
Referring to death-trance, Dr. Madden observes, _ib._, p.
388--“Death-trance, or that profound degree of lethargy which closely
counterfeits death, deserves greater attention than is generally paid
to it as a pathological condition, as well as a possible cause of
premature interment. For, unless we reject every statement, however
well authenticated, of those who have witnessed such cases, merely
because their experience does not tally with our preconceived opinions
and wishes, neither the frequent occurrence of death-trance nor the
fearful results of its non-recognition can be questioned.”
Mr. John Chippendale, F.R.C.S., writing to the _Lancet_, 1889, vol. i.,
p. 1173, on “Catalepsy.--Post-mortem Sweating,” says:--
“I may mention that there is a record of a man who during an illness
was seized with trance, though, as he lay in what Claudio calls ‘cold
abstraction,’ he was aware of all that was passing. At last, as he was
about to be covered in his coffin, his mental condition was such that
he broke into a profuse sweat, which was fortunately perceived, and he
recovered and was able to recount his experiences.”
It would appear from the following telegram through Reuter’s Agency
that trance is occasionally epidemic:--
[From _Daily Telegraph_, March 17, 1890.]
“A NEW DISEASE.
“Vienna, March 15, 1890.
“Several cases of a new disease, which originally appeared in
Mantua immediately after the subsidence of the recent influenza
epidemic, and to which the people of that city gave the name of ‘La
nonna’--_Anglice_, ‘Falling asleep’--have occurred in the Comitat of
Pressburg.
“Persons suffering from this complaint fall into a death-like trance,
lasting about four days, out of which the patient wakes in a state of
intense exhaustion. Recovery is very slow, but, so far, no fatal case
has been reported.”
A correspondent writing to the _English Mechanic_ September 13, 1895,
says:--“I know one lady who has been three times prepared for burial,
and very narrowly escaped it on the first occasion.” The author
wrote to the writer for further details, and received a reply, dated
September 19, 1895, from which it appears that the lady had married
into a political family of considerable note, who would not care to
have her identity disclosed. My correspondent says:--“ I know that she
lay several days in a state not to be distinguished from death; that
she was in her coffin, and, I believe, showed signs of life just as the
coffin was about to be closed. On two subsequent occasions she passed
into similar trances; but though believed to be dead, and treated as
such, the previous experience prevented any idea of burial being
entertained” until clear evidence of dissolution should appear.
The _New York Weekly Witness_ of January 15, 1896, reports
[A SEVEN YEARS’ TRANCE.]
“A LONG CATALEPTIC SLEEP.
“Information was received at Milford, Pa., last Friday, that William
Depue, a prominent citizen of Bushkill, Pike County, whose mind for
seven years has been a blank, had suddenly returned to consciousness.
“Seven years ago, while at work, Mr. Depue became ill. Doctors were
summoned, but they could find no possible ailment. The sick man sank
into a cataleptic sleep, from which medical science could not arouse
him.
“At no time during the long period did he recognise any one, and food
was given him through a tube inserted in his mouth. He lost no flesh,
and was apparently as healthy as any man. Although the best medical
men in the country were called to his bedside, his case baffled them
all.
“Upon recovering his senses he set about his usual labours as if he
had been asleep but the ordinary time. He remembers nothing that has
taken place during his seven years’ trance.”
The following case appeared in the _Middlesbrough Daily Gazette_,
February 9, 1896, and in a number of English papers:--
“The young Dutch maiden, Maria Cvetskens, who now lies asleep at
Stevensworth, has beaten the record in the annals of somnolence. At
the beginning of last month she had been asleep for nearly three
hundred days. The doctors, who visit her in great numbers, are agreed
that there is no deception in the case. Her parents are of excellent
repute, and it has never occurred to them to make any financial profit
out of the abnormal state of their daughter. As to the cause of the
prolonged sleep, the doctors differ.”