PREMATURE BURIAL.
AT the sitting of the Paris Academy of Medicine, on April 10, 1827, a
paper was read by M. Chantourelle, on the danger of hasty burial. This
led to a discussion, in which M. Desgenettes stated that he had been
told by Dr. Thouret, who presided at the destruction of the vaults of
Les Innocens, that many skeletons had been found in positions seeming
to show that they had turned in their coffins. Dr. Thouret was so much
impressed by the circumstance that he had a special clause inserted in
his will relating to his own burial.[4]
Similar revelations, according to Kempner, have followed the
examinations of grave-yards in Holland, and in New York and other parts
of the United States.
On July 2, 1896, the author visited the grave of Madam Blunden, in the
Cemetery, Basingstoke, Hants, who, according to the inscription (now
obliterated), was buried alive. The following narrative appears in “The
Uncertainty of the Signs of Death,” by Surgeon M. Cooper, London, 1746,
pp. 78, 79:--
“At Basingstoke, in Hampshire, not many years ago, a gentlewoman of
character and fortune was taken ill, and, to all appearance, died,
while her husband was on a journey to London. A messenger was forthwith
despatched to the gentleman, who returned immediately, and ordered
everything for her decent interment. Accordingly, on the third day
after her supposed decease, she was buried in Holy Ghost Chapel, at the
outside of the town, in a vault belonging to the family, over which
there is a school for poor children endowed by a charitable gentleman
in the reign of Edward VI. It happened the next day that the boys,
while they were at play, heard a noise in the vault, and one of them
ran and told his master, who, not crediting what he said, gave him a
box on the ear and sent him about his business; but, upon the other
boys coming with the same story, his curiosity was awakened, so that he
sent immediately for the sexton, and opened the vault and the lady’s
coffin, where they found her just expiring. All possible means were
used to recover her to life, but to no purpose, for she, in her agony,
had bit the nails off her fingers, and tore her face and head to that
degree, that, notwithstanding all the care that was taken of her, she
died in a few hours in inexpressible torment.”
The _Sunday Times_, London, December 30, 1838, contains the following:--
“A frightful case of premature interment occurred not long since,
at Tonneins, in the Lower Garonne. The victim, a man in the prime
of life, had only a few shovelfuls of earth thrown into his grave,
when an indistinct noise was heard to proceed from his coffin. The
grave-digger, terrified beyond description, instantly fled to seek
assistance, and some time elapsed before his return, when the crowd,
which had by this time collected in considerable numbers round the
grave, insisted on the coffin being opened. As soon as the first
boards had been removed, it was ascertained, beyond a doubt, that the
occupant had been interred alive. His countenance was frightfully
contracted with the agony he had undergone; and, in his struggles, the
unhappy man had forced his arms completely out of the winding sheet,
in which they had been securely enveloped. A physician, who was on the
spot, opened a vein, but no blood followed. The sufferer was beyond
the reach of art.”
[RESUSCITATION IN GREENWOOD CEMETERY.]
Mr. Oscar F. Shaw, Attorney-at-Law, 145 Broadway, New York, furnished
the author with particulars of the following case, of which he had
personal knowledge:--“In or about the year 1851, Virginia M’Donald,
who, up to that time had lived with her father on Catharine Street,
in the City of New York, apparently died, and was buried in Greenwood
Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“After the burial her mother declared her belief that the daughter
was not dead when buried, and persistently asserted her belief. The
family tried in various ways to assure the mother of the death of her
daughter, and even resorted to ridicule for that purpose; but the
mother insisted so long and so strenuously that her daughter was buried
alive, that finally the family consented to having the body taken up,
when to their horror, they discovered the body lying on the side, the
hands badly bitten, and every indication of a premature burial.”
The _Lancet_, May 22, 1858, p. 519, has the following:--
“INTERMENT BEFORE DEATH.
“A case of restoration to consciousness after burial is recorded by
the Austrian journals in the person of a rich manufacturer, named
Oppelt, at Rudenberg. He was buried fifteen years ago, and lately,
on opening the vault, the lid of the coffin was found forced open,
and his skeleton in a sitting posture in a corner of the vault. A
Government Commission has reported on the matter.”
From the _Lancet_, August 20, 1864, p. 219.
“PREMATURE INTERMENT.
“Amongst the papers left by the great Meyerbeer, were some which
showed that he had a profound dread of premature interment. He
directed, it is stated, that his body should be left for ten days
undisturbed, with the face uncovered, and watched night and day. Bells
were to be fastened to his feet. And at the end of the second day
veins were to be opened in the arm and leg. This is the gossip of the
capital in which he died. The first impression is that such a fear is
morbid. No doubt fewer precautions would suffice, but now and again
cases occur which seem to warrant such a feeling, and to show that
want of caution may lead to premature interment in cases unknown. An
instance is mentioned by the _Ost. Deutscher Post_ of Vienna. A few
days since, runs the story, in the establishment of the Brothers of
Charity in that capital, the bell of the dead-room was heard to ring
violently, and on one of the attendants proceeding to the place to
ascertain the cause, he was surprised at seeing one of the supposed
dead men pulling the bell-rope. He was removed immediately to another
room, and hopes are entertained of his recovery.”
From the _Times_, July 7, 1867, p. 12, col. 3.
“The _Journal de Pontarlier_ relates a case of premature interment.
During the funeral, three days back, of a young woman at Montflorin,
who had apparently died in an epileptic fit, the grave-digger, after
having thrown a spadeful of earth on the coffin, thought he heard a
moaning from the tomb. The body was consequently exhumed, and a vein
having been opened, yielded blood almost warm and liquid. Hopes were
for a moment entertained that the young woman would recover from her
lethargy, but she never did so entirely, and the next day life was
found to be extinct.”
From the _Lancet_, October 19, 1867, p. 504.
“BURIED ALIVE.
[INTERRED WITH USUAL FORMALITIES.]
“The _Journal de Morlaix_ mentions that a young woman at Bohaste,
France, who was supposed to have died from cholera a few days back,
was buried on the following afternoon. The sexton, when about to
fill in the grave, fancied that he heard a noise in the coffin, and
sent for the medical officer, who, on removing the lid and examining
the body, gave it as his opinion that the woman had been alive when
buried.”
The official journal of the French Senate, January 30, 1869, records
that the attention of the Senate was called to this case by means
of a petition signed by seven residents in Paris, and the facts are
confirmed by L. Roger, _Officier de Santé_.
From the _Times_, May 6, 1874, p. 11, foot of col. 4.
“PREMATURE INTERMENT.
“The _Messager du Midi_ relates the following dreadful story:--A young
married woman residing at Salon (Bouches du Rhône) died shortly after
her confinement in August last. The medical man, who was hastily
summoned when her illness assumed a dangerous form, certified her
death, and recommended immediate burial in consequence of the intense
heat then prevailing, and six hours afterwards the body was interred.
A few days since, the husband having resolved to re-marry, the mother
of his late wife desired to have her daughter’s remains removed to her
native town, Marseilles. When the vault was opened a horrible sight
presented itself. The corpse lay in the middle of the vault, with
dishevelled hair and the linen torn to pieces. It evidently had been
gnawed in her agony by the unfortunate victim. The shock which the
dreadful spectacle caused to the mother has been so great that fears
are entertained for her reason, if not for her life.”
The _British Medical Journal_, December 8, 1877, p. 819, inserts the
following:--
“BURIED ALIVE.
“A correspondent at Naples states that the Appeal Court has had before
it a case not likely to inspire confidence in the minds of those who
look forward with horror to the possibility of being buried alive. It
appeared from the evidence that some time ago a woman was interred
with all the usual formalities, it being believed that she was dead,
while she was only in a trance. Some days afterwards, the grave in
which she had been placed being opened for the reception of another
body, it was found that the clothes which covered the unfortunate
woman were torn to pieces, and that she had even broken her limbs in
attempting to extricate herself from the living tomb. The Court, after
hearing the case, sentenced the doctor who had signed the certificate
of decease, and the mayor who had authorised the interment, each to
three months’ imprisonment for involuntary manslaughter.”
From the _Daily Telegraph_, January 18, 1889.
“A gendarme was buried alive the other day in a village near Grenoble.
The man had become intoxicated on potato brandy, and fell into a
profound sleep. After twenty hours passed in slumber, his friends
considered him to be dead, particularly as his body assumed the
usual rigidity of a corpse. When the sexton, however, was lowering
the remains of the ill-fated gendarme into the grave, he heard moans
and knocks proceeding from the interior of the ‘four-boards.’ He
immediately bored holes in the sides of the coffin, to let in air, and
then knocked off the lid. The gendarme had, however, ceased to live,
having horribly mutilated his head in his frantic but futile efforts
to burst his coffin open.”
[EVIDENCE OF UNDERTAKERS.]
[HORRIFYING CASES.]
The _Undertakers’ and Funeral Directors’ Journal_, July 22, 1889,
relates the following cases:--
“A New York undertaker recently told the following story, the
circumstances of which are still remembered by old residents of the
city:--‘About forty years ago a lady living on Division Street, New
York City, fell dead, apparently, while in the act of dancing at a
ball. It was a fashionable affair, and being able to afford it, she
wore costly jewellery. Her husband, a flour merchant, who loved her
devotedly, resolved that she should be interred in her ball dress,
diamonds, pearls, and all; also that there should be no autopsy. As
the weather was very inclement when the funeral reached the cemetery,
the body was placed in the receiving vault for burial next day. The
undertaker was not a poor man, but he was avaricious, and he made up
his mind to possess the jewellery. He went in the night, and took
the lady’s watch from the folds of her dress. He next began to draw
a diamond ring from her finger, and in doing so had to use violence
enough to tear the skin. Then the lady moved and groaned, and the
thief, terrified and conscience-stricken, fled from the cemetery, and
has never been since heard from, that I know of. The lady, after the
first emotions of horror at her unheard-of position had passed over,
gathered her nerves together and stepped out of the vault, which
the thief had left open. How she came home I cannot tell; but this
I know--she lived and had children, two at least of whom are alive
to-day.’
“Another New York undertaker told this story. The New York papers
thirty-five years ago were full of its ghastly details. ‘The daughter
of a Court Street baker died. It was in winter, and the father,
knowing that a married sister of his dead child, who lived in St.
Louis, would like to see her face before laid in the grave for ever,
had the body placed in the vault, waiting her arrival. The sister
came, the vault was opened, the lid of the coffin taken off, when,
to the unutterable horror of the friends assembled, they found the
grave-clothes torn in shreds, and the fingers of both hands eaten off.
The girl had been buried alive.’
“Until about forty years ago a noted family of Virginia preserved a
curious custom, which had been religiously observed for more than a
century. Over a hundred years ago a member of the family died, and,
upon being exhumed, was found to have been buried alive. From that
time until about 1850, every member of the family, man, woman, or
child, who died, was stabbed in the heart with a knife in the hands of
the head of the house. The reason for the cessation of this custom was
that in 1850 or thereabouts a beautiful young girl was supposed to be
dead, the knife was plunged into her bosom, when she gave vent to a
fearful scream and died. She had merely been in a trance. The incident
broke her father’s heart, and in a fit of remorse he killed himself
not long afterwards.
“There are many families in the United States who, when any of their
number dies, insist that an artery be opened to determine whether life
has fled or not.”
The following remarkable case of waking in the grave is reported from
Vienna:--
“A lady residing at Derbisch, near Kolin, in Bohemia, where she owned
considerable property, was buried last week, after a brief illness,
in the family vault at the local cemetery. Four days afterwards her
granddaughter was interred in the same place, but as the stone slab
covering the aperture was removed, the bystanders were horrified to
see that the lid of the coffin below had been raised, and that the arm
of the corpse was protruding. It was ascertained eventually that the
unfortunate lady, who was supposed to have died of heart disease, had
been buried alive. She had evidently recovered consciousness for a few
minutes, and had found strength enough to burst open her coffin. The
authorities are bent on taking measures of the utmost severity against
those responsible.”--_Undertakers’ Journal, August 22, 1889._
The _Undertakers’ and Funeral Directors’ Journal_, July 22, 1890.
“A horrible story comes from Majola, Mantua. The body of a woman,
named Lavrinia Merli, a peasant, who was supposed to have died from
hysterics, was placed in a vault on Thursday, July 3. On Saturday
evening it was found that the woman had regained consciousness, torn
her grave-clothes in her struggles, had turned completely over in the
coffin, and had given birth to a seven-months’-old child. Both mother
and child were dead when the coffin was opened for the last time
previous to interment.”
“A shocking occurrence is reported from Cesa, a little village
near Naples. A woman living at that place was recently seized with
sudden illness. A doctor who was called certified that the woman was
dead, and the body was consequently placed in a coffin, which was
deposited in the watch-house of the local cemetery. Next day an old
woman passing close to the cemetery thought she heard smothered cries
proceeding from the watch-house. The family was informed, but when the
lid of the coffin was forced off a shocking spectacle presented itself
to the gaze of the horrified villagers. The wretched woman had turned
on her side, and the position of her arm showed that she had made a
desperate effort to raise the lid. The eldest son, who was among the
persons who broke open the coffin, received such a shock that he died
three days later.”--_Undertakers’ Journal, September 22, 1893._
The _Progressive Thinker_, of November 14, 1891, relates that:--
“Farmer George Hefdecker, who lived at Erie, Pa., died very suddenly
two weeks ago, of what is supposed to have been heart failure. The
body was buried temporarily four days later in a neighbour’s lot in
the Erie cemetery pending the purchase of one by his family. The
transfer was made in a few days, and when the casket was opened at
the request of his family, a horrifying spectacle was presented. The
body had turned round, and the face and interior of the casket bore
the traces of a terrible struggle with death in its most awful shape.
The distorted and blood-covered features bore evidence of the agony
endured. The clothing about the head and neck had been torn into
shreds, as was likewise the lining of the coffin. Bloody marks of
finger nails on the face, throat, and neck, told of the awful despair
of the doomed man, who tore his own flesh in his terrible anguish.
Several fingers had been entirely bitten off, and the hands torn with
the teeth until they scarcely resembled those of a human being.”
From the London _Echo_, October 6, 1894.
“BURIED ALIVE.
“A story of a horrible nature comes from St. Petersburg in connection
with the interment at Tioobayn, near that city, of a peasant girl
named Antonova. She had presumably died, and in due course the funeral
took place. After the service at the cemetery, the grave-diggers were
startled by sounds of moaning proceeding from the coffin. Instead,
however, of instantly breaking it open, they rushed off to find a
doctor, and when he and some officials arrived and broke open the
shell, the unhappy inmate was already the corpse she had been supposed
to be a day earlier. It was evident, however, that no efforts could
have saved life at the last moment. The body was half-turned in the
coffin, the left hand, having escaped its bandages, being under the
cheek.”
The following case, cabled by Dalziel, appears in the London _Star_,
August 19, 1895:--
“SOUNDS FROM ANOTHER COFFIN.
“Grenoble, August 17.
“On Monday last a man was found in a dying condition by the side of
a brook near the village of Le Pin. Everything possible was done
for him, but he relapsed into unconsciousness, and became to all
appearances dead. The funeral was arranged, and, there being no
suspicion of foul play, the body was interred on the following day.
The coffin had been lowered to the bottom of the grave, and the
sexton had begun to cover it with earth, when he heard muffled sounds
proceeding from it. The earth was hastily removed and the coffin
opened, when it was discovered that the unfortunate occupant was
alive. He was taken to a neighbouring house, but rapidly sank into
a comatose condition, and died without uttering a word. The second
burial took place yesterday.”
While in India, in the early part of this year (1896), Dr. Roger S.
Chew, of Calcutta, who, having been laid out for dead, and narrowly
escaped living sepulture, has had the best reasons for studying the
subject, gave me particulars of the following cases:--
“Frank Lascelles, aged thirty-two years, was seated at breakfast with
a number of us young fellows, and was in the middle of a burst of
hearty laughter, when his head fell forward on his plate and he was
‘dead.’ As there was a distinct history of cardiac disease in his
family, while he himself had frequently been treated for valvular
disease of the heart, he was alleged to have ‘died’ of cardiac
failure, and was duly interred in the Coonor Cemetery. Some six months
later, permission was obtained to remove his remains to St. John’s
Church-yard in Ootacamund. The coffin was exhumed, and, as a ‘matter
of form,’ the lid removed to identify the resident, when, to the
horror of the lookers-on, it was noticed that, though mummification
had taken place, there had been a fearful struggle underground, for
the body, instead of being on its back as it was when first coffined,
was _lying on its face_, with its arms and legs drawn up as close
as the confined space would permit. His trousers (a perfectly new
pair) were burst at the left knee, while his shirt-front was torn to
ribands and bloodstained, and the wood of that portion of the coffin
immediately below his mouth was stained a deep reddish-brown-black
(_blood_). Old Dr. Donaldson, whom we were all very fond of, tried to
explain matters by saying that the jolting of the coffin on its way
to the cemetery had overturned the body, and that the blood stains on
the shirt and wood were the natural result of blood flowing (_i.e._
oozing) out of the mouth of the corpse as it lay face downwards.
A nice theory, but scarcely a probable one, as all the jolting in
creation could not possibly turn a corpse over in an Indian coffin,
which is so built that there is scarcely two inches spare space over
any portion of the contained body, and unless the supposed corpse
regained consciousness and exerted _considerable_ force, it could not
possibly turn round in its _narrow_ casket.
[DR. ROGER S. CHEW’S CASES.]
“Mary Norah Best, aged seventeen years, an adopted daughter of Mrs.
C. A. Moore, _née_ Chew, ‘died’ of cholera, and was entombed in the
Chew’s vault in the old French cemetery, at Calcutta. The certifying
surgeon was a man who would have benefited by her death, and had twice
(though ineffectually) attempted to put an end to her adopted mother,
who fled from India to England after the second attempt on her life,
but, unfortunately, left the girl behind. When Mary ‘died’ she was
put into a _pine_ coffin, the lid of which was _nailed_, not screwed,
down. In 1881, ten years or so later, the vault was unsealed to admit
the body of Mrs. Moore’s brother, J. A. A. Chew. On entering the
vault, the undertaker’s assistant and I found the lid of Mary’s coffin
on the floor, while the position of the skeleton (half in, half out of
the coffin, and an ugly gash across the right parietal bone) _plainly_
showed that after being entombed Mary awoke from her trance, struggled
violently till she wrenched the lid off her coffin, when she either
fainted away with the strain of the effort in bursting open her
casket, and while falling forward over the edge of her coffin struck
her head against the masonry shelf, and died almost immediately;
or, worse still,--as surmised by some of her clothing which was
found hanging over the edge of the coffin, and the position of her
right hand, the fingers of which were bent and close to where her
throat would have been had the flesh not rotted away,--she recovered
consciousness, fought for life, forced her coffin open, and, sitting
up in the pitchy darkness of the vault, went mad with fright, tore her
clothes off, tried to throttle herself, and banged her head against
the masonry shelf until she fell forward senseless and dead.”
Dr. Chew says:--“Though a layman, still it would be hard to find
a more indefatigable sanitarian than my late commanding officer,
Lieutenant-Colonel R. C. Sterndale, of the Presidency Volunteer Rifle
Battalion, and for many years vice-chairman of the municipality of the
suburbs of Calcutta. In order to prove his theory that a great deal of
danger existed in the rainy season from subsoil water rising up into
the graves, saturating the bodies, and then poisoning the neighbouring
tanks and wells, he caused a trench, ten feet long, six deep, and four
wide, to be dug across an old Mahomedan grave-yard. Soundings and
measurements having been taken of the subsoil water, he had a tarpaulin
stretched over the trench, and daily measured the ‘fall’ of the
water-level. He had a drawing made of the section of that grave-yard
in which the action of the nitre-laden water seemed to mummify some
of the bodies. Amongst the rest was a somewhat mummified male corpse
which, instead of being on his back, was lying on his abdomen; the left
arm supported the chin, but had a piece of it missing; the right hand
clutched the left elbow, and the general position of the body was as
if, consciousness having returned, the alleged corpse sat up, found
the weight of the earth too heavy to work through, and then, dying of
suffocation, fell forward in the position in which it was found and
exposed.”
Dr. Chew adds:--“I have heard and read of several other instances, but,
as they have not come within my personal observation, I do not mention
or refer to them.”