NARROW ESCAPES FROM PREMATURE BURIAL.
ALMOST every intelligent and observant person you converse with,
if the subject is introduced, has either known or heard of narrow
escapes of premature burial within his or her own circle of friends
or acquaintances; and it is no exaggeration to say that such cases
are numbered by thousands. It is to be hoped that the number of
timely discoveries vastly exceed those actually interred in a state
of suspended animation; but as no investigation of grave-yards or
cemeteries (which effectually conceal their own tragedies) has ever
taken place in England until the remains are reduced to dust, and
rarely in other countries, one cannot be sure that this optimistic view
is correct. The following cases of narrow escape appear to rest upon
trustworthy evidence.
An apparent suspension of life, following a serious illness, is usually
considered a satisfactory proof of the reality of the expected death;
but these conditions cannot always be relied upon. Cases are on record
where the objects of such simulacra of death appear, if let alone, to
gather the essence of renewed vitality, and return to consciousness.
The _Undertakers’ and Funeral Directors’ Journal_ of May, 1888, has a
case in point.
[A RESUSCITATED HUMORIST.]
“Mrs. Lockhart, of Birkhill, who died in 1825, used to relate to
her grandchildren the following anecdote of her ancestor, Sir
William Lindsay, of Covington, towards the close of the seventeenth
century:--‘Sir William was a humorist, and noted, moreover, for
preserving the picturesque appendage of a beard at a period when the
fashion had long passed away. He had been extremely ill, and life
was at last supposed to be extinct, though, as it afterwards turned
out, he was merely in a “dead faint” or trance. The female relatives
were assembled for the “chesting”--the act of putting a corpse into a
coffin, with the entertainment given on such melancholy occasions--in
a lighted chamber in the old tower of Covington, where the “bearded
knight” lay stretched upon his bier. But when the servants were
about to enter to assist at the ceremonies, Isabella Somerville, Sir
William’s great-granddaughter, and Mrs. Lockhart’s grandmother, then
a child, creeping close to her mother, whispered into her ear, “The
beard is wagging! the beard is wagging!” Mrs. Somerville, upon this,
looked to the bier, and observing indications of life in the ancient
knight, made the company retire, and Sir William soon came out of his
faint. Hot bottles were applied and cordials administered, and in
the course of the evening he was able to converse with his family.
They explained that they had believed him to be actually dead, and
that arrangements had even been made for his funeral. In answer to
the question, “Have the folks been warned?” (_i.e._, invited to the
funeral) he was told that they had--that the funeral day had been
fixed, an ox slain, and other preparations made for entertaining the
company. Sir William then said, “All is as it should be; keep it a
dead secret that I am in life, and let the folks come.” His wishes
were complied with, and the company assembled for the burial at the
appointed time. After some delay, occasioned by the non-arrival of
the clergyman, as was supposed, and which afforded an opportunity of
discussing the merits of the deceased, the door suddenly opened, when,
to their surprise and terror, in stepped the knight himself, pale in
countenance and dressed in black, leaning on the arm of the minister
of the parish of Covington. Having quieted their alarm and explained
matters, he called upon the clergyman to conduct an act of devotion,
which included thanksgiving for his recovery and escape from being
buried alive. This done, the dinner succeeded. A jolly evening, after
the manner of the time, was passed, Sir William himself presiding over
the carousals.’”
Dr. J. B. Vigné, in his “Memoire sur les Inhumations Précipitées,”
Paris, 1839, narrates the following:-- “Mr. B., an inhabitant of
Poitiers, fell suddenly into a state resembling death; every means
for bringing him back to life were used without interruption; from
continued dragging, his two little fingers were dislocated, and the
soles of his feet were burnt; but, all these having produced no
sensation in him, he was thought decidedly dead. As they were on the
point of placing him in his coffin, some one recommended that he should
be bled in both arms and feet at the same time, which was immediately
done, and with such success that, to the astonishment of all, he
recovered from his apparent state of death. When he had entirely
recovered his senses, he declared that he had heard every word that had
been said, and that his only fear was that he would be buried alive.”
APPARENT DEATH IN PREGNANCY.
Hufeland (one of the greatest authorities on the subject in Germany),
in his essay upon the uncertainty of the signs of death, tells of a
case of the wife of Professor Camerer, of Tübingen, who was hysterical,
and had a fright in the sixth month of her pregnancy, which brought
on convulsions (eclampsia), which continued for four hours, when she
seemed to die completely. Two celebrated physicians, besides three
others of less note, regarded the case as ended in death, as all the
recognised signs of death were present. However, attempts to revive
her were at once resorted to, and were continued for five hours, when
all the medical attendants, except one, gave the case up, and left.
The physician who remained pulled off a blister-plaster that had
been put on one of the feet, when the lady gave feeble signs of life
by twitchings about the mouth. The doctor then renewed his efforts
to revive her, by various stimulating means, and by burning, and by
pricking the spine; but all in vain, for after her slight evidences of
revival, she seemed to die unmistakably. She lay in a state of apparent
death for six days, but there was a small space over the heart where a
little warmth could be detected by the hand, and on this account the
burial was put off. On the seventh day she opened her eyes, and slowly
revived, but was completely unconscious of all that had happened. She
then gave birth to a dead child, and soon thereafter recovered her
health completely.
* * * * *
[MORE CAREFUL EXAMINATION REQUIRED.]
From the _Lancet_, November 27, 1858, p. 561.
“THE DEAD ALIVE.
“It seems to be always desirable to obtain a contemporary record
of all unusual phenomena. It is so more especially where they are
of a somewhat indefinite character, and scarcely susceptible of
exaggeration. We know of none which are more so than the cases of
‘trance.’ These examples are both sufficiently unusual to deserve a
passing record, and sufficiently mysterious in their character to call
for a more careful investigation than it has hitherto been possible to
accord to them. We transcribe the facts of a recent instance, as they
are circumstantially detailed, and, no doubt, some of the surgeons of
Coventry will be able to afford their testimony as to the degree of
correspondence of this narrative with their observations. “The girl,
whose name is Amelia Hinks, is twelve or thirteen years of age, and
resides with her parents in Bridge Street, Nuneaton. She had lately
appeared to be sinking under the influence of some ill-explained
disorder, and about three weeks since, as her friends imagined, she
died. The body was removed to another room. It was rigid and icy cold.
It was washed and laid out with all due funeral train. The limbs were
decently placed, the eyelids closed and penny-pieces laid over them.
The coffin was ordered. For more than forty-eight hours the supposed
corpse lay beneath the winding-sheet, when it happened that her
grandfather, coming from Leamington to assist in the last mournful
ceremonies, went to see the corpse. The old man removed a penny-piece,
and he thought that the corpse winked! There was a convulsive movement
of the lid. This greatly disturbed his composure; for, though he had
heard that she died with her eyes open, he was unprepared for this
palpebral signal of her good understanding with death. A surgeon is
said to have been summoned, who at first treated the matter as a
delusion, but subsequently ascertained stethoscopically that there
was still slight cardiac pulsation. The body was then removed to a
warm room, and gradually the returning signs of animation became
unequivocal. When speech was restored, the girl described many things
which had taken place since her supposed death. She knew who had
closed her eyes and placed the coppers thereon. She also heard the
order given for her coffin, and could repeat the various remarks made
over her as she lay in her death-clothes. She refused food, though in
a state of extreme debility. She has since shown symptoms of mania,
and is now said to have relapsed into a semi-cataleptic condition. The
parents are ‘creditable people,’ and there is no apparent ruse in this
unusually romantic history, which is causing considerable excitement
in Nuneaton and its neighbourhood.”
* * * * *
From the _Lancet_, December 18, 1858, p. 642.
“‘THE DEAD ALIVE.’
“(To the Editor of the _Lancet_.)
“Sir,--An article, ‘The Dead Alive,’ in your impression of the 27th
ultimo, demands of me a veritable statement of the case alluded to.
The subject of the inquiry is still living, and for some time past has
afforded me scope for observation.
[THE DEAD ALIVE.]
“I have only been waiting for a termination of the case, either in
convalescence or death, to enable me to give to the profession,
through your valuable columns, a full and truthful history of this
rare and curious case, replete with interest. The exaggerated
statement which has gone the round of the press has produced such
great curiosity in this immediate neighbourhood that I have been
applied to by many parties, professional and non-professional, to be
permitted to see the case, the parents of the patient having refused
admittance to all strangers.
“The case having extended over a long period, and fearing a detailed
account might occupy too much of your valuable space, I have condensed
the matter as much as possible; but should the profession consider
the case worthy of a more enlarged history, I will gladly, at some
future period, meet their wishes, as far as my rough notes, aided by
my memory, will supply it.
“In August, 1858, I was requested to visit Miss Amelia Hincks, aged
twelve years and nine months, daughter of a harness-maker, and
residing with her parents in Bridge Street, Nuneaton. She was supposed
to be suffering from pulmonary consumption.... On October 18, about
half-past three a.m., she apparently died. She is said to have groaned
heavily, waved her hands (which was a promised sign for her mother
to know that the hour of her departure was come), turned her head
a little to the light, dropped her jaw, and _died_. In about half
an hour after her supposed departure she was washed, and attired in
clean linen, the jaw was tied by a white handkerchief, penny-pieces
laid over her eyes, her hands, semi-clenched, placed by her side,
and her feet tied together by a piece of tape. She was then carried
into another room, laid on a sofa, and covered over with a sheet. She
appeared stiff and cold, two large books were placed on her feet, and
I have no doubt she was considered to be a sweet corpse.
“About nine a.m., the grandfather of the supposed dead went into the
death-chamber to give a last kiss to his grandchild, when he fancied
he saw a convulsive movement of the eyelid, he having raised one of
the coins. He communicated this fact to the parents and mourning
friends, but they ridiculed the old man’s statement, and said the
movement of the eyelids was owing to the nerves working after death.
Their theory, however, did not satisfy the experienced man of eighty
years, and he could not reconcile himself to her death. As soon as
I reached home, after having been out in the country all night, I
was requested to see the child, to satisfy the old man that she was
really dead. About half-past ten a.m. I called; and immediately
on my entrance into the chamber I perceived a tremulous condition
of the eyelids, such as we frequently see in hysterical patients.
The penny-pieces had been removed by the grandfather. I placed a
stethoscope over the region of the heart, and found that organ
performing its functions perfectly and with tolerable force. I then
felt for a radial pulse, which was easily detected, beating feebly,
about seventy-five per minute. The legs and arms were stiff and cold,
and the capillary circulation was so congested as at first sight to
resemble incipient decomposition. I carefully watched the chest, which
heaved quietly but almost imperceptibly; and immediately unbandaged
the maiden, and informed her mourning parents that she was not dead.
Imagine their consternation! The passing-bell had rung, the shutters
were closed, the undertaker was on his way to measure her for her
coffin, and other necessary preparations were being made for her
interment. [The writer then proceeds to give interesting details as to
the treatment of the case, and the means taken to promote recovery.]
“RICHARD BIRD MASON, M.R.C.S., L.S.A.
“Bridge Street, Nuneaton, December 14, 1858.”
From the _Lancet_, March 5, 1859, p. 254.
“TRANCE.
“Another case of trance is reported, in addition to those which we
have lately recorded. A widow named Aufray, about sixty years of age,
of St. Agnan de Cenuières (Eure), long seriously ill, became suddenly
worse, grew cold and motionless, and, as it was thought, dead. She
was laid out, the coffin ordered, and the church bell tolled. She
recovered consciousness just before the funeral was to take place.”
THE QUESTION OF PREMATURE BURIAL BEFORE THE FRENCH SENATE.
[FRENCH CASES.]
The _Medical Times_, London, 1866, vol. i., p. 258, under the heading
“Buried Alive” remarks as follows:--“The abundance of other topics
hinders us at present from saying more than a few words on the
conditions under which there may be real danger of burial before life
is quite extinct. Now, we will only reproduce the cases reported by
Cardinal Archbishop Donnet, in the French Senate, in a discussion
on a petition that the time between death and burial should be
lengthened. We will add one instance, which we have heard on the best
authority:--About thirty years ago, a young woman of eighteen, daughter
of Madame Laligand, living in the Rue des Tonnelliers, at Beaune,
in Burgundy, was supposed to have died. The ordinary measures were
taken for interment. The body was put in a coffin, and taken to the
church; the funeral service was said, and the _cortége_ set out for
the cemetery; but on the road between the church and the cemetery the
supposed dead recovered power of motion and speech, was removed from
the coffin, put to bed, recovered, married, and lived eighteen years
afterwards. She said she retained her consciousness during the whole
of her supposed death, and had counted the nails that were driven
into her coffin. Statements such as these, and such as those made by
the Archbishop, will surely be subjected to the ordeal of a French
scientific commission, and we may suspend our judgment for the present.
To return to his Eminence. He said he had the very best reasons for
believing that the victims of hasty interments were more numerous than
people supposed. He considered the rules and regulations prescribed by
the law very judicious; but, unfortunately, they were, particularly in
the country, not always executed as they should be, nor was sufficient
importance attached to them. In the village he was stationed in as
an assistant-curate in the first period of his sacerdotal life, he
saved two persons from being buried alive. The first an aged man, who
lived twelve hours after the hour prescribed for his interment by the
municipal officer; the second was a man who was quite restored to life.
In both cases a trance more prolonged than usual was taken for actual
death. The other instances, says the _Times’_ correspondent, I give in
the words of the Archbishop:--
“‘The next case that occurred to me was at Bordeaux. A young lady, who
bore one of the most distinguished names in the Department, had passed
through what was supposed the last agony, and, as apparently all was
over, the father and mother were torn away from the heartrending
spectacle. As God willed it, I happened to pass the door of the house
at the moment, when it occurred to me to call and inquire how the
young lady was going on. When I entered the room, the nurse, finding
the body breathless, was in the act of covering the face, and, indeed,
there was every appearance that life had departed. Somehow or other,
it did not seem to me so certain as to the bystanders. I lady not to
give up all hope--that I was come to cure her, and that I was about
to pray by her side. “You do not see me,” I said, “but you hear what
I am saying.” My presentiments were not unfounded. The word of hope I
uttered reached her ear and effected a marvellous change, or, rather,
called back the life that was departing. The young girl survived; she
is now a wife, and mother of children, and this day is the happiness
of two most respectable families.’
“The Archbishop mentioned another instance of a similar revival in a
town in Hungary during the cholera of 1831, which he heard that day
from one of his colleagues of the Senate, as they were mounting the
staircase. But the last related is so interesting, and made such a
sensation, that it deserves to be repeated in his own words:--
[CARDINAL DONNET’S EXPERIENCE.]
“‘In the summer of 1826, on a close summer day, in a church which was
exceedingly crowded, a young priest, who was in the act of preaching,
was suddenly seized with giddiness in the pulpit. The words he was
uttering became indistinct; he soon lost the power of speech, and
sank down on the floor. He was taken out of the church and carried
home. All was thought to be over. Some hours after, the funeral bell
was tolled, and the usual preparations made for the interment. His
eyesight was gone: but if he could see nothing, like the young lady I
have alluded to he could hear, and I need not say that what reached
his ears was not calculated to reassure him. The doctor came, examined
him, and pronounced him dead; and after the usual inquiries as to
his age and the place of his birth, etc., gave permission for his
interment next morning. The venerable bishop, in whose cathedral the
young priest was preaching when he was seized with the fit, came to
his bedside to recite the “De Profundis.” The body was measured for
the coffin. Night came on, and you will easily feel how inexpressible
was the anguish of the living being in such a situation. At last,
amid the voices murmuring around him, he distinguished that of one
whom he had known from infancy. That voice produced a marvellous
effect and superhuman effort. Of what followed I need say no more
than that the seemingly dead man stood next day in the same pulpit.
That young priest, gentlemen, is the same man who is now speaking
before you, and who, more than forty years after that event, implores
those in authority, not merely to watch vigilantly over the careful
execution of the legal prescriptions with regard to interments, but
to enact fresh ones in order to prevent the recurrence of irreparable
misfortunes.’”
To this report of the _Medical Times_ it may be added that the
petition of M. de Carnot furnished statistics showing the frequency of
these terrible disasters, and suggested various preventive measures,
including the establishment of mortuaries, a longer interval between
death and burial, and the application of scientific methods of
restoration where decomposition is not manifest. The reality of the
terrible dangers, as pointed out by Cardinal Donnet, was confirmed by
Senators Tourangin and Viscount de Baral, in the recital of other cases
of premature interment.
When the subject was revived in the Senate on January 29, 1869--on
which occasion five petitions were presented, urging important reforms,
and detailing other cases of premature interment,--Cardinal Donnet
again took part in the debate, and urged that no burial should be
permitted without the signature of a doctor or officer of health, as
well as the written authorisation of the Mayor, so that the fact of
death might always be verified. The Cardinal then furnished particulars
of another recent case of premature interment in l’Est, and recalled
the fact that one of their honourable colleagues of the Senate, M. le
Comte de la Rue, had had a narrow escape from live sepulture.
The several petitions were forwarded to the Minister of the Interior,
but nothing was done to remedy the evil.
From the _Lancet_, June 2, 1866, p. 611.
“ON SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
“In the course of the address delivered by Dr. Brewer to the Guardians
of St. George’s at St. James’s Hall, he adverted to the ‘laying-out’
case at St. Pancras.... Dr. Brewer ... dwelt upon the question of
suspended animation in a passage which really deserves to be quoted....
[CASE REPORTED BY DR. BREWER.]
“‘I have been more than once under a condition of apparently suspended
respiration, and with circumstances less comfortable than those
related of this babe; and yet, active as is my brain, and sensitive
as is my body, I remember as well as though it were but yesterday
that, on being restored to consciousness, no feeling of discomfort
of any kind attended my experience on either occasion. It is under
the truth to say I have known a score of cases of those who have been
supposed dead being reanimated. It is not many months ago a friend of
mine, a rector of a suburban parish, was pronounced by his medical
attendant to be dead. His bed was arranged, and the room left in its
silence. His daughter had re-entered and sat at the foot, and the
solemn toll of his own church bell was vibrating through the chamber,
when a hand drew aside the closed curtain, and a voice came from the
occupant of the bed--“Elizabeth, my dear, what is that bell tolling
for?” The daughter’s response was, perhaps, an unfortunate one: “_For
you, papa._” Schwartz, the first eminent Indian missionary, was roused
from his supposed death by hearing his favourite hymn sung over him
previous to the last rites being performed, and his resuscitation made
known by his joining in the verse.’”
Dr. B. W. Richardson quotes a case in the _Lancet_, 1888, vol.
ii., p. 1179, of a man who, in 1869, was rendered cataleptic by a
lightning-stroke, and who narrowly escaped living burial.
Dr. Moore Russell Fletcher in his work on “Suspended Animation,” p. 26,
says:--
“In June, 1869, a girl in Cleveland, Ohio, was taken ill, and after a
short sickness died, and was laid out for burial; but as her mother
insisted that she was not dead, efforts were made for some time to
restore her to life, but in vain. Her mother, however, refused to let
her be buried; and on the fifth day after that set for the funeral
the slamming of a door aroused her, so that she recovered. She stated
that, during most of the eight days which she lay there, she was
conscious and heard what was said, although wholly unable to make the
least motion.”
Dr. M. S. Tanner in a letter to the _New York Times_, January 18, 1880,
mentions two cases where persons awakened from trance at the moment of
sepulture described in turn what their feelings had been. Said one:--
“Have you ever felt the paralysing influence of a horrible nightmare?
If you have had such experience, then you are prepared to conceive of
the mental agonies I endured when I realised that my friends believed
me dead, and were making preparations for my burial. The hours and
days of mental struggle spent in the vain endeavour to break loose
from the vice-like grasp of this worse than horrible nightmare was a
hell of torment such as no tongue can describe or pen portray.”
[VERDICT OF FOURTEEN PHYSICIANS.]
The other instance mentioned by Dr. Tanner is that of Dr. Johnson of
St. Charles, Illinois, who in the hearing of Dr. Tanner, and in the
presence of a large audience in Harrison’s Hall, Minneapolis, stated
that when a young man he was prostrated with a fever. He swooned away,
apparently dead. His attending physician said he was dead. His father
was faithless and unbelieving, and refused to bury him. He lay in this
condition, apparently dead, fourteen days. The attending physician
brought other physicians to examine the apparently lifeless form, and
all stated unqualifiedly, “He is dead.” Some fourteen physicians, among
them many eminent professors, examined the body, and there was no
ambiguity in the expression of their conclusion that the boy was dead.
But the father still turned a deaf ear to all entreaties to prepare
the body for the grave. Public feeling was at last aroused. The health
officer and other city officers, acting in their official capacity, and
by the advice of physicians, peremptorily demanded that the body be
interred without delay. On the fourteenth day the father yielded under
protest; preparations were made for the funeral, when the emotions of
the still living subject, who was conscious of all transpiring around
him, were so intense as to be the means of his deliverance. He awoke
from his trance.
From the _Lancet_, June 7, 1884, p. 1058.
“IMPORTANT SUGGESTION FROM AN M.D.
“(To the Editor of the _Lancet_.)
“Sir,--Without venturing to express an opinion on the case mentioned
by the Rev. D. Williams[5] in the _Lancet_ of the 24th inst., I
would beg to say that I have no doubt in my own mind but that people
are sometimes ‘buried alive.’ An instance has come to my knowledge
where this catastrophe was only avoided by a mere accident. A lady,
about forty-five years of age, the wife of a clergyman in a northern
county, was taken ill, and after some time, as was supposed, died.
The funeral was delayed, and so was the closing of the coffin, in
consequence of the absence of a son of the lady from home. When the
boy arrived, the kissing, wailing, and commotion roused the supposed
dead woman, and brought her to consciousness in her coffin. This
lady would most probably have been buried alive were it not that the
obsequies were delayed on account of the circumstance mentioned.
“Now, may not cases more or less similar to this sometimes occur, with
the catastrophe of ‘buried alive’ added to them? But no such case
could happen if it were made compulsory that the interment of a body
should not be allowed to take place until after decomposition had set
in, as attested by a medical man.
“I am, Sir, yours truly,
“WM. O’NEILL, M.D.
“Lincoln, May 26, 1884.”
It is not always safe to conclude that persons enfeebled by age, or
exhausted by long and severe illness, and pronounced dead by the
attendant doctor, are really so. _The Undertakers’ Journal_, August 23,
1886, has the following:--
“It appears that George O. Daniels, of Clinton, Kentucky, had been ill
for several months, and at length, to all appearance, died. The body
was put in a coffin, where it remained for twenty hours, awaiting the
arrival of relatives to attend the funeral. At midnight the watchers
who surrounded the coffin were startled by a deep groan emanating from
it, and all but one, a German of the name of Wabbeking, rushed from
the room. Wabbeking remained, and as the groans continued he raised
the coffin-lid and saw that Daniels was alive. Seizing the body he
placed it upright. A few spasmodic gasps, a shudder, and the corpse
spoke. The relatives returned to find the man sitting in a chair, and
conversing with reasonable strength. Mr. Daniels claims to have been
perfectly conscious of everything which passed around him, but says he
was unable to move a muscle. He heard the sobs of his relatives when
he was pronounced dead by the doctors, and noticed the preparations
for the funeral. He is about eighty years of age.”
The same journal for July 23, 1888, reports the following under the
head of
“RETURNED TO LIFE TWICE.
[RETURNED TO LIFE TWICE.]
“The following details are given by the Cincinnati correspondent of
the _New York Herald_ from Memphis, Tennessee:--Mrs. Dicie Webb keeps
a grocery store on Beale Street, and is well known to hundreds. Two
years ago John Webb, a son of Mrs. Webb, married Sarah Kelly, a pretty
girl, to whom the mother-in-law became greatly attached. Before one
year of their married life had passed, Mrs. Webb, jun., was stricken
with consumption, and on several occasions came near dying. About a
month ago the young woman became very anxious to visit her parents in
Henderson County, and she was taken there. At first she appeared much
improved, and hopes were felt that her life might be preserved through
the summer, but two weeks ago last Tuesday a telegram announced her
death, and the husband hurried to her parents’ home. Three days later
he returned with the corpse. The mother-in-law pleaded so hard for a
sight of the dead woman, that finally, despite the belief that the
body was badly decomposed, it was decided to open the coffin. While
looking at the placid face Mrs. Webb was terrified at beholding the
eyelids of the dead woman slowly opening. The eyes did not have the
stony stare of death, nor the intelligent gleam of life. Mrs. Webb
was unable to utter a sound. She could not move, but stood gazing at
the gruesome sight. Her horror was increased when the supposed corpse
slowly sat upright and, in an almost inaudible voice, said, ‘Oh,
where am I?’ At this the weeping woman screamed. Friends who rushed
into the room were almost paralysed at the sight, and fled shrieking.
But one bolder than the others returned and spoke to the woman, who
asked to be laid on the bed. Hastily she was taken from the coffin
and cared for. In the course of the day the resurrected woman fully
regained her mental powers. The day following she related a wonderful
story. She said she was cognisant of all that occurred, and did not
lose consciousness until she was put aboard the train for Memphis.
Soon after being placed in her mother-in-law’s house she came to her
senses and knew all that was passing. While her mother-in-law was
looking at her she made a supreme effort to speak. Mrs. Webb lived a
number of days, when she again apparently died. The doctors pronounced
her dead, and she was once more placed in the coffin. While the
mother-in-law was taking her final farewell she heard a voice whisper,
‘Mother, don’t cry.’ Looking into the girl’s face, she saw the same
look that she had noticed before. She called for help, and several
women responded. Some one cried, ‘Shake her; she’s not dead.’ In the
excitement of the moment, the women, it is thought, shook the life out
of the poor consumptive, and last Saturday she was buried. The family
and friends have endeavoured to keep the matter quiet.”
The _Daily Telegraph_, January 26, 1889, reports:--
“A NARROW ESCAPE.
“A Rochester correspondent telegraphs that a woman named Girvin,
living at Burham, near Rochester, has just had a narrow escape of
being buried alive. She fell into a kind of trance, which was mistaken
for death. The coffin was ordered, and the usual preparations made for
a funeral. But while a number of the relatives were gathered at the
bedside bewailing their bereavement, the supposed corpse startled them
by suddenly rising up in bed and asking what was the matter. The woman
is making good progress towards convalescence.”
And on July 6, 1889, the same journal says:--
[A CASE AT ST. LEONARDS.]
“Our St. Leonards correspondent telegraphs:--About a week ago the wife
of a well-known tradesman in St. Leonards fell ill, and on Monday
night last the doctor gave his opinion that she could not live through
the next day. On Tuesday morning at ten o’clock the doctor pronounced
his patient dead, the nurse who was in attendance confirming the
opinion. The intimation of death naturally created great distress
among the friends of the woman, who was laid out in grave-clothes,
washed, and prepared for burial, and, being a Roman Catholic, a
crucifix was placed in her hand as she lay on her bier. When it was
announced that the woman was dying, a priest was sent for; but he
could not attend, as he was out of the town at the time.
“About a quarter to ten on Tuesday night the nurse entered the room
without a light for the purpose of getting something which she knew
where to find. Whilst in the darkened chamber she was startled to
hear a slight cry proceeding from the bed where the body lay, and
she rushed from the room in a terrible fright. The widower, hearing
the scream of fright, rushed into the chamber with a light, and was
astounded to find that his wife had raised herself up in the bed on
her elbow. She faintly uttered the words, ‘Where am I?’ and again
relapsed into a heavy sleep. The opportunity was seized of changing
the shroud for proper habiliments, and in about an hour and a half
she woke again perfectly conscious. Next morning she was told of what
had occurred, but was quite ignorant of everything that had passed,
thinking she had only had a long sleep. She is now doing well, and it
is hoped she will soon be restored to health and strength. The doctor
describes the case as the most remarkable he has ever met with in his
experience.”
Dr. Frederick A. Floyer, of Mortimer, Berks, published the
following-case in the _Tocsin_, November 1, 1889, vol. i., p. 84, under
the head of “Premature Burial”:--
“A narrow escape of this was recently communicated direct to the
writer, and as it has some extremely important bearings on the value
of what are usually considered to be evidences of death, we give it as
told by the survivor, who is still alive in the form of a cheery and
intelligent old lady in the fullest possession of her faculties and
memory.
“Herself the wife of a medical officer attached to the--th Regiment,
she was stationed at---- Island, where at the age of twenty-eight she
was safely confined. Shortly after this she was walking out with an
attendant when she was taken suddenly ill with a painful spasm of the
heart--what appears to have been an attack of angina pectoris--and was
conveyed in-doors and propped up with pillows, suffering great pain,
and although medical attendance was summoned, nothing was of avail,
and she died--at least in the opinion of those around her, who paid
the proper attention to what they regarded as a corpse. It was the
custom there to bury at sundown any one who died during the day. We
understand that in warm countries it is difficult to close the eyelids
properly, and so this lady, lying motionless and rigid, contemplated
with perfectly clear perception, but with an utter indifference, the
bringing in of the coffin and the necessary preparations for her
interment; she remembers her children coming to take a last look at
her, and then being taken down stairs.
“She would never have lived to tell the story but for an accident,
which happened in this way. Her nurse, who was much attached to her,
was stroking her face and the muscles of her jaw, and presently
declared she heard a sound of breathing. Medical assistance was
summoned, and the mirror test applied, but the surface was undimmed.
Then, to make sure, they opened a vein in each arm, but no blood
flowed. No limb responded to stimulus, and they declared that the nurse
was mistaken, and that the body was dead beyond doubt.
“But the nurse persisted in her belief and in her attentions, and did
succeed in establishing a sign of life. Then mustard applications to
her feet and to the back of her neck, and burnt feathers applied to her
nostrils, which she remembered burning her nose, completed her return
to consciousness.”
* * * * *
From the _Pall Mall Gazette_, May 11, 1891.
[CERTIFICATE OF APOPLEXY.]
“NARROW ESCAPE FROM BEING BURIED ALIVE.
“A Penn Station telegram to Dalziel says:--A singular case of
simulation of death from fright occurred here on Saturday. Mrs.
Sarseville, the wife of a farmer in this county, was in the cow-house
attending to the dairy work when she saw a nest of squirming snakes
through a hole in the plank floor. She fell to the ground apparently
lifeless with fright. Help was summoned, and she was carried into the
house. Before the physician arrived Mrs. Sarseville had begun to turn
black, and he pronounced her dead, giving a certificate, in which he
assigned apoplexy as the cause. During the night Mrs. Sarseville’s
daughter sat beside the coffin of her mother, lamenting her death.
Just before daybreak she was startled to see the body move. She was
more shocked when her mother opened her eyes and sat bolt upright in
her coffin. The supposed corpse was no less startled than the girl
to find herself dressed in grave-clothes and lying in a coffin. Help
was summoned, and the lady helped out of her narrow bed and into
her ordinary clothes. She took breakfast with the family yesterday
morning, and seemed none the worse for her ghastly experience.”
From the _British Medical Journal_, March 12, 1892, p. 577.
“A NARROW ESCAPE FROM PREMATURE BURIAL.
“The _Temps_ publishes a case of premature burial prevented by the
daughter of the supposed dead man, who, on kissing her father,
perceived that his body was not cold. The funeral _cortége_ was
on the point of starting. Suitable measures restored the man to
consciousness, and he opened his eyes and uttered one or two words.
His condition is serious, but he is alive. This incident occurred at
Vagueray, near Lyons.”
From the _Echo_, London, May 13, 1893.
“ALMOST BURIED WHILE ALIVE.
“Limoges, May 13.
“A woman has just had a narrow escape of being buried alive here. She
was subject to epileptic fits, and during one of these a few days ago
was pronounced to be dead. The arrangements for interment were made in
due course, and as the coffin was being borne into the church some of
the mourners said they heard a knocking inside. The party listened,
and distinct taps were heard. No time was lost in wrenching off the
lid of the coffin. It was then found that the woman was alive and
conscious, although terribly frightened at the awful ordeal through
which she had passed. A doctor was quickly in attendance, and under
his direction the supposed corpse was removed from the coffin and
placed on a litter for conveyance home again.”
The _Undertakers’ Journal_, July 22, 1893, says:--
“Charles Walker was supposed to have died suddenly at St. Louis a
few days ago, and a burial certificate was obtained in due course
from the coroner’s office. The body was lying in the coffin, and the
relatives took a farewell look at the features, and withdrew as the
undertaker’s assistants advanced to screw down the lid. One of the
undertaker’s men noticed, however, that the position of the body in
the coffin seemed to have undergone some slight change, and called
attention to the fact. Suddenly, without any warning, the ‘corpse’ sat
up in the coffin and gazed round the room. A physician was summoned,
restoratives were applied, and in half an hour the supposed corpse was
in a warm bed, sipping weak brandy and water, taking a lively interest
in the surroundings. Heart-failure had produced a species of syncope
resembling death that deceived even experts.”
From the _Undertakers’ Journal_, August 22, 1893.
“SNATCHED FROM DEATH AT THE GRAVESIDE.
“A marvellous case of suspended animation is described from the
British colony of Lagos, where an old woman named Oseni came to
life when she was at the cemetery about to be buried. The mourners
had assembled at the cemetery, and, in accordance with the Mahomedan
rule, the body was lifted from the coffin to be buried, when several
distinct coughs were given by the supposed corpse. She was at once
released from the clothes which bound her, and the old woman, to the
surprise and amazement of those present, sat upright and opened her
eyes. Some gruel was then procured, of which she partook with evident
relish.”
From the _Daily Telegraph_, London, December 12, 1893.
[FOUR DAYS’ APPARENT DEATH.]
“A LADY NEARLY BURIED ALIVE.
“Berlin, December 11.
“From Militsch, in Silesia, an extraordinary case of trance is
reported. It seems that, owing to the grave not being in readiness,
some delay occurred in the burial of a lady, the wife of a major in
the army, who to all appearance had died. On the fourth day after
the lady’s supposed death the maid was placing fresh flowers round
the coffin, when she was much startled at seeing the body move, and
finally assume an erect position. The lady had evidently been in a
state of coma during the past four days, and narrowly escaped being
buried alive.”
The _Banner of Light_, Boston, July 28, 1894, quotes the following case
of apparent sudden death from the _Boston Post_:--
“COFFINED ALIVE!
“Sprakers, a village not far from Rondout, N.Y., was treated to a
sensation Tuesday, July 10, by the supposed resurrection from the dead
of Miss Eleanor Markham, a young woman of respectability, who to all
appearance had died on Sunday, July 8.
“Miss Markham about a fortnight ago complained of heart trouble, and
was treated by Dr. Howard. She grew weaker gradually, and on Sunday
morning apparently breathed her last, to the great grief of her
relatives, by whom she was much beloved. The doctor pronounced her
dead, and furnished the usual burial certificate.
“Undertaker Jones took charge of the funeral arrangements. On account
of the warm weather it was decided that the interment should take
place Tuesday, and in the morning Miss Markham was put in the coffin.
“After her relatives had taken the last look on what they supposed was
their beloved dead, the lid of the coffin was fastened on, and the
undertaker and his assistant took it to the hearse waiting outside.
As they approached the hearse a noise was heard, and the coffin was
put down and opened in short order. Behold! there was poor Eleanor
Markham lying on her back, her face white and contorted, and her eyes
distended.
“‘My God!’ she cried, in broken accents. ‘Where am I? You are burying
me alive.’ ‘Hush! child,’ said Dr. Howard, who happened to be present.
‘You are all right. It is a mistake easily rectified.’
“The girl was then taken into the house and placed on the bed,
when she fainted. While the doctor was administering stimulating
restoratives the trappings of woe were removed, and the hearse drove
away with more cheerful rapidity than a hearse was ever driven before.
* * * * *
“‘I was conscious all the time you were making preparations to bury
me,’ she said, ‘and the horror of my situation is altogether beyond
description. I could hear everything that was going on, even a whisper
outside the door, and although I exerted all my will-power, and made
a supreme physical effort to cry out, I was powerless.... At first I
fancied the bearers would not hear me, but when I felt one end of the
coffin falling suddenly, I knew that I had been heard.’
“Miss Markham is on a fair way to recovery, and what is strange is
that the flutterings of the heart that brought on her illness are
gone.”
From the _Echo_, January 18, 1895.
“MISTAKEN FOR DEAD--A WOMAN’S AWFUL EXPERIENCE.
“An extraordinary affair is reported from Heap Bridge, Heywood.
Yesterday a woman was supposed to have died, and she was washed, laid
out, and measured for her coffin, a piece of linen being placed over
her mouth. Eight hours later, however, as two women were engaged in
the room, the supposed corpse blew the linen away, and raised herself
up in bed. The two women were terribly frightened, and in their hasty
retreat both tumbled downstairs, and are now suffering from slight
injuries, as well as shock. Some time elapsed before any one else
could be induced to enter the house, but eventually several persons
went in together, and found the woman still sitting up in bed. She
was exceedingly weak. Later, however, she succumbed, and the doctor
expressed the opinion that her death was accelerated by shock. During
the night the woman conversed with her son, who had carried her
upstairs for dead, and told him of the awful sensation she felt whilst
unable to speak during the washing and laying out of her body.”
The following letter appeared in the London _Daily Chronicle_ of
September 24, 1895:--
[A HUSBAND’S PROMISE.]
“BURIED ALIVE.
“Sir,--To your interesting correspondence on ‘Buried Alive,’ I would
add the following, which I had directly from the mouth of one who but
for the faithfulness of her husband would probably have been added to
the number. I knew her quite well. She was the daughter of a physician
in my native town, and her husband was a professor of music, and I
will tell the incident as nearly as I can remember in her own words.
She said:--‘I had in my early married life a dread of there being any
mistake made about my death, and begged my husband that, should he
survive me, he would watch my body himself, which he promised he would
do. Some time after this, I was overtaken by a most terrible attack
of fever, succeeded by entire exhaustion, and I, as my attendants
believed, died, and was accordingly laid out for burial. My good
husband was true to his promise, and he, with my sister, watched the
corpse, and in the night they perceived some indication of returning
life, and of course means were used for restoration.’
“I cannot be quite sure how many years she lived after, but she had
brought up at the time I speak of a family of four sons and one
daughter, and she lived to a good old age.--Yours truly,
“CASSANDRA M----.
“September 18.”
Speaking on the subject of premature burial the other day, a well-known
London publisher told the author that he personally knew a lady, the
daughter of a British Consul, who had been taken for dead on two
separate occasions. On the first occasion the lady had been placed in
her coffin, and the lid screwed down ready for interment. A friend who
had known the supposed deceased called to condole with the family,
and said:--“I should like to have a last look at dear L---- if you
will only permit me.” The lid was accordingly removed, and the visitor
detected, as it seemed to her, signs of life in her friend; she was
taken out of her coffin, put in a warm bath, and recovered. Some years
later the same lady fell into a cataleptic state after a fever, and
was taken for dead. Preparations had been made for the funeral in
both instances, but delayed beyond the usual time for interment. She
returned to consciousness, and is now living.
Dr. Moore Russell Fletcher in “Suspended Animation and the Danger of
Burying Alive,” p. 62, writes:--
“‘Seven hours in a coffin added ten years to my life,’ was the remark
of Martin Strong, of Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, some time after
quitting the coffin in which his family had placed him for burial,
after Dr. Cummings had given a certificate of his death. Frank Stoop,
of Clarinda, Iowa, was laid out for burial not long since, a physician
having certified to his death; but fortunately he awoke from his state
of coma in time to save his life.”
AN ARMY SURGEON’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
[DR. CHEW’S EXPERIENCES.]
Dr. R. G. S. Chew, of Calcutta, writing to the author, says:--“In
1873 I was a student in the Bishop’s High School, Poonah (Bombay
Presidency), where I used to be generally at the head of my class,
and when competing for the Science Prizes I was fully determined to
take the first prize or none. The Reverend---- Watson, Rector of St.
Mary’s Church and Chaplain to our school, knew my disposition, and
cautioned me against being too sanguine, lest disappointment might
tell very keenly. The disappointment came, and with it much nervous
excitability. Shortly after this (Christmas, 1873) my favourite sister
was seized with convulsions that carried her off. From the moment of
her decease to nearly a month after her interment I entirely lost the
power of speech. On the day of the funeral I was parched with thirst,
but could not drink, as the water seemed to choke me. My eyes were
burning and my head felt like bursting, but I could neither sob nor
cry. I felt quite dazed, and followed the procession to the cemetery,
where I stood motionless by the open grave; but as soon as they lowered
the little coffin into its resting-place I threw myself headlong into
the grave and fainted away. Some one pulled me out and carried me
home, where I lay in a sort of stupor for nine days, during which Dr.
Donaldson attended me most patiently, and I regained consciousness,
but was too weak to even sit up in bed. On the 16th January, 1874, I
felt a peculiar sensation as of something filling up my throat--no
swelling, no pain nor anything that pointed to throat affection--and
this getting worse and worse, in spite of everything, I _died_, as was
supposed, on the 18th of January, 1874, and was laid out for burial,
as the most careful examination failed to show the slightest traces of
life. I had been in this state for twenty hours, and in another three
hours would have been closed up for ever, when my eldest sister, who
was leaning over the head of my coffin crying over me, declared she
saw my lips move. The friends who had come to take their last look at
me tried to persuade her it was only fancy, but, as she persisted,
Dr. Donaldson was sent for to convince her that I was really dead.
For some unexplained reason he had me taken out of the coffin and
examined very carefully from head to foot. Noticing a peculiar, soft
fluctuating swelling at the base of my neck, just where the clavicles
meet the sternum, he went to his brougham, came back with his case of
instruments, and, before any one could stop him or ask what he was
going to do, laid open the tumour and plunged in a tracheotomy tube,
when a quantity of pus escaped, and, releasing the pressure on the
carotids and thyroid, was followed by a rush of blood and some movement
on my part that startled the doctor. Restoratives were used, and I was
slowly nursed back to life; but the tracheotomy tube (I _still_ carry
the scar) was not finally removed till September, 1875.”
“APPARENT DEATH FROM A FALL.
(_Communicated to the author by Dr. Chew._)
[APPARENT DEATH FROM A FALL.]
“A sowar--_i.e._, native trooper--of the 7th regiment of cavalry, in
1878, carrying despatches at Nowshera, was thrown from his horse,
and, falling with his head against a sharp stone in the road, rolled
on to his back, in which position he was found some six or seven
hours after, and conveyed to the morgue of the European Depôt Hospital
pending removal to the ‘lines’ of his own corps. There was very
little hæmorrhage, and the stone was still wedged in between the
temporo-parietal suture. Cardiac sounds and respiratory murmurs could
not be detected. The limbs were perfectly rigid, and there was a good
deal of cadaveric ecchymosis to be distinctly seen. Nothing would have
convinced any one that the sowar was still alive, and Surgeons-Major
Hunter, Gibson, and Briggs, Apothecary S. Pollock, Assistant-Surgeon
J. Lewis and myself _verily_ believed he was stone-dead. As ‘cause of
death’ is what the army is exceedingly particular about, Surgeon-Major
Hunter removed the impacted stone and lifted out portions of the
fractured bone (prior to holding a proper _post-mortem_), when to the
surprise of all of us ‘the corpse’ deliberately closed its eyes (which
were staring open when the body was first brought in), and there was
a slight serous hæmorrhage. On noticing this, the sowar’s head was
trephined--no chloroform or other anæsthetic being used--some more
fragments of bone and a large blood-clot that pressed on the brain were
removed, and as the sowar repeatedly flinched under this operation,
a stimulant was poured down his throat, and he was removed to his
regimental hospital, from which he was discharged ‘well’ some six
months and a half later. After this he did good service in the Afghan
and Egyptian campaigns.”
“APPARENT DEATH FROM CHOLERA.
“The cases of collapse and apparent death during epidemics of cholera
are very numerous, as will be seen by reference to medical literature.
We have now before us particulars of cases from the _Calcutta Journal
of Medicine_ for 1869, vol. ii., p. 383, where Dr. Charles Londe, of
Paris, observes that patients pronounced dead of cholera have been
repeatedly seen to move. See also, for Italy, _Lancet_, 1884, vol. ii.,
p. 655.
“A correspondent, signing himself T.E.N., in _To-Day_, October 12,
1895, says:--‘When acting as special correspondent to the _Evening
Herald_ in Hamburg during the cholera plague, I met a gentleman who
had been passed for dead and placed in the mortuary to await burial.
When the porters entered some hours later to remove the hundred or so
bodies, they found this gentleman sitting up in great pain, and very
much frightened. He was placed in a ward and recovered. About the same
time a little girl came to life actually at the graveside. She had been
brought in one of several four-horse vans that conveyed bodies for
interment in the Ohlsdorff grave-yard. Fortunately for her, she had
not been placed in a coffin, the exigencies of the time rendering it
impossible to provide caskets for the dead. When the disease began to
die out, the people found time to ask--“Can it be possible that life
remains in any of the bodies buried?” That the doctors in the latter
days cut the ulnar arteries of all subjects before passing them for
dead is full of significance.’”
[CASES COMMUNICATED BY DR. CHEW.]
The three following cases were communicated to the author, during
his sojourn in Calcutta, by Dr. Chew, in the early part of this year
(1896):--
“In March, 1877, Assistant-Surgeons H. A. Borthwick, S. Blake, H. B.
Rogers, and myself received orders to proceed from Rawal Pindi by
bullock-train to Peshawur to join the various regiments we were to
be posted to for duty. We had just passed a place called Rati when
Borthwick showed strong symptoms of cholera, from which he suffered
all that night. The nearest hospital was twenty-five miles behind us,
and though we had neither medicines nor sick-room comforts with us, we
had no alternative but to journey onwards, because the train-drivers
(Indians) refused to turn back, and if we did return to Rawal Pindi we
would have been court-martialled for disobeying lawful commands and
coming back without orders to do so. Travelling by bullock-train is
very slow work, and far from a comfortable mode of transit; however,
we were obliged to make the best of it, and early next morning
Borthwick was cold, stiff, and seemingly dead. Here was a fine state
of affairs--the nearest cantonment, which we had no expectation of
reaching (_i.e._, Nowshera) before nine p.m., was thirty-six miles
off, and by the time we arrived at it, it would have been too late to
approach the authorities, while Peshawur, our destination, was another
twenty-nine miles further off. Dispose of the body we dared not, and we
had no choice but to continue our route. All that day there was not a
movement or other sign to show that life was not extinct, and affairs
seemed no better by five p.m. next day, when we reached Peshawur. The
apparent corpse was lifted out of the bullock-train and carried into
the hospital dispensary (where a strong fire was blazing) preparatory
to papers being signed and arrangements made for its final disposal.
Whether it was the heat of the fire before which he was placed, or
whether the vibriones had produced an antitoxin, I am not prepared to
argue; but _we do know_ that Borthwick recovered consciousness while
lying on the bed in that dispensary, and that he whom we mourned as
dead returned to life. He served in the same military stations with me
in the North-West Frontier till 1880, when he accompanied me to the
Calcutta Medical College, where we parted company in February, 1882,
I bound for Egypt and he for frontier duty. At first we corresponded
regularly, but since 1885 we lost touch of each other.”
“REVIVAL IN A MORTUARY IN INDIA.
“Sergeant J. Clements Twining, of H.M.’s 109th regiment of British
infantry, located at Dinapoor in 1876, was brought in an unconscious
state to the hospital, supposed to be suffering from _coup de soleil_.
Everything that could be done was ineffectually tried to rouse him from
coma, and he was removed to the dead-house to wait _post-mortem_ next
morning. At two a.m. the sentry on the dead-house came rushing down
to the dispensary (about four hundred and fifty yards off) declaring
that he had seen and heard a ghost in the dead-house, to which myself
and the compounder and dresser on duty at once proceeded, to find that
Clements Twining, who was now partially conscious, was lying on the
dead-house flags groaning most piteously--he had rolled off the table
on to the floor. He returned to health, and in 1877 accompanied his
regiment to England, where I met him at Woolwich in 1883, and he asked
me to corroborate his story of ‘returning to life’ to certain of his
acquaintances who had refused to believe him.”
[THE USE OF MORTUARIES.]
“CHOLERA CORPSES REVIVED IN A MORTUARY.
“When the East Norfolk regiment was out cholera-dodging in 1878,
Colour-Sergeant T. Hall and Corporal W. Bellomy were sent into
cantonments for burial as cholera corpses in the Nowshera Cemetery.
There was some delay in the interment owing to a difficulty in
obtaining the wood necessary for their coffins, so both bodies
were placed in the dead-house, which was generously sprinkled with
disinfectants to ward off the risk of contagion. First Hall and then
Bellomy regained consciousness, and were duly returned to duty. The
following year Bellomy was ‘invalided’ to England, where I understand
he now enjoys the best of health.”
“Shortly after the Afghan war of 1878, Surgeon-Major T. Barnwell and
I were told off to take a large number of time-expired men, invalids,
and wounded, to Deolali on their way to England. Some of the wounded
were in a very critical state, necessitating great care; one man
in particular, Trooper Holmes of the 10th Hussars, who had an ugly
bullet-wound running along his left thigh and under the groin. Our only
means of transport for these poor fellows was the ‘palki’ or doolie
carried by four bearers at a curious swinging pace. When we got to
Nowshera, Holmes seemed on a fair way to recovery, but the swinging
of the doolie seemed too much for him, and he grew weaker day by day
till we got to Hassan Abdool, when we could not rouse him to take
some nourishment before starting on the march, and to all appearance
he seemed perfectly dead; but, as there was neither the time nor
convenience to hold a _post-mortem_, we carried the body on to ‘John
Nicholson,’ where, the same difficulties being in the way, and no
facilities for burial, we were obliged to put the _post-mortem_ off for
another day, and convey the corpse to Rawal Pindi rest camp, where we
laid him on the floor of the mortuary tent and covered him over with a
tarpaulin. This was his salvation, as next morning (_i.e._, the third
day succeeding his ‘death’), when we raised the tarpaulin to hold the
_post-mortem_, some hundreds of field mice (these tracts are _noted_
for them) rushed out, and we noticed that Holmes was breathing, though
very slowly--five or six respirations to the minute--and there were a
few teeth marks where the mice had attacked his calves. To prevent a
relapse by the jolting on further marches, we handed him over to the
station hospital staff, who pulled him round, and then forwarded him to
the headquarters of his regiment at Meerut.”
A lady, distinguished alike for her literary gifts as well as for her
philanthropy, sends me the following:--
“I am much obliged to you for sending me ‘Perils.’ It is a terrible
subject, and one that has haunted me all my life, insomuch that I have
never made a will without inserting a clause requiring my throat to be
cut before I am put underground. Of course one can have no reliance
on doctors whatever, and I have myself known a case in which a very
eminent one insisted on a coffin being screwed down because the corpse
looked so life-like and full of colour that the friends could not help
indulging in hopes.
[CASES IN IRELAND.]
“My great grandmother, after whom I am called, a famous heiress, was
a notable case of narrow escape. As a girl she passed into a state of
apparent death, and a great funeral was ordered for her. Among the
guests came a young girl friend, who insisted that she was not dead,
and raised such a stir that the funeral was postponed, and time was
allowed to pass till the marvel became that there were no signs of
change. I could never ascertain how long this comatose state lasted
before she recovered; but she _did_ recover, so thoroughly that after
her marriage with Richard Trench, of Garbuly, she became the mother
of twenty-two children. Obviously this was no case of a feeble,
hysterical, cataleptic subject. I will enclose photograph taken from a
miniature of her in a ring in my possession.
“There was another case, well known in Ireland in my youth, of a
Colonel Howard, who had a fine place (I think it was called Castle
Howard) in Wicklow. He was supposed to be dead, and a lead coffin
was actually made with his name and date of death on it; after which
Colonel Howard came to life, and had the plate of the coffin fixed over
his kitchen chimney as a warning to his servants not to bury people in
a hurry.”
Dr. Colin S. Valentine, LL.D., Principal of the Medical Missionary
Training College, Agra, N.W.P., told the author during his visit to
Agra, February, 1896, that Captain Young, an officer in the regiment of
which he (Dr. Valentine) was at that time army surgeon, who had been
dreadfully mauled while tiger-hunting in Madras, was laid out for dead,
and all the arrangements were made for his funeral at six o’clock that
evening, when consciousness returned, and he lived for twenty years
after.
In a lecture on “Signs of Death and Disposal of the Dead,” delivered by
Dr. A. Stephenson at Nottingham, January 9, 1896, the lecturer said “he
once attended a girl living in that locality who was in a trance. All
the preparations were made for her funeral, and the grave ordered. She
remained in a trance three days, and her mother was annoyed because he
would not sign her death-certificate. On the third day she slowly rose
and recovered. The girl would have been buried unless he had had a very
great fear of her being buried alive.”[6]
From the London _Echo_, March 3, 1896.
“NARROW ESCAPE OF A GREEK-ORTHODOX METROPOLITAN.
“A letter from Constantinople, in the _Politische Korrespondenz_,
gives a remarkable case of an apparent death which would have ended
in a premature burial but for the high ecclesiastical position of the
person concerned. On the 3rd of this month, Nicephorus Glycas, the
Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan of Lesbos, an old man in his eightieth
year, after several days of confinement to his bed, was reported by
the physician to be dead. The supposed dead bishop, in accordance
with the rules of the Orthodox Church, was immediately clothed in
his episcopal vestments, and placed upon the Metropolitan’s throne
in the great church of Methymni, where the body was exposed to the
devout faithful during the day, and watched by relays of priests day
and night. Crowds streamed into the church to take a last look at
their venerable chief pastor. On the second night of “the exposition
of the corpse,” the Metropolitan suddenly started up from his seat
and stared round him with amazement and horror at all the panoply
of death amidst which he had been seated. The priests were not less
horrified when the ‘dead’ bishop demanded what they were doing with
him? The old man had simply fallen into a death-like lethargy, which
the incompetent doctors had hastily concluded to be death. He is now
as hale and hearty as can well be expected from an octogenarian. But
here it is that the moral comes in. If Nicephorus Glycas had been a
layman he would most certainly have been buried alive. Fortunately for
him the Canon Law of the Orthodox Church does not allow a bishop to be
buried earlier than the third day after his death; whereas a layman,
according to the ancient Eastern custom, is generally buried about
twelve hours after death has been certified. The excitement which has
been aroused by the prelate’s startling resurrection may tend to set
men thinking more seriously about the frequent probability of the
cruel horror of the interment of living persons.”
The above-mentioned facts have been authenticated for the author by Dr.
Franz Hartmann, of Hallein, Austria.
NARROW ESCAPES OF SMALL-POX PATIENTS.
Many physicians who dispute the frequency of premature burials admit
that the liability to such catastrophes is considerable during
epidemics of small-pox, where extreme exhaustion, amounting to a
suspension of life, is distinguishable from actual death only by
patient and prolonged observation.
From the _Lancet_, June 21, 1884, p. 1150:--
“SUSPENDED ANIMATION AFTER SMALL-POX.
“Sir,--I send you privately names and addresses by means of which you
can test, if you please, the accuracy of the following statements,
which I forward for insertion in your journal:--
[APPARENT DEATHS AFTER SMALL-POX.]
“Some years since, a young man who had been attacked by small-pox
was declared by the medical man to be dead, and was laid out for
burial. The nurse, however, on paying a visit to the supposed corpse,
thinking there was something uncorpse-like about its appearance, put
a wine-glass over the mouth, and returning in a quarter of an hour,
found it dimmed with breath. He was resuscitated, and, so far as I
am aware, is still living. He would now be about forty-five. He is a
farmer.
“A mother and her baby were ill of small-pox, and seemed likely to
die. The grandmother, however, made the nurse promise that if death
appeared to ensue, and even if the medical man pronounced either or
both to be dead, she would put additional blankets on the one or
both, and leave them so till her (the grandmother’s) return, which
would not be till the next day. They both appeared to die, and were
declared dead by the doctor; but the nurse did as she had promised,
and the next day when the grandmother returned, they were both alive,
and were both living not very long since.
“Some twenty years ago, I was told that about forty years previously
a young man, in a parish where I was acquainted, was put in a coffin
as a person dead of small-pox; but when the bell was tolling for his
funeral, and he was about to be ‘screwed down,’ he got up and vacated
the coffin, and lived several years afterwards.
“In a town where I was brought up, a woman was nearly buried alive
through having gone into a trance on being frightened by a young lady
who had put on a white sheet and pretended to be a ‘ghost.’ For years
she was liable to long spells of insensibility, from which nothing
could rouse her.
“The haste with which small-pox corpses are disposed of nowadays is to
be deprecated. They are usually buried within twelve hours of their
supposed death, and the cases I first mentioned show with what very
probable results. The only sure proof of death is decomposition, and
a law ought to be passed forbidding burial until signs of it have
appeared. Not very long since I was in a church-yard where a drain
was being made round the church, and was not a little struck by the
horrified look of a labourer who came to the vicar and stated that
they had come on a skull face downward, which, he said, put it beyond
doubt that the person it had belonged to had turned in his coffin
after burial.--I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
“B. A.
“June 18, 1884.”
The _Undertakers’ Journal_, May 22, 1895, has the following:--
[REV. HARRY JONES’ CASES.]
“The Reverend Harry Jones, in his reminiscences, and as a London
clergyman, declares his conviction that in times of panic from fatal
epidemics it is not unlikely that some people are buried alive.
Mr. Jones recalls a case within his knowledge of a young woman
pronounced to be dead from cholera, and actually laid out for the
usual collecting cart to call from the undertakers, when a neighbour
happened to come in and lament over her. The story continues thus:
‘And is poor Sarah really dead?’ she cried. ‘Well,’ said her mother,
‘she is, and she will soon be fetched away; but if you can do anything
you may do it.’ Acting on this permission the practical neighbour set
about rubbing Sarah profusely with mustard. Sarah sat up, stung into
renovated life, and so far recovered as to marry; ‘and I myself,’ says
Mr. Jones, ‘christened four or five of her children in the course of
the next few years.’ In another case, within Mr. Jones’ parochial
experiences in London, a man employed as potman lay _in extremis_. A
doctor was called in, who said ‘Turn him on his face, and I will put
a thick strip of flannel soaked in spirits of wine down his spine. We
will see what that will do.’ A sister brought a store of flannel, the
doctor soaked it in spirit, and prepared to apply it as he proposed.
First, however, he placed the soaking mass in a heap (almost as big as
a small hassock) in the middle of his back. Meanwhile the sister leant
forward with a candle and accidently set the hassock on fire. ‘This,’
adds the anecdotist, ‘woke the potman up;’ and not very long ago the
doctor told me he had seen him in a street near the Oxford Circus.”
From the _Daily Chronicle_, September 19, 1895.
“Sir,--I infer from the following facts that numbers of persons are
buried alive after being supposed to have succumbed to small-pox.
“Some years ago, at St. Paul’s, Belchamp, near Clare, a young man who
had been down with the small-pox was pronounced to be dead, and was
put into a coffin, which, fortunately, was left unclosed until after
the bell began to toll for his funeral, when he rose and stepped out.
He lived for many years after. In the same neighbourhood no less
than three other similar cases occurred, saving that the undertakers
were not so far forward in their work. Each of these would have been
buried alive but for the facts that in one case the nurse, having
suspicions, put a wine-glass over the mouth of the person (who had
been already ‘laid out’), and on returning in a quarter of an hour
found it dimmed with breath; and that in the other case the mother
of a mother, who with her baby was declared by the doctor to be dead,
had blankets heaped on them, and after a while had the satisfaction of
seeing them revive. Two of these three persons are, I believe, still
living, and would be just past middle-age. I enclose their names for
your private perusal, that you may verify my statements if desired.
The first-mentioned case happened about seventy years ago, but I heard
of it from residents in the neighbourhood about forty years after it
occurred.
“Nowadays as soon as a small-pox patient is supposed to be dead, he
or she is enclosed in a coffin and hurried off to the church-yard or
cemetery the ensuing night--at least this is the practice in country
places. I have no doubt that many have been buried alive.--Yours
faithfully,
“EX-CURATE.
“September 18.”
Brigade-Surgeon W. Curran cites from the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
April, 1873, in his Eighth Paper, entitled “Buried Alive,” as follows:--
[IMPORTANCE OF CAREFUL EXAMINATION.]
“On the 15th of October, 1842, a farmer who lived in the suburbs of
Neufchâtel (Lower Seine) went to sleep in his hay-loft in the midst of
some newly mown hay. As he did not get up at the usual hour the next
morning, his wife went to call him, and found him dead. When the time
for his funeral arrived, some twenty-four or thirty hours subsequently,
those who were charged with the burial put the body on a bier, and
having placed this on the ladder that communicated between the ground
and the loft, they allowed it to slide down. All of a sudden one of
the rungs of this ladder gave way, and the bier, falling through, was
dashed violently on the pavement below. The shock, which might have
been fatal to a live person, proved to be the ‘saving clause’ of our
supposed dead one; and fortunately, too, the attendants had not, as
so commonly happens in such contingencies, absconded; on the contrary,
responding without delay to the requirements of the situation, they
quickly realised the gravity of the crisis, and, unbinding the shrouds
of the farmer, they soon restored him to consciousness and life. He was
able, we are further told, to resume his ordinary duties in a few days
afterwards.”[7]
The _Undertakers’ and Funeral Directors’ Journal_, January 22, 1889,
says:--
“Mr. J. W. Smith, of 158 River Avenue, Alleghany” has just had, for
instance, a remarkably narrow escape of prematurely putting his family
in mourning, and one which will, we may be sure, be a very disagreeable
recollection for him during the rest of his existence. After a visit to
the Pittsburg Opera House one night, Mr. Smith was found lying ‘stiff
and cold’ behind the stove in the dining-room, and apparently dead. A
superficial examination by Dr. M’Cready confirmed the worst fears of
Mrs. Smith, but subsequently the doctor sought carefully for any little
spark of life which might lurk unseen, and, very fortunately for Mr.
Smith, found it. But, beyond that, nothing could be accomplished; no
effort to restore animation produced the slightest effect. Two other
physicians were then summoned; but neither attempts at bleeding, the
use of ‘mustard baths,’ nor the application of electricity, could
rouse Mr. Smith after his visit to the opera. For three weeks he lay
insensible, and when he regained consciousness a fever followed. This
event, and some others of a similar character which are occasionally
heard of, show that the examination of persons apparently dead should
always be undertaken by an efficient person, and by no means in a
perfunctory manner.”
The late Madame Blavatsky was subject to death-like trances, and Dr.
Franz Hartmann informs me that she would have been buried alive if
Colonel Olcott had not telegraphed to let her have time to awaken.