PREDISPOSING CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF DEATH-COUNTERFEITS.
THOSE who are most subject to the various forms of death-counterfeit
are persons whose vocations exhaust the nervous force faster than
the natural powers of recuperation, and who resort to narcotics and
stimulants to counteract the consequent physical depression. Dr. Alex.
Wilder, in his “Perils of Premature Burial,” London, E. W. Allen,
p. 19, says:--“We exhaust our energies by overwork, by excitement,
too much fatigue of the brain, the use of tobacco, and sedatives or
anæsthetics, and by habits and practices which hasten the Three Sisters
in spinning the fatal thread. Apoplexy, palsy, epilepsy, are likely to
prostrate any of us at any moment, and catalepsy, perhaps, is not very
far from any of us.” Equally, if not even more likely, to be overtaken
by these simulacra of death are the poor--the ill-fed, ill-conditioned,
and overworked classes.
With regard to the causation of catalepsy, Dr. W. R. Gowers, in Quain’s
“Dictionary of Medicine,” p. 216, says:--“Nervous exhaustion is the
common predisponent; and emotional disturbance, especially religious
excitement, or sudden alarm, and blows on the head and back, are
frequent immediate causes. It occasionally occurs in the course of
mental affections, and especially melancholia, and as an early symptom
of epilepsy.”
FAINTING FITS.
Dr. James Curry, F.A.S., in his “Observations on Apparent Death,” pp.
81, 82, referring to those conditions and diseases which predispose
to death-counterfeits, to which women are more liable than men,
says:--“The faintings which most require assistance, and to which,
therefore, I wish particularly to direct the attention of my readers
and the public, are those that take place from loss of blood, violent
and long-continued fits of coughing, excessive vomiting or purging,
great fatigue or want of food, and likewise after convulsions, and in
the advanced stage of low fevers. It is but seldom, however, that any
attempt at recovery is made in such cases; and several reasons may be
assigned for this, particularly the great resemblance that fainting
fits of any duration bear to _actual death_, and the firm belief of the
bystanders that the circumstances which preceded were sufficient to
destroy life entirely.”
The author continues, pp. 106, 107:--“Nervous and highly hysterical
females, who are subject to fainting fits, are the most frequent
subjects of this kind of apparent death; in which the person seems in
a state very nearly resembling that of hibernating animals, such as
the dormouse, bat, toad, frog, etc., which annually become insensible,
motionless, and apparently dead, on the setting in of the winter’s
cold, but spontaneously revive on the returning warmth of spring. Here,
by some peculiar and yet unknown circumstance, the vital principle has
its action suspended, but neither its existence destroyed, nor its
organs injured, so as absolutely to prevent recovery, if not too long
neglected.”
[THE VITAL PRINCIPLE SUSPENDED.]
Dr. Franz Hartmann reports a case which occurred within half a mile of
his residence near Hallein, Austria:--“At Oberalm, near Hallein, there
died the widow of a Dr. Ettenberger, a lawyer. It was known that she
had previously been affected with fits of catalepsy, and therefore all
possible means were taken for the purpose of restoring her to life.
All, however, were in vain, and her death appeared to be certain. On
the third day, just before the hour appointed for the funeral, the
family physician, Dr. Leber, bethought himself of trying some fresh
experiments on the corpse, when the woman revived. She had been fully
conscious all the time, and aware of all the preparations that were
made for her funeral, although unable to make it known to others that
she was still alive.”
Dr. Hartmann says:--“In 1866, in Kronstadt, a young and strong man,
Orrendo by name, had a fit and died. He was put into a coffin and
deposited in the family vault in a church. Fourteen years afterwards,
in 1880, the same vault was opened again for the purpose of admitting
another corpse. A horrible sight met those who entered. Orrendo’s
coffin was empty, and his skeleton lying upon the floor. But the rest
of the coffins were also broken open and emptied of their contents. It
seemed to show that the man after awakening had burst his coffin open,
and, becoming insane, had smashed the others, after which he had been
starved to death.”--_Premature Burial_, _p._ 7.
Bouchut, in “Signes de la Mort,” p. 40, relates that “A lawyer at
Vesoul was subject to fits of fainting, but kept the matter secret,
so that the knowledge of it might not spread and interfere with his
prospects of marriage; he only spoke confidentially of it to one of
his friends. The marriage took place, and he lived for some time in
good health, then suddenly fell into one of his fits, and his wife
and the doctors, believing him dead, had him placed in a coffin, and
got everything ready for the funeral. His friend was absent, but
fortunately returned just in time to prevent the burial. The lawyer
recovered, and lived for sixteen years after this event.”
INTENSE COLD.
[EFFECTS OF INTENSE COLD.]
M. Charles Londe, in “La Mort Apparente,” p. 16, says:--“Intense cold,
coincident with privations and fatigue, will produce all the phenomena
of apparent death--phenomena susceptible of prolongation during several
days without producing actual death, and consequently exposing the
individual who could be restored to life to living burial;” and he
further maintains it as an indisputable fact that every day people are
thus interred alive.
Struve, in his essay on “Suspended Animation,” p. 140, says:--“In no
case whatever is the danger of committing homicide greater than in the
treatment of persons who have suffered by severe cold. Their death-like
state may deceive our judgment, not only because such persons continue
longest apparently dead, but because the want of susceptibility of
irritation is in many cases not distinguishable from real death. A man
benumbed with cold burnt his feet, and had continued insensible to
pain, nor did he feel this sensation till he warmed them at a fire.
In this case it is evident that the susceptibility of irritation was
destroyed, while vital power remained.”
INFLUENZA.
This is a malady that has been enormously rife all over the world
during the past few years, and has baffled the efforts of physicians
and sanitarians to arrest its progress: it is sometimes accompanied by
conditions which can hardly be distinguished from catalepsy.
The _Lancet_, May 31, 1890, page 1215, gives the following:--
“CATALEPSY AS A SEQUELA OF INFLUENZA.
“The neurotic sequelæ of influenza seem engaging more attention abroad
than at home, probably from their symptoms being more pronounced than
on this side the Channel. ‘Nonna,’ as it is called, if something more
than the somnolence succeeding the exhaustion of influenza, has been
thought in Upper Italy to have much in common with catalepsy--one
case, indeed, amounting to the ‘apparent death’ of Pacini. This is
reported from Como. The patient, Pasquale Ossola by name, had to
all appearance died, and a certificate to that effect, after due
consultation, was drawn up and signed. Already it wanted but an hour
or so to the interment, when the ‘corpse’ began to move spontaneously
and to exhibit signs of returning life. The relatives of the supposed
dead man at once called in assistance, and though animation and
consciousness, even to recognition, were restored, the resuscitation
was not maintained, and the patient died. Fortunately, the funeral had
been arranged on the traditional lines, and the faint chance of return
to life was not extinguished by cremation.”
NARCOTICS.
[CHLOROFORM DEATHS PREVENTABLE.]
Referring to the supposed death of a girl, Sarola, aged eleven years,
to whom chloroform had been administered in September, 1894, under
peculiar circumstances, and the body hurried off to cremation, Dr.
Roger S. Chew, of Calcutta, writes:--“That bottle of medicine was
charged with having caused the death of little Sarola, who, I firmly
believe, was _burned alive_ while in a cataleptic condition induced by
the hysterical convulsions, and rendered profound by the administration
of the chloroform. Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lawrie agrees
with me that at least ninety per cent. of the chloroform deaths are
preventable if proper measures are adopted to resuscitate the body,
and it is quite possible for a chloroform narcotic to be launched
into eternity on the funeral pyre or in the suffocating earth. What
a mournful vista Sarola’s case opens up, and who can say how many
hundreds have been similarly disposed of!”--_Communicated to the
Author._
Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, in “The Absolute Signs and Proofs of
Death,” in the _Asclepiad_, first quarter, 1889, p. 9, says:--“In
the first experiments made in this country with chloral, after the
discovery of its effects by Liebriech, we learned that such a deep
narcotism could be induced by this narcotic that it might be impossible
to say whether an animal under its influence were alive or dead.” And
referring to cataleptic trance due to shock, he observes, p. 11, “True
traumatic catalepsy is equally remarkable, and equally embarrassing.
It has been witnessed in the most destructive form after shock by
lightning, and it may also have been met with after severe blows and
contusions of the head.”
CHOLERA.
Dr. Chew, referring to another of the predisposing causes of apparent
death, and the danger of premature burial in India, says:--“In the
cholera season there is a risk of a soldier being buried alive, as
the custom is to get rid of the body as soon as possible, and it is
very seldom indeed that a _post-mortem_ is held on a cholera corpse.
If the case be one of _true_ cholera, decomposition sets in before
the breath has entirely left the body, and, immediately life is
extinct, putrefaction rushes forward so rapidly as to render a mistake
impossible; but in choleraic diarrhœa or the lighter forms of cholera
it is possible that coma resultant on extreme collapse may suspend
animation so as to simulate real death _without_ actual cessation of
vital energy, and lead to live sepulture, except where, by some such
lucky accident as the burial ground being a long journey off, the
funeral is delayed sufficiently to give a chance of recovery. And this
same accident may prove a salvation in syncope or coma from shock or
protracted illness.
“With the civil population, save in very exceptional cases, there is
very little chance of recovery from apparent death, as the time between
alleged decease and sepulture is very short indeed; and unless there
are unmistakable signs of trance, syncope, or coma, the victim must die
_after he_ (or she) _has been buried alive_.”
VARIOUS PREDISPOSING DISEASES.
[THEIR NUMBER AND VARIETY.]
Living burials take place because the general public are ignorant of
the fact that there are many (some thirty) diseases, and some states
of the body that cannot be called diseases, as well as a number of
incidents and accidents, which produce all the appearances of death so
closely as to deceive any one.
Excessive joy or excessive grief will often paralyse the nervous
system, including the action of the heart and the respiratory
functions, and occasion the appearance of sudden death as well as
shocks, blows upon the head, fright, strokes of lightning, violent
displays of temper; also certain drugs now in common medical use, such
as Indian hemp, atropia, digitalis, tobacco, morphia, and veratrum.
According to Dr. Léonce Lénormand, in “Des Inhumations Précipitées,”
pp. 85-104, the following diseases and conditions not infrequently
produce the like symptoms, viz., apoplexy, asphyxia, catalepsy,
epilepsy, nervous exhaustion, ecstasy, hæmorrhage, hysteria, lethargy,
syncope, tetanus, etc.
Dr. Herbert Mayo in his “Letters on Truths contained in Popular
Superstitions,” p. 34, remarks “that death-trance belongs to diseases
of the nervous system, but in any form of disease, when the body is
brought to a certain state of debility, death-trance may supervene.”
Dr. Hartmann observes: “The cases in which persons apparently dead have
been restored to health by appropriate means are innumerable, and such
accounts may be added to without end, as they are of daily occurrence,
while it is also self-evident that, if they had not thus been saved,
premature burial and death in the coffin would have taken place. But it
also often happens that cases of apparent death recover spontaneously,
and even after all possible means taken for the restoration of life
have failed. This is specially the case in catalepsy, due to nervous
exhaustion, which requires no other remedy than sufficient rest for the
recuperation of the life-power, which no kind of medicine can supply.”