DURATION OF DEATH-COUNTERFEITS.
THE differences observed in the length of time that persons have
remained in this condition depended, doubtless, upon the constitutional
peculiarities of the patients--such as strength or weakness--or upon
the nature of the disease from which they may have suffered. Struve,
in his Essay, pp. 34-98, says “that it depends upon the proportion
of vital power in the individual. Hence children and young persons
will endure longer than the aged. Also upon the nature of the element
in which the accident happened, whether it contained greater or less
proportion of oxygenated or carbonic acid gas, or other poisonous
vapours. The latent vital power seems to be much longer preserved
when animation has been suspended by cold. A man revived after being
under snow forty hours. Persons apparently dead sometimes awake after
an interval of seven days, as was the case with Lady Russell.... In
the female sex, the suspension of vital power, spasms, fainting fits,
etc., originating from a hysterical, feeble constitution, are not
rare, nor is it improbable that the state of apparent death may be of
longer duration with them; nay, it may be looked upon as a periodical
disorder, in which all susceptibility of irritation is extinguished.”
Struve further remarks, p. 98, “that the state in which the vital
power is suspended, or in which there is a want of susceptibility
of stimuli, consists of infinite modifications, from the momentary
transient fainting fit, to a death-like torpor of a day’s duration.
The susceptibility of irritation may be completely suppressed, and the
apparently dead may be insensible of the strongest stimuli, such as the
operation of the knife, and the effects of a red-hot iron.”
[M. JOSAT’S OBSERVATIONS.]
M. Josat, in “De la Mort et de ses Caractères,” gives the result of
his own observations in one hundred and sixty-two instances, in which
apparent death lasted--
In 7 from 36 to 42 hours.
20 ” 20 to 36 ”
47 ” 15 to 20 ”
58 ” 8 to 15 ”
30 ” 2 to 8 ”
The order of frequency of diseases in which these occurred was as
follows:--Asphyxia, hysteria, apoplexy, narcotism, concussion of the
brain, the cases of concussion being the shortest.
The length of time a person may live in the grave will depend upon
similar concomitant conditions; but all things considered, a person
buried while in a state of trance, catalepsy, asphyxia, narcotism,
nervous shock, etc., and in any of the other states that cause apparent
death without passing through a course of disease, and that occur
during his or her usual health, will have a longer struggle before
life becomes extinct than one whose strength had been exhausted by
an attack of sickness. Estimates of the duration of such a struggle
differ considerably. Some writers believe that “however intense, it
must be short-lived.” As to the prolongation of the horrible suffering
incident to such tragic occurrences, Dr. Léonce Lénormand, in his
“Des Inhumations Précipitées,” pp. 2-4, observes--“It is a mistake to
think that a living person, enclosed in a narrow box, and covered with
several feet of earth, would succumb to immediate asphyxiation.”[16]
Dr. Charles Londe, in his “La Mort Apparent,” remarks:--“It has been
calculated that, after one quarter of the quantity of atmospheric air
contained in the coffin--approximately estimated at one hundred and
twenty litres--was exhausted, death would set in; therefore, it is
quite certain that, if the shroud is thick, and the coffin well closed,
and the grave impenetrable to the atmosphere, life could not last more
than forty to sixty minutes after inhumation. But is not that a century
of torture?”
Some allowance should be made for the persistence of the vital energy,
which continues after all atmospheric air is cut off. “Experiments on
dogs show that the average duration of the respiratory movements after
the animal has been deprived of air is four minutes five seconds. The
duration of the heart’s action is seven minutes eleven seconds. The
average of the heart’s action after the animal has ceased to make
respiratory efforts is three minutes fifteen seconds. These experiments
further showed that a dog may be deprived of air during three minutes
fifty seconds, and afterwards recover without the application of
artificial means.”[17]
[PERSISTENCE OF LIFE.]
Prof. P. Brouardel, M.D., Paris, in “La Morte Subité,” p. 35, observes
that:--“A dog, placed in a common coffin, lived five to six hours;
but a dog occupies less room than a man, who, in such a coffin, when
closed, would not have more than one hundred litres, so he would
possibly live twenty minutes. I would not wish anybody to pass twenty
such cruel minutes.”
“Mr. Bernard, a skilful surgeon of Paris, certified that, in the parish
of Riol, he himself, and several other bystanders, saw a monk of the
Order of St. Francis, who had been buried for three or four days, taken
from his grave breathing and alive, with his arms lacerated near the
swathes employed to secure them; but he died immediately after his
releasement. This gentleman also asserts that a faithful narrative of
so memorable an accident was drawn up by public authority, and that
the raising of the body was occasioned by a letter written from one of
the monk’s friends, in which it was affirmed that he was subject to
paroxysms of catalepsy.”--_The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, by
Surgeon M. Cooper. Dublin, 1748._
In a volume, entitled “Information Relative to Persons who have been
Buried Alive,” by Heinrich Friedrich Köppen, Halle, 1799, dedicated to
Frederick William III., King of Prussia, and Louise, Queen of Prussia,
are the nine following amongst many other cases:--
“_England._--Lady Russell, wife of a colonel in the army, was
considered dead, and only through the tender affection of her husband
was she saved from living burial. He would not allow her to be taken
away until decomposition would absolutely force him to do so. After
seven days, however, in the evening, when the bells were ringing, the
faithful husband had the triumph to see her eyes open and her return
to full consciousness.”
“_Halle, Germany._--Medical Professor Junker, in Halle, a very humane
man, had a corpse of a suicide--by hanging--delivered for dissection
at his college. He was placed on a table in the dissecting room, and
covered with a cloth. About midnight, while the professor was sitting
at his writing-table in an adjoining room, he heard a great noise
in the dissecting room, and fearing that cats were gnawing at the
corpses, he went out, and saw the cloth in a disturbed condition,
and on lifting it up found the corpse missing. As all the doors and
windows were closed, he searched the room, and found the missing one
crouching in a corner, trembling with cold, in the terror of death.
He besought the professor for mercy, help, and means for escape, as
he was a deserter from the army, and he would be severely punished
if caught. After consideration the kind professor clothed him,
and took him out of town at night as his own servant--passing the
guards--pretending to be on a professional visit, and set him free
in the country. Years afterwards he met the same man in Hamburg as a
prosperous merchant.”
“_Leipsic._--The wife of the publisher, Mathäus Hornisch, died, and,
according to the custom of the times, the coffin was opened before
being put into the ground. The grave-digger noticed golden rings on
her fingers, and in the following night went to the grave to steal
them--which he found was not easy to do--when suddenly she drew back
her arm. The robber ran away frightened, leaving his lantern at the
grave. The woman recovered, but could not make out where she was, and
cried for help. No one heard her; so she got out of the grave, took
the lantern, and went to her home. Knocking at the door, the servant
called to know who it was. She replied, “Your mistress. Open the door;
I am cold, and freezing to death.” The master was called; and happily
she was restored to her home again, where she lived for several years
longer.”
“_Pavese, Italy, 1787._--A clergyman was buried, and noises were heard
in his grave afterwards. Upon opening the grave and the coffin, the
man was found alive, and violently trembling with fright.”
“_Paris, 1787._--A carpenter was buried, noises were heard proceeding
from his grave, and upon opening it he was found to be breathing. He
was taken to his home, where he recovered.”
[DR. KÖPPEN’S CASES.]
“_Stadamhof, 1785._--A young, healthy girl, on the way to a wedding,
had an apoplectic stroke, as it was thought, and fell as if dead. The
following day she was buried. The grave-digger, who was occupied near
her grave that night, heard noises in it, and being superstitious ran
home in fright. The following morning he returned to finish a grave
he was digging, and heard the whining again from the girl’s grave.
He called for help, the grave was opened, when they found the girl
turned over, her face scratched and bloody, her fingers bitten, and
her mouth full of blood. She was dead, with evidences of most dreadful
suffering.”
“_France._--Madame Lacour died after a long sickness, and was buried
in a vault of a church, with all her jewels on. Her maid and the
sexton opened the coffin the following night to steal the jewellery,
when some hot wax from the candle they were using fell on the
woman’s face and woke her up. The robbers fled in fright, and the
woman went back to her home. She lived many years afterwards, and
had a son who became a priest, who in turn--inheriting his mother’s
nature--underwent a fate similar to her own.”
“_Lyons, France._--The wife of a merchant died. Two days after her
seeming death, and just before the time set for her burial, her
husband, who, it seems, had some doubts as to her death, had her
taken from the coffin, and had a scarifier used in cupping applied in
twenty-five places without bringing any blood, but the twenty-sixth
application brought her to consciousness with a scream, and she
recovered completely.”
“_Cadillac._--A woman had been buried in the morning. In the following
morning whining was heard in her grave. It was opened, and the woman
was found still alive, but she had mutilated half of her right arm and
the whole hand. She was finally restored.”
The _Spectator_, October 11, 1895, publishes particulars of a recent
case of recovery, after three days’ interment, in Ireland. See pp. 111,
112 in this volume.
Köppen’s investigations led him to observe that--“Human life may
appear to come to a stop, and no one can say it will not go on again,
if time enough is allowed for it to do so. This even the most learned
in medicine cannot explain away or deny; and the greatest precaution
should be taken before death is declared to exist.”