CONCLUSION.
IT is universally admitted that nothing is less certain than life; and
if the reader will weigh the facts, which it has been the authors’
intention to understate rather than overstate, he will rightly conclude
that nothing is more uncertain than the signs which are ordinarily
accepted as indicating death. It would have been easy to fill a much
larger volume than this with reports of authentic cases of premature
burial, and narrow escapes from such terrible mischances, and with more
detailed results of the authors’ researches on the subject in various
parts of Europe and America, as well as in the East. The cases adduced
to illustrate the text are, however, presented as types of hundreds of
others obtainable from equally reputable sources, and to be found in
the works of various trustworthy authorities, the titles of which can
be seen in the Bibliography at the end of this volume.
The _London Review_ for July, 1791, p. 40, referring to “An Essay
on Vital Suspension: Being an Attempt to Investigate and Ascertain
those Diseases in which the Principles of Life are Apparently
Extinguished,” by a Medical Practitioner--observes, that this is one
of many publications “written by physicians and surgeons, versed in
medical science, and well skilled in anatomy, to demonstrate, beyond
a possibility of contradiction, that there are many cases in which
the human body has the appearance of death, and preserves it for a
considerable time, without the reality; the vital principle being
still unsubdued, and a restoration of all its powers and functions
practicable by the administration, in due time, of proper means.”
The author of the pamphlet under review says, “It is a proof of the
temerity and imbecility of human judgment, that we have too many
instances on record, wherein even the most skilful physicians have
erred in the decisions they have pronounced respecting the extinction
of life.”
[IMBECILITY OF HUMAN JUDGMENT.]
Unfortunately, we appear to be no nearer the prevention of these
terrible mistakes now than we were when the reviewer called attention
to them a century ago. The imbecility of human judgment complained
of exists now in an unmitigated degree. The appearance of death is
generally taken for its reality: and the great mass of the inhabitants
of this planet are hurried to their graves without (except in a
comparatively few cases of drowning or poisoning) the application of
any serious efforts at restoration, and without waiting for unequivocal
signs of dissolution.
Whether the risks of being buried alive are as great as those declared
by some of the authorities quoted in this volume, must be left to the
reader to determine for himself; but that they are considerable there
appears little room for doubt by those who have taken the trouble to
inquire into the facts. How often is the reader shocked by reading
narratives in his daily or weekly newspaper of persons either buried
alive, or of those in a state of suspended animation, but diagnosed and
duly certificated by the attending doctor as dead, who have returned to
consciousness during the funeral rites or at the grave itself.
The _Lancet_ has borne frequent testimony to these disasters, some
of which are quoted in this volume; and, just as we are writing the
closing chapter, the leading medical journal, in its issue of September
12, 1896, p. 785, records the following from its Cork correspondent as
having occurred at Little Island, Ireland, which, the writer says, is
thoroughly vouched for:--
“A child of four years of age contracted (typhoid) fever, and to all
ordinary appearances died. The time of the funeral was appointed, and
friends were actually on their way to attend it. When the supposed
corpse was about to be removed from the bed to the coffin, signs of
animation were exhibited. The services of the medical man were again
requisitioned, and the child, opportunely rescued from such a terrible
death, is now progressing satisfactorily.”
Amongst the headings of paragraphs taken from recent papers lying
before me are the following:--“Buried Alive,” “A Gruesome Narrative,”
“Restored to Life in a Mortuary,” “Premature Burial,” “The Dead Alive,”
“Buried Alive,” “Sounds from Another Coffin,” “Mistaken for Dead,” “A
Lady Nearly Buried Alive,” “Revivification After Burial,” “A Woman’s
Awful Experience,” “Bolt Upright in His Coffin,” “Almost Buried while
Alive,” “A Woman Buried Alive,” “The Corpse Sat Up,” “Alive in Her
Coffin,” “Seemed to Rise from Death,” “Escaped Burial Alive,” “Revival
at a Wake,” “Snatched from Death at the Graveside,” “Laid Out, but not
Dead,” “Alive in His Grave,” “Interment before Death,” “Came to Life in
the Coffin,” “Corpse Seems to Live,” “The Corpse Moved,” etc.
According to the “London Manual and Municipal Year Book,” 1896-97,
there are over four hundred public authorities at work in governing
London, who spend over twelve million pounds a year, and from other
sources it is said that seven millions a year are collected in the
Metropolis for charitable purposes, and yet there are no officials,
associations, or insurance companies to safeguard the people either in
this wealthy Metropolis or in any part of the United Kingdom against
one of the most terrible physical calamities that can overtake any
member of the human family.
[EXPECTATIONS OF LIFE.]
The Registrar-General’s Decennial Supplement for 1881-90, published
this year (1896), includes a “Life Table” furnishing the expectations
of life in England and Wales. It appears that the death-rate has fallen
from 21.3 in the decade ending 1880 to 19.0 per thousand living in
that ending 1890. The expectation of life at birth, according to the
actuary’s standard in the decade 1871-80, was 41.3 years for males, and
44.6 years for females. This has been increased, as shown in the “Life
Table” 1881-90, to 43.6 for males, and 47.2 for females, mainly through
sanitary amelioration. A perceptible increase, the author believes,
could be shown if steps were taken to restore still-born children, who
constitute about five per cent. of births, and if the same trouble were
adopted to restore the apparently dead from other diseases (which are
sometimes only crises of repose after wasting disease) as is generally
taken with respect to those accidentally poisoned or drowned. Besides
reducing the mortality and increasing the expectation of life, such
a reform would greatly diminish the appalling suffering of those
who, through our apathy and ignorance, are, under our present system
of _laissez faire_, consigned to precipitate interment, and would
bring tranquillity of mind to those who are haunted all their lives
through fear of such a catastrophe. Why we should limit our efforts
at restoration of those apparently dead to a few cases has never been
shown, and is surely a serious oversight, which should be remedied
without delay.
Dr. Hartmann, in “Premature Burial,” observes--“As by cleaning a
dusty watch the watchmaker causes the hindrances to be removed which
prevented the energy stored up in the watch from setting the clockwork
in motion, so, in cases of apparent death from catalepsy, asphyxia,
syncope, and other diseases causing obstacles to the manifestation
of the life-energy in the body, these obstacles may be removed by
appropriate means, such as are known to many intelligent physicians,
and the energy of life being latent in the physical form may be enabled
to manifest itself again when the harmony of the organism has been
sufficiently restored, even after the heart has entirely ceased to
beat.”
Dr. A. Fothergill says:--“Since no one, from prince to peasant, can
at all times be secure from these dreadful disasters, which suddenly
suspend vital action; and since medical practitioners themselves are
not exempt, it surely becomes them to use every exertion to _improve_
the art of _restoring animation_. May each progressive step in this
interesting path of science tend to that great object! and may every
laudable attempt undertaken with that benevolent view enable us with
more certainty to preserve life and to diminish the sum of human
infelicity!”
It is regrettable that medical practitioners, neither in this nor in
any of the Continental states, except, possibly, a few in Germany,
have been trained to distinguish apparent from real death; and when
a case of death-trance occurs, they certify to actual death, and the
unfortunate person is interred in a strong coffin, which effectually
conceals the tragedy following resuscitation. Moreover, the ordinary
practitioner, both in England and the United States, considers himself
exonerated from blame when he thus follows the traditions and practice
of the heads of his profession. Personally, he has neither the time,
opportunity, or inclination to study the abnormal phenomena of trance,
catalepsy, or hypnotisation, and thus the evil of live sepulture is
perpetuated from generation to generation.
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS.
(1) An examination of both the historical and modern cases of trance,
catalepsy, and other death-counterfeits shows that nothing is more
uncertain than the so-called signs of death, and that in all countries
and in all ages many persons supposed by their attendant physicians and
relations to be dead have revived, while the cases are as numerous and
the danger as great at the present day as at any previous period.
(2) That the risk of premature burial is especially serious in France,
in Spain and Portugal, in the west of Ireland, in both European and
Asiatic Turkey, and in India; also amongst the Jews, where both the
Jewish law and ancient customs enjoin burial within a few hours of
death, and for similar reasons in all Oriental countries; and in the
Southern States of North America.
(3) That the various signs which are supposed to indicate death, such
as the cessation of respiration and of cardiac action, a pale, waxy
and death-like appearance, the stiffening of the limbs, or _rigor
mortis_, insensibility to cutaneous excitation, the departure of heat
from the body, are singly and collectively illusory; the only safe and
infallible test of dissolution being the manifestation of putrefaction
in the abdomen.
(4) That medical death-certificates have been shown by various
witnesses before the Select Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry
of 1893-94 to be often misleading as to the cause of death, and
inconclusive as to the fact of death. Any compulsory extension of the
death-certification system in the present imperfect state of medical
knowledge would only partially meet the necessities of the case,
and might have the effect of crystallising a defective system into
perfunctory routine. A certain safeguard would, however, be provided
if the law made it binding on medical practitioners to set forth on
the death-certificate a precise statement of indications showing that
dissolution has actually occurred.
(5) That the only safe and effective method of reform is the
establishment of appropriately designed waiting mortuaries, such as
are provided at Munich, Weimar, Stuttgart, and other German cities,
with qualified attendants and appliances for resuscitation, and where
doubtful cases of death (and all are doubtful in which decomposition
has not clearly manifested itself) can be deposited until the fact of
death is unequivocally established.
(6) That premature burial in civilised countries is mainly possible
owing to the fact that instruction in the phenomena of trance,
catalepsy, syncope, and other forms of suspended animation is not
systematic in the medical schools in any country, and the means of
prevention are therefore practically unknown. This omission should be
immediately remedied by the inclusion of the subject at the appropriate
place in the medical curriculum, and in the examination for degrees.
(7) That, inasmuch as a radical change in the methods of treating
the dead or supposed dead is extremely urgent, and legislation with
an overworked Parliament in England and apathetic State Legislatures
in America will probably be delayed, the authors recommend, as a
preliminary measure of protection, the formation of associations for
the prevention of premature burial amongst their members, as in some
cities in France, Austria, and the United States, or the alternative
plan of engrafting such an obligation of prevention upon existing
associations, clubs, and insurance companies established for other
purposes.
* * * * *
If the foregoing conclusions are established, the need for immediate
action is urgent and imperative, and the prompt intervention of
Parliament should be at once invoked. May we hope for the cordial
co-operation of all classes and of all sections on a question in
which the whole community have a deep and vital interest, and on which
procrastination will certainly be fatal to some of its members. It is
not an academic question, but one of the gravest practical character,
the earnest consideration and treatment of which cannot be neglected
with impunity.
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
HISTORICAL CASES OF RESTORATION FROM APPARENT DEATH.
FROM the time of Kornmann, Terilli, and Zacchia (see “Bibliography,”
seventeenth century), certain notable instances, from old authors,
of restoration from apparent death have been cited, with a good deal
of uniformity, in essays or theses on this subject. One of the most
convenient (to English readers) of these compilations is to be found in
an anonymous essay, “The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death,” Dublin,
1748 (printed by George Faulkner), from which the following extracts
are taken _verbatim_:--
Plutarch informs us that a certain person fell from an eminence, but
did not show the least appearance of any wound, for, three days after,
he suddenly resumed his strength, and returned to life as his friends
were conveying him to the grave.
Asclepiades, a celebrated physician, on his return from his country
seat, met a large company conveying a corpse to the grave. A principle
of curiosity induced him to ask the name of the deceased person, but
grief and sorrow reigned so universally that no one returned him
answer; upon which, approaching the corpse, he found the whole of it
rubbed over with perfumes, and the mouth moistened with precious balm,
according to the custom of the Greeks; then carefully feeling every
part, and discovering latent signs of life, he forthwith affirmed that
the person was not dead, and the person was saved.--_Celsus ii., 6, “De
re Medica.”_
In the tenth book of Plato’s Republic is related the story of one
Er, an Armenian, who was slain in battle. Ten days after, when the
surviving soldiers came with a view to inter the dead, they found all
the bodies corrupted except his; for which reason they conveyed him to
his own house in order to inter him in the usual manner. But two days
after, to the great surprise of all present, he returned to life when
laid on the funeral pile. Quenstedt remarks upon this case, which he
took from Kornmann’s treatise “De Miraculis Mortuorum,” “That the soul
sometimes remains in the body when the senses are so fettered, and, as
it were, locked up, that it is hard to determine whether a person is
dead or alive.” Pliny in his “Natural History,” book vii., chap. 52,
which treats of _those who have returned to life when they were about
to be laid in the grave_, tells us that Acilius Aviola, a man of so
considerable distinction that he had formerly been honoured with the
consulship, returned to life when he was upon the funeral pile; but, as
he could not be rescued from the violence of the flames, he was burnt
alive. The like misfortune also happened to Lucius Lamia, who had been
praetor. These two shocking accidents are also related by Valerius
Maximus. Celius Tubero had a happier fate than his two fellow-citizens,
since, according to Pliny, he discovered the signs of life before it
was too late. His state, however, was far from eligible, since, being
laid on the funeral pile, he stood a fair chance of being exposed to
the like misfortune. Pliny, from the testimony of Varro, adds that when
a distribution of land was making at Capua, a certain man, when carried
a considerable way from his own house in order to be interred, returned
home on foot. The like surprising accident also happened at Aquinum.
The last instance of this nature related by the author occurred at
Rome, and Pliny must, no doubt, have been intimately acquainted with
all its most minute circumstances, since the person was one Cerfidius,
the husband of his mother’s sister, who returned to life after an
agreement had been made for his funeral with the undertaker, who was
probably much disappointed when he found him alive and in good health.
These examples drawn from Roman history greatly contribute to establish
the uncertainty of the signs of death, and ought to render us very
cautious with respect to interments.
Greece and Italy are not the only theatres in which such tragical
events have been acted, since other countries of Europe also furnish
us with instances of a like nature. Thus, Maximilian Misson, in his
“Voyage Through Italy,” tome i, letter 5, tells us--
“That the number of persons who have been interred as dead, when they
were really alive, is very great in comparison with those who have
been happily rescued from their graves; for, in the town of Cologne,
Archbishop Geron--according to Albertus Krantzïus--was interred alive,
and died for want of a seasonable releasement.”
It is also certain that in the same town the like misfortune happened
to Johannes Duns Scotus, who in his grave tore his hands and wounded
his head. Misson also relates the following:--
“Some years ago the wife of one, Mr. Mervache, a goldsmith of
Poictiers, being buried with some rings on her fingers, as she had
desired when dying, a poor man of the neighbourhood, being apprised
of that circumstance, next night opened the grave in order to make
himself master of the rings, but as he could not pull them off without
some violence, he in the attempt waked the woman, who spoke distinctly,
and complained of the injury done her. Upon this, the robber made
his escape. The woman, now roused from an apoplectic fit, rose from
her coffin, returned to her own house, and in a few days recovered a
perfect state of health.”
What induced Misson to relate these histories was a certain piece of
painting preserved in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Cologne, in
order to keep up the memory of a certain accident, which that traveller
relates in the following manner:--
“In the year 1571, the wife of one of the magistrates of Cologne being
interred with a valuable ring on one of her fingers, the grave-digger
next night opened the grave in order to take it off, but we may readily
suppose that he was in no small consternation when the supposed dead
body squeezed his hand, and laid fast hold of him, in order to get
out of her coffin. The thief, however, disengaging himself, made his
escape with all expedition; and the lady, disentangling herself in the
best manner she could, went home and knocked at her own door, where,
after shivering in her shroud, after some delay she was admitted by the
terror-stricken servants; and, being warmed and treated in a proper
manner, completely recovered.”
Simon Goubart, in his admirable and memorable histories, printed at
Geneva in 1628, relates the following accident:--“A lady, whose name
was Reichmuth Adoloh, was supposed to fall a victim to a pestilence,
which raged with such impetuous fury as to cut off most of the
inhabitants of Cologne. Soon after, however, she not only recovered her
health, but also brought into the world three sons, who, in process of
time, were advanced to livings in the Church.”
“The town of Dijon, in Burgundy, was, in the year 1558, afflicted
with a violent plague, which cut off the inhabitants so fast that
there was not time for each dead person to have a separate grave;
for which reason large pits were made and filled with as many bodies
as they could contain. In this deplorable conjuncture, Mrs. Nicole
Tentillet shared the common fate, and after labouring under the
disorder for some days, fell into a syncope so profound that she was
taken for dead, and accordingly buried in a pit with the other dead
bodies. The next morning after her interment she returned to life,
and made the strongest efforts to get out, but was held down by the
weight of the bodies with which she was covered. She remained in this
wretched condition for four days, when the grave-diggers took her out
and carried her to her own house, where she recovered perfectly.”
Following this case, that of a labouring man of Courçelles, near
Neuchâtel, is narrated. He fell into so profound syncope that he was
taken for dead; but the persons who were putting him into his grave
without a coffin, perceived some motion in his shoulders, for which
reason they carried him to his own home, where he perfectly recovered.
This accident laid the foundation for his being called the ghost of
Courçelles.
“A lawyer of Vesoul, a town of Franche-Comté, near Besançon, so
carefully concealed a lethargy, to which he was subject, that nobody
knew anything of his disorder, though the paroxysms returned very
frequently. The motive which principally induced him to this secrecy
was the dread of losing a lady to whom he was just about to be married.
Being afraid, however, lest some paroxysm should prove fatal to him,
he communicated his case to the Sheriff of the town, who, by virtue of
his office, was obliged to take care of him if such a misfortune should
happen. The marriage was concluded, and the lawyer for a considerable
time enjoyed a perfect state of health, but at last was seized with so
violent a paroxysm of the disease that his lady, to whom he had not
revealed the secret, not doubting his death, ordered him to be put in
his coffin. The Sheriff, though absent when the paroxysm seized him,
luckily returned in time to preserve him; for he ordered the interment
to be delayed, and the lawyer, returning to life, survived the accident
sixteen years.”
Another case is that of a certain person who was conveyed to the church
in order to be interred, but one of his friends sprinkling a large
quantity of holy water on his face, which was covered, he not only
returned to life, but also resumed a perfect state of health.
This writer subjoins other histories of persons who, being interred
alive, have expired in their graves and tombs, as has afterwards been
discovered by various marks made, not only in their sepulchres, but
also in their own bodies. He in a particular manner mentions a young
lady of Auxbourg, who, falling into a syncope, in consequence of a
suffocation of the matrix, was buried in a deep vault, without being
covered with earth, because her friends thought it sufficient to have
the vault carefully shut up. Some years after, however, one of the
family happened to die; the vault was opened, and the body of the young
lady found on the stairs at its entry, without any fingers on the right
hand.
It is recorded in “Tr. de Aere et Alim. defect.,” cap. vii., that a
certain woman was hanged, and in all appearances was dead, who was
nevertheless restored to life by a physician accidentally coming in and
ordering a plentiful administration of sal ammoniac.
Another case of hanging is the story of Anne Green, executed at Oxford,
December 14, 1650. She was hanged by the neck for half an hour,
some of her friends thumping her on the breast, others hanging with
all their weight upon her legs, and then pulling her down again with
a sudden jerk, thereby the sooner to despatch her out of her pain.
After she was in her coffin, being observed to breathe, a lusty fellow
stamped with all his force on her breast and stomach to put her out of
pain. But by the assistance of Dr. Petty, Dr. Willis, Dr. Bathurst, and
Dr. Clark, she was again brought to life.
Kornmann, in his treatise “De Miraculis Mortuorum,” relates the
following history:--“Saint Augustine, from Saint Cirille, informs
us that a Cardinal of the name of Andrew having died in Rome in the
presence of several bystanders, was next day conveyed to the church,
where the Pope and a body of the clergy attended service in order to do
honour to his memory. But to their great surprise, after some groans,
he recovered his life and senses. This event was at the time looked
upon as a miracle, and ascribed to Saint Jerome to whom the Cardinal
was greatly attached.”
The following account seems more to resemble a miracle, though we do
not find that it was looked upon as such:--“Gocellinus, a young man,
and nephew to one of the Archbishops of Cologne, falling into the
Rhine, was not found for fifteen days after, but was discovered to be
alive as he lay before the shrine of Saint Guibert.”
Persons curious or incredulous upon the dangers of precipitate burials
may, for their satisfaction, have recourse to the medical observations
of Forestus; those of Amatus Lusitanus; the chirurgical observations of
William Fabri; the treatise of Levinus Lemnius on the secret miracles
of Nature; the observations of Schenkins; the medico-legal questions
of Paul Zacchias; Albertinus Bottonus’s treatise of the Disorders of
Women; Terilli’s treatise on the Causes of Sudden Death; Lancisi’s
treatise Concerning Deaths, and Kornmann’s treatise on the Miracles of
the Dead. These authors furnish us with a great variety of the most
palpable and flagrant instances of the uncertainty of the signs of
death. As examples of the possibility of even great anatomists being
imposed upon by these fallacious signs, the two following accidents are
given:--
“Andreas Vesalius, successively first physician to Charles the Fifth
and his son Philip the Second of Spain, being persuaded that a certain
Spanish gentleman, whom he had under management, was dead, asked
liberty of his friends to lay open his body. His request being granted,
he no sooner plunged his dissecting-knife in the body than he observed
signs of life in it, since, upon opening the breast, he saw the heart
palpitating. The friends of the deceased, horrified by the accident,
pursued Vesalius as a murderer; and the judges inclined that he should
suffer as such. By the entreaties of the King of Spain, he was rescued
from the threatening danger, on condition that he would expiate his
crime by undertaking a voyage to the Holy Land.”
The account of the accident that befell the other anatomist is taken
from Terilli, and runs as follows:--
“A lady of distinction in Spain, being seized with an hysteric
suffocation so violent that she was thought irretrievably dead, her
friends employed a celebrated anatomist to lay open her body to
discover the cause of her death. Upon the second stroke of the knife
she was roused from her disorder, and discovered evident signs of
life by her lamentable shrieks extorted by the fatal instrument. This
melancholy spectacle struck the bystanders with so much consternation
and horror that the anatomist, now no less condemned and abhorred
than before applauded and extolled, was forthwith obliged to quit not
only the town but also the province in which the guiltless tragedy
was acted. But though he quitted the now disagreeable scene of the
accident, a groundless remorse preyed upon his soul, till at last a
fatal melancholy put an end to his life.”
Physicians of the earlier ages knew that there were disorders which so
locked up or destroyed the external senses that the patients labouring
under them appeared to be dead. According to Mr. Le Clerc, in his
“History of Medicine,” Diogenes Laertius informs us “that Empedocles
was particularly admired for curing a woman supposed to be dead, though
that philosopher frankly acknowledged that her disorder was only a
suffocation of the matrix, and affirmed that the patient might live in
that state (the absence of respiration) for thirty days.”
Mr. Le Clerc, in the work already quoted, tells us that “Heraclides
of Pontus wrote a book concerning the causes of diseases, in which he
affirmed that a patient is without respiration in certain disorders
for thirty days, and that they appeared dead in every respect, except
corruption of the body.”
To these authorities we may add that of Pliny, who, after mentioning
the lamentable fate of Aviola and Lamia, affirms--“That such is the
condition of humanity, and so uncertain the judgment men are capable of
forming of things, that even death itself is not to be trusted to.”
Colerus, in “Oeconom.” part vi., lib. xviii., cap. 113, observes, “That
a person as yet not really dead may, for a long time, remain apparently
in that state without discovering the least signs of life; and this has
happened in the times of the Plague, when a great many persons interred
have returned to life in their graves.” Authors also inform us that the
like accident frequently befalls women seized with a suffocation of the
matrix (hysteria).
Forestus, in “Obs. Med.,” 1. xvii., obs. 9, informs us--“That drowned
persons have returned to life after remaining forty-eight hours in the
water; and sometimes women, buried during a paroxysm of the hysteric
passion, have returned to life in their graves; for which reason it is
forbidden in some countries to bury the dead sooner than seventy-two
hours after death.” This precaution of delaying the interment of
persons thought to be dead is of a very ancient date, since Dilberus,
in “Disput. Philol.,” tome i., observes that Plato ordered the bodies
of the dead to be kept till the third day, _in order to be satisfied of
the reality of death_.
The burial customs of the ancients often included steps that were taken
as a precaution against mistaking the living for the dead. Indeed the
fear of such an accident seems to have always been entertained as a
thing liable to occur in every case of seeming death. The embalming
process employed by the Egyptians was a surgical test of the kind.
The abdomen was first opened in order to remove the intestines, and
some startling experiences must have been had in consequence of the
incisions required for this operation, because it was customary for the
friends and relatives of the deceased to throw stones at the persons
employed in embalming as soon as the work was over, owing to the horror
with which they were struck upon witnessing what must have been at
times a cruel proceeding.
The funeral ceremonies used in the Caribbee Islands are, in a great
measure, conformable to reason. They wash the body, wrap it up in
a cloth, and then begin a series of lamentations and discourses
calculated to recall the deceased to life, by naming all the pleasures
and privileges he has enjoyed in the world, saying over and over again,
“How comes it, then, that you have died?” When the lamentations are
over, they place the body on a small seat, in a grave about four or
five feet deep, and for ten days present aliments to it, entreating it
to eat. Then, convinced that it would neither eat nor return to life,
they, for its obstinacy, throw the victuals on its head, and cover up
the grave. It is evident from the practices of this people that they
wait so long before they cover the body with earth, because they have
had instances of persons recalled to life by these measures.
Lamentations of a similar kind were employed by the Jews and Romans, as
well as by the ancient Prussians and the inhabitants of Servia, founded
doubtless upon similar experiences.
The Thracians, according to Herodotus, kept their dead for only three
days, at the end of which time they offered up sacrifices of all kinds,
and, after bidding their last adieu to the deceased, either burned or
interred their bodies.
According to Quenstedt, the ancient Russians laid the body of the dead
person naked on a table, and washed it for an hour with warm water.
Then they put it into a bier, which was set in the most public room in
the house. On the third day they conveyed it to the place of interment,
where the bier, being opened, the women embraced the body with great
lamentations. Then the singers spent an hour in shouting and making
a noise in order to recall it to life; after which it was let down
into the grave and covered with earth. So that this people used the
test of warm water, that of cries, and a reasonable delay, before they
proceeded to the interment.
In the laws and history of the Jews, there is but one regulation with
respect to interment (in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy),
where the Jewish legislator orders persons hanged to be buried the same
day. From this, one is led to infer that the funeral ceremonies, as
handed down from Adam, were otherwise perfect and unexceptionable. The
bier used by the Jews, on which the body was laid, was not shut at the
top, as our coffins are, as is obvious from the resurrection of the
Widow of Nain’s son, recorded in the seventh chapter of Luke, where
these words occur:--“And he came and touched the bier, and they that
bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise;
and he that was dead sat up and began to speak.”
Gierus and Calmet inform us that the body, before its interment, lay
for some days in the porch or dining-room of the house. According to
Maretus, it was probably during this time that great lamentations were
made, in which the name of the deceased was intermixed with mournful
cries and groans.
Mr. Boyer, member of the Faculty at Paris, observes that such
lamentations are still used by the Eastern Jews, and even by the Greeks
who embrace the articles of the Greek Church. These people hire women
to weep and dance by turns round the body of the dead person, whom they
interrogate with respect to the reasons they had for dying.
Lanzoni, a physician of Ferrara, informs us that “when any person among
the Romans died, his nearest relatives closed his mouth and eyes, and
when they saw him ready to expire, they caught his last words and
sighs. Then calling him aloud three times by his name, they bade him an
eternal adieu.” This ceremony of calling the name of the dying person
was called Conclamation, a custom that dates prior to the foundation of
Rome, and was only abolished with paganism.
Propertius acquaints us with the effect they expected from the
first Conclamation--since there were several of them. He introduces
Cynthia as saying, “Nobody called me by my name at the time my eyes
were closing, and I should have enjoyed an additional day if you had
recalled me to life.”
Conclamations were made also by trumpets and horns, blown upon the
head, into the ears, and upon neck and chest, so as to penetrate all
the cavities of the body, into which, as the ancients imagined, the
soul might possibly make her retreat.
Quenstedt and Casper Barthius, in “Advers.,” lib. xxxvii., ch. 17, tell
us that it was customary among the ancients to wash the bodies of their
dead in warm water before they burned them, “that the heat of the water
might rouse the languid principle of life which might possibly be left
in the body.”
By warm water we are to understand boiling water, as is obvious from
the copious steam arising from the vessel represented in pieces of
statuary in such instances: as also from the Sixth Book of Virgil’s
“Æneid”--“Some of the companions of Æneas, with boiling water taken
from brazen vessels, wash the dead body, and then anoint it.”
The Romans, as Lanzoni informs us, kept the bodies of the dead seven
days before they interred them; and Servius, in his commentary on
Virgil, tells us “that on the eighth day they burned the body, and
on the ninth put its ashes in the grave.” Polydorus and Alexander ab
Alexandro are also of opinion that the Romans kept the dead seven
days; and Gierus affirms that they sometimes did not bury them till
the ninth; but it is easy to believe that they deviated from the most
universal custom when evident and incontestable marks of death rendered
it safe to inter before the usual time. Alexander ab Alexandro also
observes that it was customary among the Greeks to keep the bodies of
their dead seven days before they put them on the funeral pile.
It would have, perhaps, been sufficient to have kept the bodies of the
dead seven days, or nine, or till putrefaction evinced the certainty of
death; but the Romans carried their circumspection farther, since, to
use the words of Quenstedt, “Those who were employed in watching the
dead now and then began their conclamations, and all at once called
the dead person aloud by his name, because, as Celsus informs us, the
principle of life is often thought to have left the body when it still
remains in it; for which reason conclamations were made, in order, if
possible, to rouse it and excite it.”
If our senses are so imperfect that the signs of life may escape
them; if the languid state of the sensitive powers, or the origin of
the nerves, is such that the most painful chirurgical operations are
sometimes insufficient to put the spirits in motion; if the duration
of a perfect insensibility for a considerable number of days is a
precarious and uncertain mark of death; and if situations, apparently
the most inconsistent with life, for a considerable time amount only to
strong presumptions that life is destroyed, we ought, with Mr. Winslow
and a great many other celebrated authors, to conclude that a beginning
of putrefaction is the only certain sign of death.
Mr. Winslow evidently proves that the most cruel chirurgical operations
are sometimes insufficient to ascertain death. From these observations
we can but conclude--(1) That it is to no purpose to use the most
cruel chirurgical operations; and (2) that it is necessary to abstain
from such as may prove mortal to the patient. Mr. Winslow is indeed so
far from recommending operations of the last mentioned kind, that he
calls it rash to plunge a long needle under the nail of an apoplectic
patient’s toe.
But if Mr. Winslow thinks it rash to make a simple puncture in a
nervous part, we ought, surely, not to entertain a favourable notion of
the large and enormous incisions made in dissections. Those, indeed,
who are dissected run no risk of being interred alive. The operation is
an infallible means to secure them from so terrible a fate. This is one
advantage which persons dissected have over those who are without any
further ceremony shut up in their coffins.
* * * * *
In the appendix to the second edition of Dr. Curry’s “Observations on
Apparent Death” several instances of a similar kind are added, and
amongst others the case of William Earl of Pembroke, who died April
30, 1630. When the body was opened in order to be embalmed, he was
observed, immediately after the incision was made, to lift up his hand.
This is capped by the incident of Vesalius already given.
“A correspondent of the late Dr. Hawes assures us that there was then
living in Hertfordshire a lady of an ancient and honourable family
whose mother was brought to life after interment by the attempt of a
thief to steal a valuable ring from her finger. (See Reports of the
Royal Humane Society for 1787-88-89, p. 77.) Whether it was the same
or not I cannot say, but Lady Dryden, who resided in the southern part
of Northamptonshire, in consequence of some such event having occurred
in her family expressly directed in her will that her body should
have the throat cut across previous to interment; and to secure this
bequeathed fifty pounds to an eminent physician, who actually performed
it.”--_Ibid., p. 106._
Dr. Elliotson refers to a case of a female who was pronounced to be
dead. Her pulse could not be felt, and she was put into a coffin; and,
as the coffin lid was being closed they observed a sweat break out, and
thus saw that she was alive. She recovered completely, and then stated
that she had been unable to give any signs of life whatever; that she
was conscious of all that was going on around her; that she heard
everything; and that when she found the coffin lid about to be put
on,the agony was dreadful beyond all description, so that it produced
the sweat seen by the attendants.
DEATH-TRANCE.
In two cases related by the late Mr. Braid, of Manchester, “the
patients remained in the horrible condition of hearing various remarks
about their death and interment. All this they heard distinctly
without having the power of giving any indication that they were
alive, until some accidental abrupt impression aroused them from their
lethargy, and rescued them from their perilous situation. On one of
these occasions, what most intensely affected the feelings of the
entranced subject, as she afterwards communicated to my informant,
was hearing a little sister, who came into the room, where she was
laid out for dead, exulting in the prospect, in consequence of her
death, of getting possession of a necklace of the deceased.” In
another instance, the patient remained in a cataleptic condition for
fourteen days. During this period, the visible signs of vitality were a
slight degree of animal heat and appearance of moisture when a mirror
was held close to her face. But although she had no voluntary power
to give indication by word or gesture, nevertheless she heard and
understood all that was said and proposed to be done, and suffered the
most exquisite torture from various tests applied to her.... There is
hardly a more interesting chapter in the records of medical literature
than the history of well-authenticated cases of profound lethargy or
death-trance. Most of the reported cases in which persons in a state
of trance are stated to have been consigned to the horrors of a living
burial may possibly be apocryphal. Still, on the other hand, there are
unquestionably too many well-substantiated instances of the actual
occurrence of this calamity, the horrors of which no effort of the
imagination can exaggerate, and for the prevention of which no pains
can be excessive and no precaution superfluous.
The following is taken from “Memorials of the Family of Scott, of
Scott’s Hall, in the County of Kent, with an Appendix of Illustrative
Documents,” by James Benat Scott, F. S. A., London, 1876, page 225:--
“Robert Scott, Esq., tenth (but sixth surviving) son of Sir Thomas
Scott, of Scot’s-Hall, Knight, married Priscilla, one of the daughters
of Sir Thomas Honywood, of Elmsmere, Knight, by whom he had nine
children. Remarkable accidents happened to the said Robert Scott and
Priscilla, his wife, before their marriage, at their marriage, and
after their marriage, before they had children. At their marriage,
which was in or about the year 1610, the said Robert Scott having
forgot his wedding ring when they were to be married, the said
Priscilla was married with a ring with death’s head upon it.
“Within a short time after they were married, the said Robert Scott,
and Priscilla, his wife, sojourning with Sir Edward at Austenhanger,
the said Robert Scott, about Bartholomewtide, fell sick of a desperate
malignant fever, and was given over for dead by all, insomuch as that
he was laid forth, the pillows pulled from under him, the curtains
drawn, and the chamber windows set open, and ministers spoke to to
preach the funeral service, and a book called for his funeral that was
to have been kept at Scott’s Hall, where Sir John Scott the eldest
brother then lived. At night he was watched with by his own servant,
named Robins, and another servant in the house, and about midnight
they, sitting together by the fire in the chamber, the said Robins said
to the other, ‘Methinks my master should not be dead, I will go and
try,’ and presently starting up went to the bedside where his master
laid, and hallooed in his ear, and laid a feather to his nostrils, and
perceived that he breathed, upon which he called them up in the house,
and they warmed clothes and rubbed him, and brought him to life again.
He lived afterwards to be upwards of seventy-two years of age, and to
have nine children.
“Another remarkable passage was that his wife, Priscilla, being then
very sick also, they told her that he was dead. She answered that she
did not believe that God would part them so soon. The said Priscilla,
when born, was laid for dead, no one minding her, but all the women
went to help her mother, who was then like to die after her delivery;
but at last an old woman, taking the child in her arms, carried it
downstairs, and using means, brought her to life. The other women,
missing the child, and hearing the old woman had carried her down to
get life in her, laughed at her, as thinking it impossible to bring the
child to life; but in a little time she brought it into the chamber, to
the amazement of them all, and said she might live to be an old woman;
and so she did to the age of fifty-two, and had nine children.”
The following cases are from Mrs. Crowe’s “Night Side of Nature,” pp.
133-136:--
“Dr. Burns mentions a girl at Canton, who lay in a trance, hearing
every word that was said around her, but utterly unable to move a
finger. She tried to cry out, but could not, and supposed that she was
really dead. The horror of finding that she was about to be buried at
length caused a perspiration to appear on her skin, and she finally
revived. She described that she felt that her soul had no power to act
upon her body, and that it seemed to be _in her body and out of it at
the same time_.”
“Lady Fanshawe related the case of her mother who being sick of a
fever, her friends and servants thought her deceased, and she lay in
that state for two days and a night; but Mr. Winslow, coming to comfort
my father, went into my mother’s room, and looking earnestly into her
face, said, ‘She was so handsome, and looked so lovely, that he could
not think her dead,’ and, suddenly taking a lancet out of his pocket,
he cut the sole of her foot, which bled: upon this he immediately
caused her to be removed to the bed again, and she opened her eyes,
after rubbing and other restorative means, and came to life.”
“On the 10th of January, 1717, Mr. John Gardner, a minister at Elgin,
fell into a trance, and being to all appearances dead, he was put
into a coffin and on the second day was carried to the grave. But
fortunately a noise being heard, the coffin was opened, and he was
found alive and taken home again, where, according to the record, ‘he
related many strange and amazing things which he had seen in the other
world.’”
Under the head of “Suspended Animation: Cases of Recovery, etc.,” the
Report of the Royal Humane Society for 1816-17, pp. 48-50, copies
the following:--“A young lady, an attendant on the Princess of----,
after having been confined to her bed for a great length of time with
a violent disorder, was at last to all appearances deprived of life.
Her lips were quite pale, her face resembled the countenance of a dead
person, and her body became cold.
“She was removed from the room in which she died, was laid in a
coffin, and the day of her funeral was fixed on. The day arrived,
and, according to the custom of the country, funeral songs and hymns
were sung before the door. Just as they were about to nail on the lid
of the coffin, a slight perspiration was observed to appear on the
surface of her body. It grew greater every moment, and at last a kind
of convulsive motion was observed in the hands and feet of the corpse.
A few moments after, during which time fresh signs of returning life
appeared, she at once opened her eyes, and uttered a pitiable shriek.
Physicians were quickly procured, and in the course of a few days she
was considerably restored, and is probably alive at this day.”
The description which she herself gave of her situation is extremely
remarkable, and forms a curious and authentic addition to psychology:--
“She said it seemed to her, as if in a dream, that she was really
dead; yet she was perfectly conscious of all that happened around her
in this dreadful state. She distinctly heard her friends speaking,
and lamenting her death at the side of her coffin. She felt them pull
on the dead-clothes and lay her in it. This feeling produced a mental
anxiety which was indescribable. She tried to cry, but her soul was
without power and could not act on her body. She had the contradictory
feeling as if she were in her body, and yet not in it, at one and the
same time. It was equally impossible for her to stretch out her arms,
or to open her eyes, or to cry although she continued to do so. The
internal anguish of her mind was, however, at its utmost height when
the funeral hymns began to be sung, and when the lid of the coffin was
about to be nailed on. The thought that she was to be buried alive was
the first one which gave activity to her soul, and caused it to operate
on her corporeal frame.”
Related by Dr. Herz in the “Psychological Magazine,” and transcribed
by Sir Alexander Crichton in the introduction to his essay on “Mental
Derangement.” [2 vols., Lond., 1798.]
* * * * *
“One of the most frightful cases extant is that of Dr. Walker, of
Dublin, who had so strong a presentiment on this subject, that he
had actually written a treatise against the Irish custom of hasty
burial. He, himself, subsequently died, as was believed, of a fever.
His decease took place in the night, and on the following day he was
interred. At this time, Mrs. Bellamy, the once-celebrated actress, was
in Ireland; and as she had promised him, in the course of conversation,
that she would take care he should not be laid in the earth till
unequivocal signs of dissolution had appeared, she no sooner heard of
what had happened than she took measures to have the grave reopened;
but it was, unfortunately, too late. Dr. Walker had evidently revived,
and had turned upon his side; but life was quite extinct.”
Mr. Horace Welby, in a chapter on “Premature Interment,” says that “the
Rev. Owen Manning, the historian of Surrey, during his residence at
Cambridge University, caught small-pox, and was reduced by the disorder
to a state of insensibility and apparent death. The body was laid out
and preparations were made for the funeral, when Mr. Manning’s father,
going into the chamber to take a last look at his son, raised the
imagined corpse from its recumbent position, saying, ‘I will give my
poor boy another chance,’ upon which signs of vitality were apparent.
He was therefore removed by his friend and fellow-student, Dr.
Heberden, and ultimately restored to health.”--_The Mysteries of Life
and Death, pp. 115-116._
* * * * *
A most conspicuous and interesting monument in St. Giles’s Church,
Cripplegate, London (where Cromwell was married and John Milton
buried), is associated with a remarkable case of trance or catalepsy.
In the chancel is a striking sculptured figure in memory of Constance
Whitney, a lady of remarkable gifts, whose rare excellences are fully
described in the tablet. She is represented as rising from her coffin.
Welby, at p. 116, relates the story that she had been buried while
in a state of suspended animation, but was restored to life through
the cupidity of the sexton, which induced him to disinter the body to
obtain possession of a valuable ring left upon her finger, which he
concluded could be of no use to the wearer. A study of the facts of
premature burial shows that the rifling of tombs and coffins to obtain
valuables has in other instances revealed similar tragic occurrences.
The often-cited case of Mrs. Goodman, one of those recalled to life by
the sexton’s attempt to remove a ring from the finger, is thus related
in the “History of Bandon,” by George Bennett:--
Hannah, wife of Rev. Richard Goodman, vicar of Ballymodan, Bandon, from
1692 to 1737, fell into ill-health, and apparently died. Two or three
days after her decease, the body was taken to Rosscarbery Cathedral,
and there laid in the family vault of the Goodmans. The attempt of the
sexton to recover a valuable diamond ring from the finger is said to
have been made at an early hour the next morning. Much violence was
used, so that the corpse moved, yawned, and sat up. The sexton having
fled in terror, leaving his lantern behind and the church door open,
the lady in her shroud made her way out of the vault and through the
church to the residence of her brother-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Goodman,
which was just outside the church-yard. Having been admitted after
some delay and consternation, she was put to bed, and fell asleep soon
after, her brother-in-law and his man-servant keeping watch over her
until mid-day, when she awoke refreshed. She is said to have shown
herself in the village in the afternoon, to have supped with the
family in the evening, and to have set out for home on horseback next
morning. She is said to have survived this episode for some years, and
to have borne a son subsequent to it, who died at an advanced age at
Innishannon, a village near Bandon.
In Smith’s “History of Cork,” vol. ii., p. 428, the same incident is
thus mentioned:--“Mr. John Goodman, of Cork, died in January, 1747,
aged about four score; but what is remarkable of him, his mother was
interred while she lay in a trance, having been buried in a vault,
etc.... This Mr. Goodman was born some time after.”
* * * * *
Mr. Peckard, Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, in a work entitled
“Further Observations on the Doctrine of an Intermediate State,”
mentions that Mrs. Godfrey, Mistress of the Jewel Office, and sister
of the great Duke of Marlborough, is stated to have lain in a trance,
apparently dead, for seven days, and was declared by her medical
attendants to have been dead. Colonel Godfrey, her husband, would not
allow her to be interred, or the body to be treated in the manner of a
corpse; and on the eighth day she awoke, without any consciousness of
her long insensibility.
The daughter of Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, the first President
of the American Congress during the Revolutionary War, died when young
of small-pox. At all events a medical certificate pronounced her dead,
and she was shrouded and coffined for interment. It was customary in
those days to confine the patient amidst red curtains with closed
windows. After the certificate of death had been duly made out, the
curtains were thrown back and the windows opened. The fresh air revived
the patient, who recovered and lived to a mature age. This circumstance
occasioned on her father so powerful a dread of living interment, that
he directed by will that his body should be burnt, and enjoined on his
children the performance of this wish as a sacred duty.
Bouchut in his “Signes de la Mort,” p. 58, relates that the physician
of Queen Isabella of Spain was treating a man during a dangerous
illness, and as he went to see his patient one morning he was informed
by the assistants that the man had died. He entered, and found the
body, in the habit of the Order of St. Francis, laid out upon a board.
Nothing daunted, he had him put back to bed in spite of the ridicule of
those present, and the patient soon revived and fully recovered.
The following cases are from Köppen (see Bibliography, 1799):--
Vienna. 1791.--A castle guard (_portier_) was in a trance for several
days. His funeral was prepared, and he was placed in a coffin. All at
once he unexpectedly opened his eyes and called out, “Mother, where is
the coffee?”
Halle, 1753.--In the register of deaths, at St. Mary’s Church, is the
following entry:--“Shoemaker Casper Koch was buried, aged eighty-one
years. Thirty years ago he had died, to all appearances, and was put in
a coffin, when suddenly, when they were about to bury him, he recovered
his consciousness.”
Haag, Holland, 1785.--The son of a cook died, and while the coffin was
being carried to the grave-yard, he was heard to knock. On opening the
coffin he was found alive. He was taken home and was restored.
* * * * *
In the “Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine,” edited by John Forbes, M.D.,
F.R.S., and others, 1847, vol. i., pp. 548-549, is the following:--“A
remarkable instance of resuscitation after apparent death occurred
in France, in the neighbourhood of Douai, in the year 1745, and is
related by Rigaudeaux, (_Journal des Sçavans_, 1749,) to whom the
case was confided. He was summoned in the morning to attend a woman
in labour, at a distance of about a league. On his arrival, he was
informed that she had died in a convulsive fit two hours previously.
The body was already prepared for interment, and on examination he
could discover no indications of life. The os uteri was sufficiently
dilated to enable him to turn the child and deliver by the feet. The
child appeared to be dead also; but, by persevering in the means of
resuscitation for three hours, they excited some signs of vitality,
which encouraged them to proceed, and their endeavours were ultimately
crowned with complete success. Rigaudeaux again carefully examined the
mother, and was confirmed in the belief of her death; but he found
that, although she had been in that state for seven hours, her limbs
retained their flexibility. Stimulants were applied in vain; he took
his leave, recommending that the interment should be deferred until
the flexibility was lost. At five p.m. a messenger came to inform him
that she had revived at half-past three. The mother and child were both
alive three years after.”
APPENDIX B.
RESUSCITATION OF STILL-BORN AND OTHER INFANTS.
THE danger of premature burial of still-born (apparently dead) infants
is clearly shown by the following quotation from Tidy’s “Legal
Medicine,” part ii., page 253, from tables given on the authority
of the _British and Foreign Medical Review_, No. ii., p. 235, based
on eight millions of births. “It would appear that from one in
eighteen to one in twenty births are still-born. Dr. Lever found that
the proportion in his three thousand cases was one in eighteen. So
notorious is it that a large number of these deaths could be averted,
that some legislation is urgently needed, requiring that still-borns,
whose bodies weigh, say, not less than two pounds (the average weight
about the sixth and seventh months at which children are viable),
should not be buried without registration and a medical examination.”
Many instances can be found in current medical literature of still-born
infants that have been revived by artificial respiration. Such cases
not infrequently revive without any means being employed for their
resuscitation; but among the poor, who dispose of the new-born
apparently dead in a hasty manner, they might be buried alive through
carelessness. The use of mortuaries, where the seeming dead would be
kept under observation until decomposition appears, would of course
prevent such disasters.
Struve, in the Essay cited in the Bibliography (1802), says:--
“All still-born children should be considered as only apparently dead,
and the resuscitative process ought never to be neglected. Sometimes
two hours or more will elapse before reanimation can be effected. An
ingenious man-midwife, says Bruhier, was employed for several hours in
the revival of an apparently still-born child, and as his endeavours
proved unavailing, he considered the subject really dead. Being,
however, accidentally detained, he again turned his attention to the
child, and by continuing the resuscitative method for some time it was
unexpectedly restored to life” (p. 150).
The following is one of Struve’s most striking cases:--
A Mr. E.---- called in 18---- to obtain a certificate of death for a
still-born child of seven months’ gestation. Arriving at the house,
the doctor found the child laid upon a little straw and covered with
a slight black shawl; this was one p.m., and the child had been there
since five a.m. It was icy cold, and there was no heart sound nor
respiration, but there was a slight muscular twitching over the region
of the heart. The child was immersed in a hot bath and artificial
respiration employed, but for twenty minutes the case seemed hopeless;
then the eyes opened and after continued effort the respirations began,
laborious and interrupted at first, then normal by degrees. The child
was saved, and became an accomplished violinist.
The mortality and waste of infant life, particularly in large cities
like Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, and New York, is admitted by all
investigators to be enormous. In France medical writers, in view of
the small percentage of births to population, are waking up to the
realisation that the State cannot afford the loss, and that, among
other things, steps should be taken to resuscitate the still-born,
so that none should be buried before unequivocal signs of death are
manifested.[21] The premature abandonment of the still-born among the
poorer classes in crowded cities is only too probable. There are also
cases recorded which show a corresponding risk to infants who have
survived their birth:--
The _British Medical Journal_, January 21, 1871, p. 71, gives the
following case, under the heading, “Alive in a Coffin”:--“Stories of
this kind are generally very apocryphal; but the following reaches us
from an authentic source. A child narrowly escaped being buried alive
last week in Manchester. The infant’s father had died, and was to be
buried in Ardwick Cemetery. The day before the burial the infant was
taken ill, and apparently died. A certificate of death was procured
from a surgeon’s assistant who had seen the child, and, to save
expense, it was decided to place it in the same coffin with the father.
This was done, and the next morning the bearers set off to the cemetery
with their double burden; but before reaching the grave-yard a cry was
heard to issue from the coffin. The lid being removed, the infant was
discovered alive and kicking. It was at once removed to a neighbour’s
house, but died eight hours afterwards.
The _British Medical Journal_, 1885, ii., p. 841, gives the following
case, under the heading, “Death or Coma?”
“The close similarity which is occasionally seen to connect the
appearance of death with that of exhaustion following disease, was
lately illustrated in a somewhat striking manner. An infant seized with
convulsions was supposed to have died about three weeks ago at Stamford
Hill. After five days’ interval, preparations were being made for its
interment, when, at the grave’s mouth, a cry was heard to come from the
coffin. The lid was taken off, and the child was found to be alive; it
was taken home, and is recovering.”
The following is from Tidy’s “Legal Medicine,” pt. i., p. 29:--
“In a communication to the French Academy, Professor Fort mentions
a child (_ætat._ three) having been resuscitated by artificial
respiration continued for four hours, and not commenced until three and
a half hours after its apparent decease.
“Ogston records one case of a child alive for seven hours, and a second
case of a young woman alive for four hours, after they had been left as
dead.”
From the _Lancet_, April 22, 1882, p. 675:--
“PREMATURE INTERMENT.
“A daily contemporary states that at the gates of the Avignon cemetery
the parents of a child certified to have died of croup insisted on
having the coffin opened to take a last look. The child was found
breathing, and is expected to be saved.”
The following letter to the editor of the _Lancet_, March 31, 1866, p.
360, illustrates the danger to which infants supposed to be dead are
exposed, under one of our traditional customs:--
“LAYING-OUT OF DEAD INFANTS.
“Sir,--In your journal of last Saturday, among the ‘Medical
Annotations,’ you notice the inquiry into the circumstances under
which an infant, being still living and moving, was ‘bandaged’
beneath the chin, and ‘laid-out’ at St. Pancras Workhouse. Allow me
to state that in the _Lancet_, vol. ii., 1850, a contribution from me
‘On the Danger of Tying-up the Lower Jaw immediately after Supposed
Death’ was published. An infant, aged two months, was brought to me
on a Friday with the lower jaw tied up by its mother, who asked for a
certificate of death; but on my removing the bandage, the child began
to show symptoms of vitality, and it lived until the following Monday.
C. J. B. ALDIS, M.D., F.R.C.P.
“Chester Terrace, Chester Square, March 26, 1866.”
It is recorded that Dr. Doddridge showed so little signs of life at
his birth that he was laid aside as dead, but one of the attendants
observing some signs of life, took the baby under her charge, and by
her judicious treatment perfectly restored it.
Mr. Highmore, Secretary of the London Lying-in Hospital, confirmed
(by a communication to the Royal Humane Society, April, 1816,) the
statement of Mrs. Catherine Widgen, the matron of that excellent
establishment, that, by a zealous perseverance in the means recommended
by that Society, she had been the happy instrument of restoring from
a state of apparent death in the space of _three years_ no less than
forty-five infants, who, but for her humane attention and indefatigable
exertions, must have been consigned to the grave. Later on, Mrs. Widgen
restored in one year twenty-seven apparently dead-born children--a
striking instance of the truth of the remark of a celebrated writer
(Osiander) that “the generality of infants, considered as still-born,
are only apparently so; if, therefore, persons would persevere in their
exertions to revive them, most of them might be restored.”--_Report of
the Royal Humane Society, 1816-17, pp. 52-54._
“For these exertions the General Court adjudged the Honorary Medallion
to Mrs. Widgen, and it was accordingly presented to her by His Royal
Highness the Duke of Kent.”--_Ibid., p. 52._
[The question naturally suggests itself in this place: If the matron
of such a noble institution as the above was able to save seventy-two
apparently dead children from the grave in four years, how many of
these poor little beings are consigned to the grave all over the world
for lack of the “humane attention and indefatigable exertions,” such as
this skilful matron gave to those that came under her intelligent care?]
“RECURRENCE OF SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
“A child, who had a cough for some time, was suddenly attacked with
difficulty of breathing, and _to all appearances died_. A medical
gentleman immediately inflated the lungs, and by persisting in this
for a considerable time, recovered the child. A similar state of
suspended animation took place three or four times, and inflation
was as often had recourse to with the same success; but the attack,
happening, unfortunately, to recur whilst the medical gentleman in
whose family the case happened was from home, the proper measures were
not taken, and the child was lost.”--_Ibid., p. 140._
“SHOCK FROM LIGHTNING.
“A boy was struck down by a flash of lightning near Hoxton (in the
suburbs of London), and lay exposed to the rain at least an hour, until
his companions carried him home on some boards, apparently dead--the
body being stiff and universally cold, the fingers and toes contracted,
and the countenance livid. He was stripped of his wet clothes, put in
hot blankets, and bled twenty ounces. In half an hour, interrupted
respiration commenced, without inflating the lungs; in an hour more,
regular pulsation and breathing were established, together with power
of swallowing; and in a week he was quite well.”--_Ibid., p. 147._
In the _Lancet_, 1884, vol. i., p. 922, W. Arnold Thompson, F.R.C.S.I.,
reports a case of resuscitation of a child delivered by the forceps,
which was “apparently to myself [he says] and the nurse and relatives,
a perfectly dead child, and with no signs of respiration or life about
it.... My opinion was that the death was real and positive, but that,
there being no actual disease present, and the blood still warm, the
machinery of life was set going, and resuscitation followed as a
consequence of suitable means being taken and persevered in without
undue delay. In the future I do not intend to allow any still-born
children to be put away without making strenuous efforts to restore
vitality.”
The _Lancet_, 1880, vol. ii., p. 582:--In a discussion at the Royal
Medical and Chirurgical Society upon Artificial Respiration in New-born
Children, Dr. Roper related three cases in which the child was left
for dead. “One of these occurred in the practice of Mr. Brown, of St.
Mary Axe. The child was still-born in the absence of a medical man. It
was taken to the surgery, and thence to the late Mr. Solly, who next
day, in dissecting the body, found that the heart was still beating.
A second instance was of a fœtus of five months and a half, which was
set aside as dead, Dr. Roper attending the mother, who was suffering
from hæmorrhage. He was astonished next day to find that this immature
child, which had lain on the floor for eleven hours through a cold
night, was breathing and its heart beating....” Such examples show that
the new-born have greater tenacity of life than is supposed.
The _Lancet_, 1881, vol. ii., p. 430, under the heading of “The
Burial of Still-born Infants,” states that “Greater security for the
due observance of these necessary regulations (the Births and Deaths
Registration Act of 1874), for the burial of infants said to be
still-born, is urgently called for. It is constantly patent that the
burial of deceased infants as still-born, if checked, is by no means
prevented; and that the authorities of burial grounds, by their laxity
in carrying out the provisions of the Act, afford dangerous facilities
for the concealment of crime, or negligence, and for a practice which
threatens to impair the value of our birth and death registration
statistics; for, if a live-born infant be buried as still-born, neither
its birth nor its death is registered.”
A case of forceps-delivery occurred in the hands of the writer
(E.P.V.), in which the child, when extracted, was quite purple in
colour, and absolutely dead to all appearances--there was no breathing
nor impulse to be found anywhere. After some efforts at resuscitation
in the way of artificial respiration--not very thoroughly done, nor
much prolonged (for the child was believed to be dead)--with a warm
bath and frictions, it was laid aside and covered up. At a subsequent
visit some hours later, the child was found in the nurse’s lap,
completely recovered, and changed in colour to a bright pink. The nurse
said she did not like to give the little fellow up, and by breathing
into his mouth for some time he showed returning life, and by keeping
it up he soon began to breathe himself.
Cases like this are believed to be not infrequent, because physicians
and nurses are not, as a general rule, aware of the great tenacity of
life possessed by the new-born infant.
“_Still-births_ are not registered in England; but, under the
new Registration Act, no still-born child can be buried without
a certificate from a registered practitioner in attendance, or
a declaration from a midwife, to the effect that the child was
still-born. The proportion of still-births in this country is supposed
to be about four per cent., but this is uncertain.”--A. NEWSHOLME,
_Vital Statistics, 1889, p. 61_.
“The proportion of deaths from premature births, compared with the
total number of births, in 1861-65 was 11·19 to 1,000 births; since
which time it has steadily increased, reaching the ratio of 15·89 per
births in 1,000 in 1887.”--_Ibid., p. 216._
The same author, p. 17, states that “a certain proportion of the
_births remain unregistered_(_a_). There is strong reason for thinking
that a certain number of children born alive are buried as still-born.”
APPENDIX C.
RECOVERY OF THE DROWNED.
THIS is perhaps the best known and most generally appreciated occasion
of rescuing the apparently dead. The high degree in which it has
excited public sympathy will appear from a glance at that section of
the “Bibliography” (towards the end of the eighteenth century) which
gives the titles of essays and reports connected with the Royal Humane
Society and the corresponding foreign institutions upon which our own
was modelled. The following general remarks and cases are from the
essay of Dr. Struve, of Görlitz, Lusatia, 1802:--
“A great number of persons apparently drowned have been restored
to life without the use of stimulants, merely by the renovated
susceptibility of irritation. I have collected thirty-six cases of
persons apparently drowned in Lusatia from the year 1772 to the year
1792. Most of them were treated by uninformed people, and revived by
friction and warming; two persons, however, were indebted for their
lives to the continuation of the resuscitative process for several
hours. The greatest number were children; which is to be ascribed not
only to the greater danger to which they are exposed of drowning, but
also to the longer continuance of vital power in the infant frame” (p.
136).
“A boy of about a year and a half old had lain upwards of a quarter
of an hour in the water, and was found face downwards, and the whole
body livid and swollen. He was undressed, wiped dry, and wrapped in
warm blankets; but the most particular part of the process was rolling
the body upon a table, shaking it by the shoulders, and rubbing the
feet. This having been continued for an hour, a convulsive motion
was observed in the toes; sneezing was excited by snuff; the tongue
stimulated by strong vinegar; the throat irritated with a feather; an
injection given. The child vomited a large quantity of water, and in an
hour afterwards began to breathe, and was completely restored to life”
(p. 137).
“A woman upwards of thirty years of age, and who was affected with
epilepsy, fell in a fit from a height of twenty feet into the water,
where she remained a full quarter of an hour before she was taken out.
Mr. Redlich, surgeon, of Hamburg, had her put into a bed warmed by hot
bottles; she was rubbed with warm flannels, some spirits were dropped
into her mouth, when in a quarter of an hour symptoms of life, such as
convulsive motion and a very weak pulse, appeared. In three hours from
the time she was taken out of the water she recovered completely” (p.
138).
Dr. Charles Londe, in a remarkable pamphlet (“Lettre sur la Mort
Apparente, les Conséquences Réelles des Inhumations Précipitées, et
le Temps Pendent lequel peut persister l’Aptitude à étre Rapellé à la
Vie.” Paris, Bailliére, 1854), records some instances of narrow escapes
from premature burial of the drowned, one of which may be cited:--
“On the 13th of July, 1829, about two p.m., near the Pont des Arts,
Paris, a body, which appeared lifeless, was taken out of the river.
It was that of a young man, twenty years of age, dark-complexioned,
and strongly built. The corpse was discoloured and cold; the face and
lips swollen and tinged with blue; a thick and yellowish froth exuded
from the mouth; the eyes were open, fixed, and motionless; the limbs
limp and drooping. _No pulsation of the heart nor trace of respiration
was perceptible._ The body had remained under water for a considerable
time; the search for it, made in Dr. Bourgeois’s presence, lasted
fully twenty minutes. That gentleman did not hesitate to incur the
derision of the lookers-on by proceeding to attempt the resuscitation
of what, in their eyes, was a mere lump of clay. Nevertheless, several
hours afterwards, the supposed corpse was restored to life, thanks to
the obstinate perseverance of the doctor, who, although a strong man
and enjoying robust health, was several times on the point of losing
courage and abandoning the patient in despair. But what would have
happened if Dr. Bourgeois, instead of persistently remaining stooping
over the inanimate body, with watchful eye and _attentive ear_, to
catch the first rustling of the heart, had left the drowned man, after
half an hour’s fruitless endeavour, as often happens? The unfortunate
man would have been laid in the grave, _although capable of restoration
to life_!”
To this case, Dr. Bourgeois, in the “Archives de Medecine,” adds
others, in which individuals remained under water as long as SIX HOURS,
and were recalled to life by efforts which a weaker conviction than his
own would have refrained from making. These facts lead Dr. Londe to the
conclusion that, _every day, drowned individuals are buried, who, with
greater perseverance, might be restored to life_!
The following case in point appears in the _Sunnyside_, New York,
communicated by J. W. Green, M.D.:--
“A few years since I was walking by the Central Park, near One Hundred
and Tenth Street and Fifth Avenue. Noticing a crowd that was acting in
an unusual manner by the side of the lake, I approached and inquired of
one of the bystanders what was the cause of the excitement. He replied,
‘A boy is drowned.’ I advanced to the edge of the water, and saw two
or three men in the water searching for the body. As they had not yet
discovered it, I made enquiries, and found at last a small boy who had
been a comrade of the victim. He showed me the spot from which the boy
had fallen. I then pointed out to the searchers where to look, and
immediately the body was recovered. I took it at once from the hands of
the person who had it, and held it reversed, in order to disembarrass
it of all the water possible, for a minute or two, then stripped it of
its clothing, sent for a blanket and brandy. I took a woollen coat from
one of the bystanders until the blanket should arrive, laid the child
upon it and commenced to rotate it. This I continued to do for at least
fifteen minutes by the watch. I then tried auscultation; no murmur
could be heard.
“The skin was cold, the lips were blue. Every artery was still. With
all these signs of death present it was still obligatory upon me to
persevere. At the end of fifteen minutes there was a slight gasp. A
small quantity of brandy was placed upon the tongue. A little of this
ran into the larynx, and the stimulation was sufficient to produce
a long inspiration and then a cough. This was more than a half-hour
from the time when the boy had been removed from the water. Complete
restoration did not occur until nearly an hour from that time. He was
now given to his mother, and I was informed on the following day that
he entirely recovered, without an unfavourable symptom.”
The three following cases of resuscitation from apparent death by
drowning are copied from the most recent reports of the Royal Humane
Society, London:--
“On 13th of August, 1895, Samuel Lawrence, aged five years, while
playing on the bank of a disused clay-pit at South Bank, Yorkshire,
fell into the water and sank. Two of his companions dived into the
water, and brought him up after a submersion of from seven to ten
minutes in an unconscious state. Two working men commenced artificial
respiration, and Dr. Steele continued it for ten hours before the boy
showed signs of returning sensibility and his complete recovery.”
“October 6th, 1895.--At Deptford, Surrey, a woman with a baby in her
arms threw herself into the canal. They were rescued by the Royal
Humane Society’s drags. Two ladies took possession of the bodies (time
of submersion not stated), and they employed Silvester’s system of
artificial respiration with success, in the case of the woman in about
one hour, and with the child one hour and a half.”
“August 6th, 1895.--At Bradford, England, Rudolf Pratt, a clerk
with Midland R.R. Company, was bathing, and sank in deep water. A
bystander by diving brought him up. After a submersion of five minutes,
unconscious, and not breathing, Dr. Oldham restored respiration by
Sylvester’s method after one and a half hour’s treatment.”
These three cases are instructive on account of the length of time
animation remained suspended before it could be aroused to a state of
activity; and they lead to the belief that many cases that are given up
as actually dead could be saved if efforts at resuscitation were kept
up for a lengthened period, as in the first case.
In cases of drowning some persons are quickly revived after a long
submersion; others again who are under water only a short time require
artificial respiration for a long time before they show signs of
returning life, as was the case with Samuel Lawrence, who was submerged
only ten minutes, yet required ten hours’ active treatment to revive
him.
APPENDIX D.
MISCELLANEOUS ADDENDA.
HASTY BURIALS.
AS an illustration of hasty burials dealt with in Chapter X.
the following case is cited from the _King’s County Chronicle_,
Parsonstown, Ireland, August 27, 1896:--
“ROSCREA GUARDIANS.
“Thursday--Present: T. Jackson, D.V.C., in the chair; L. S. Maher,
J.P.; M. Bergin, J.P.; W. J. Menton, W. Jackson, P. Roe.
“Mr. Roe--You made short work of Jack Ryan at the chapel of Knock. He
was alive and speaking at three o’clock, and buried at six the same
day. The Master stated that, it being supposed the man died from an
infectious disease, no person would assist in coffining him till a
message came asking that he (the Master) would send out some of the
male inmates, and he sent two and had him coffined and interred. Mr.
Roe--The man was not cold when he was buried. Master--The nun tells
me the man had an ounce of tobacco clasped tightly in his hands.
Chairman--What disease had he? Clerk--Pneumonia was certified by
the doctor. The people believed that he had died from an infectious
disease, and insisted he should be buried immediately. Mr. Roe--It was
certainly short work--a man dying at three o’clock and buried at six.
Master--This man was married to a woman who was a nurse in the old
Donoughmore workhouse, and they lived at Drumar, Knock.”[22]
EVIDENCE OF RESUSCITATIONS IN GRAVE-YARDS.
Reference has been made in this volume to the discoveries of premature
burial brought to light during the investigations of charnel-houses
in France, and the removal of grave-yards, necessitated through the
rapid expansion of towns, in America. The _Casket_, Rochester, New
York, U.S., of March 2, 1896, gives a detailed narrative of recent
discoveries made by T. M. Montgomery in the removal of Fort Randall
Cemetery, with the condition of the bodies found as to decay or state
of preservation, and says:--
“We found among these remains two that bore every evidence of having
been buried alive. The first case was that of a soldier that had been
struck by lightning. Upon opening the lid of the coffin we found that
the legs and arms had drawn up as far as the confines of the coffin
would permit. The other was a case of death resulting from alcoholism.
The body was slightly turned, the legs were drawn up a trifle, and the
hands were clutching the clothing. In the coffin was found a large
whisky flask, showing that those who buried him were not his friends,
or else that they too were afflicted with the disease that had cut
short the life of their companion.
“It occurred to us at that time that this was a great argument in
favour of incineration. Nearly two per cent. of those exhumed here
were, no doubt, victims of suspended animation. Once before in our
experience have we noted this; and while not believing in as large a
percentage of live burials as the radical advocates of cremation claim,
yet we know that the percentage is larger than most scientists give.
Disinterment is the only solution of the question. In regard to these
two cases, we wish to say that science has proved that electricity does
not always kill, and that persons addicted to the liquor habit, after
long debauches, sometimes relapse into a comatose state, and are to all
appearances dead. Statistics show that a great many die annually of
these causes, hence the percentage in cases of this kind must be very
large. What is the remedy?”
HASTY EMBALMMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.
The _Casket_, Rochester, New York, September, 1896, observes:--At
different times considerable opposition has been raised against
embalming by Boards of Health and other officials in various
localities, on account of the haste with which the embalmer proceeds
with his duties. A few recent cases of supposed corpses recovering, one
of which occurred in Philadelphia, Pa., have revived the question, and
it is reported that the Philadelphia Board of Health may take action
looking to the enactment of a law prescribing the period of time which
should elapse after death before a body should be embalmed.
In a recent issue of the Philadelphia _Times_, Funeral-Director John J.
O’Rourke, a well-known professional of that city, expresses himself on
the subject as follows:--
“These two narrow escapes from burial alive have further impressed me
with one of the perils attending the disposition of the dead--I mean
the danger of hasty embalming. As you know, in most cases the doctor
who has had the patient is not called in after death, and very often
the relatives of the deceased expect the undertaker, if embalming is to
be done, to proceed with it at once. All the embalming schools teach
that the only proper way to thus treat the body is by use of fluids
through the arteries. But in the lectures on the subject no period that
should be permitted to elapse before it is begun is prescribed, and, as
a rule, it follows dissolution as quickly as possible.
“I contend that there should be some law or official rule governing
the matter, because after the artery is punctured and the fluid goes
through the whole body, it is sure to destroy any spark of life that
might remain. I have never met with any cases of resuscitation myself,
but have had instances of deaths that made me hesitate in the work
of embalming. Some months ago a man came to me fifteen minutes after
a relative had breathed his last, and asked me to embalm the body. I
went to the house, and, after seeing the corpse, refused, saying that
I would not do it until after the expiration of twelve hours. The man
had died of consumption, yet, for fear of it being a case of suspended
animation, I would take no chances.
“At another time a person had died of dropsy. Within half an hour I was
summoned. The attending physician had not been there, and twenty-four
hours afterwards he gave a certificate of death from cancer. The body
was very warm when I arrived, and neighbours who had kindly volunteered
to prepare it were doubtful if life was extinct. I had the corpse laid
on an embalming table for two hours, and then placed it in what is
known as a Saratoga patent box, in which are pans filled with salted
ice, so arranged that cold air circulates around the body. Had this
been a case of suspended animation, it would have taken several hours
to dispel the heat within the corpse.
“Of course there are some supposed unmistakable signs. The only
positive signs of dissolution are those which depend on molecular
change or death-rigidity of the muscles of the whole body, and
putrefaction of the tissues. These are most marked in organs and
tissues the vital functions of which are the most active. The action
of the heart, the movements of respiration, may be reduced as to be
altogether imperceptible, so that the functions of circulation and
respiration appear to be arrested. This is occasionally observed in
temporary syncope, in which a person to all appearances dead has, after
a time, regained consciousness and recovered.
“The peculiar condition of the nervous system called catalepsy, and
the state of trance, are likewise further examples of the so-called
apparent deaths; but, on the occurrence of actual death, the
irritability of the muscles by degrees disappears, electricity no
longer excites their contraction, and then cadaverous rigidity sets
in.... Some action will, in all probability, be urged upon the next
Legislature or upon the Board of Health.”
APPENDIX E.
SUMMARY OF ORDINANCES, ETC., RELATING TO THE INSPECTION OF CORPSES AND
OF INTERMENTS.
IN the sixteenth Council of Milan, Saint Charles Borromeo prohibited
burials before twelve hours after ordinary cases of death, and
twenty-four hours after cases of sudden death. As early as the
sixteenth century serious attention in the examination of the dead
was made obligatory by the enactment of Article 149 of the Criminal
Statutes of Charles the Fifth. This was the foundation of legal
medicine in Germany. In France, a similar ordinance was first
established in 1789.
NETHERLANDS.
_Act of April 10th, 1869._
No burial is allowed without the written permission of the Civil
Recorder, granted upon the production of a certificate of a qualified
physician, and not until thirty-six hours have elapsed after death,
nor later than the fifth day after death. But this regulation can be
set aside, and a longer period allowed, by the Burgomaster, on the
application of a doctor.
Dead-houses are in use for bodies dead of infectious diseases.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN.
Death must first be established by a licensed physician, who carefully
examines the body for that purpose, and, if satisfied, then issues
a certificate which states the name, age, sex, place, and date, and
immediate cause of death. The certificate is taken within twenty-four
hours after the death to the Standesamt, where the death is recorded,
and a certificate to that effect is given, and presented to the
Cemetery Commission, which assigns the place of burial. The corpse is
required to remain unburied three days, either at the place of death or
at the mortuary, where it is under the observation of attendants; but
there is no State-appointed inspector of the dead, nor electric bells
or other means for announcing and recording any movements of the body.
The system of inspection and certification by qualified physicians,
with the delay of three days, and the favourable condition of the
dead-houses, have been the means of preventing the living from being
mistaken for the dead in a number of cases.
FRANCE.
Interments must not take place, according to Article 77 of the Code
Napoleon, before twenty-four hours of death, but in practice it is
twenty-four hours after death-notification by the _mort-verificateur_.
During epidemics, or when deaths occur from infectious or contagious
diseases, the interments must invariably be made within twenty-four
hours of death.
Article 77 of the Civil Code states that “No burial shall take place
without an authorisation, on free paper and without expense, of the
officer of the Civil State, who will not be empowered to deliver it,
unless after having visited the deceased person, nor unless twenty-four
hours after the decease, except in cases provided for by the
regulations of the police.” It results from this that no corpse can be
buried before a minimum delay of twenty-four hours shall have expired
after the decease. The formal record of the decease must be made by the
officer of the Civil State (the mayor), or, which is what takes place
in most of the communes, by a medical man delegated by the mayor, and
who takes the title of medical officer of the Civil State.
The Article 77 of the Civil Code is generally strictly observed in
Paris and in other cities of France. The obligation to await the delay
of twenty-four hours is intended to prevent too hasty burials. One
considers, in fact, that that delay is generally necessary in order to
be able to have certain proofs of death.
By Article 358 of the Penal Code, the burial of a deceased person
without such authorisation is punishable by a maximum period of two
months’ imprisonment, and a maximum fine of fifty francs, without
prejudice to other criminal proceedings which may be applicable under
the circumstances.
Exceptions, however, have been established in certain cases. For
example, in times of epidemics, or of too rapid decomposition of the
corpse in the usual case, there is urgent need, in fact, to bury the
body of a person attacked with a contagious or epidemic malady, in
order to suppress one of the causes of propagation of the epidemic,
or of the contagion. In the second case, it is understood that one
could not keep longer, without danger to the public health, a corpse
in complete putrefaction. There is occasion also to observe that, in
these circumstances, the end which the legislator has proposed to
himself is equally obtained, since there cannot be any doubt as to the
real death. However that may be, it is the mayor (officer of the Civil
State) to whom it appertains, according to the terms of the Article
77 of the Civil Code, to give authority to bury; and if he gives that
authorisation before the expiration of the delay of twenty-four hours,
it is after having established by himself, or by the medical officer
of the Civil State, the fact of its necessity, resulting from the
circumstances of which we have just spoken.
It is to be remarked that the Article 77 fixes a _minimum_ and _not a
maximum_ delay. It is always the mayor to whom it appertains to fix
the day and the hour of the burial, and there may happen such and such
a circumstance which necessitates a delay of the obsequies. The mayor
need only assure himself in that case that no danger will result to the
public health, which naturally is the case when the corpse is embalmed,
or is placed in a leaden coffin.
Outside Paris and other large cities, and especially in the rural
districts, much laxity prevails both as to verification of death and
the time of burial, and cases of premature burial are not infrequent.
AUSTRIA.
The laws relative to funerals and burials are very strict--perhaps the
most thorough in their requirements of any in Europe. They provide for
a very careful inspection of the body by medical inspectors, quite
independently of the attending physicians, in order to ascertain if the
death be absolute. Minute and specific official directions guide them
as to the method of examination and the signs of death to be looked
for. And they further provide for carrying out any particular method,
as to which the deceased may have given directions, in order to prevent
a possible revival in the coffin. Should the surviving relatives
desire it, a _post-mortem_ operation may be made upon the body, in the
presence of the medical inspectors and the police; in which case the
heart is pierced through; and a full report of the operations must be
forwarded to the civic magistrate. A fee of six florins is allowed for
such an operation.
CITY OF VIENNA.
Every death to be inquired into by the municipal physician. The first
of five objects is to ascertain whether the person be really dead.
In examining whether there are any remaining indications of life, he
will rely not upon any one sign, nor even upon putrefaction, but upon
the totality of the signs of death. If there are any indications of
life remaining, he must at once institute the means of resuscitation
approved by science, and continue them until such time as the family
medical attendant is assured of their uselessness. If there be any
doubt as to the reality of the death, a second inspection of the body
is to be made by the municipal physician within twenty-four hours.
Burial, as a rule, is not to be until forty-eight hours after death;
but the interval may be shortened in cases of infectious diseases or of
unusually rapid decomposition.
PROVINCE OF DALMATIA.
_Vice-Governor’s Order of 29th April, 1894._
Every death to be inquired into by the parish physician, or a deputy
appointed by the mayor. The first of six objects of the inquest is
to ascertain whether the person be really dead. In the event of a
non-medical examiner discovering signs of life, he is to send for a
doctor. Inasmuch as decomposition, the only sure sign of death, is, as
a rule, a phenomenon of later occurrence than the time appointed for
the inquest (within twelve hours of the notification of death), the
examining person must base his certainty of the extinction of life, not
upon one sign, but upon the totality of the signs of death.
KINGDOM OF SAXONY.
_Law of 20th July, 1850._
The burial of a corpse must not take place until seventy-two hours
after death, and the signs of decomposition are clearly visible.
Any proposed departure from this rule, in the event of earlier
putrefaction, or the absence of decomposition at the end of
seventy-two hours, requires the authority of a physician called in.
By the above Law, the following Orders are suspended: (1) the Order
of 11th February, 1792, concerning the treatment of the dead, and
the precautions necessary to prevent the apparently dead from being
buried prematurely; (2) the General Order of 13th February, 1801,
concerning precautionary measures in the burial of those dead of
infectious diseases; (3) the Law of 22nd June, 1841, together with the
Administrative Orders, concerning the examination of corpses and the
establishment of mortuaries.
CITY OF MUNICH.
_Order of 30th October, 1848._
The ordinance hitherto in force, as to making an incision in the
sole of the foot in cases of patients who die in the hospitals, is
abolished; the hospital physicians to use their discretion whether or
not the incision should be made; but, in cases for which is demanded
an earlier burial than is usually prescribed, whether they have been
hospital or private patients, the incision is to be made in the sole
of the foot at the end of the second inspection, and every other means
taken to ascertain whether the death be apparent or real.
CALCUTTA.
1. The prevailing custom for Christians and Mahomedans is to bury the
dead. The Hindoos burn them as a rule, but many prefer to throw them
into a sacred river, particularly the Ganges or its tributaries, if
they can do so unmolested by the authorities.
2. There are no mortuaries. The signs which are assumed to indicate
death are the various conditions and appearances when animation is
suspended.
3. Cases of revival from supposed death are sometimes heard of among
the Hindoos, who regard such persons as outcasts. If the signs of
returning life are not very manifest when a person begins to revive,
he is sometimes killed by stuffing the mouth and nose with mud, which
generally accomplishes the object.
BOMBAY.
1. There are no laws or regulations in India for the disposal of
the dead. The customs and formalities follow the traditions and
requirements of religious belief.
_a._ The Hindoos burn their dead immediately after death takes place.
_b._ The Parsees take their dead to a “Tower of Silence” as soon as
death takes place, and, after certain prescribed ceremonies, the body
is speedily devoured by vultures.
_c._ The Europeans and Mahomedans bury their dead within from
twenty-four to forty-eight hours, because putrefaction usually sets in
soon after death on account of the heat and humidity of the climate.
2. There are no mortuaries, excepting in connection with hospitals,
where observations can be made.
CAPE TOWN, AFRICA.
1. There are no laws nor regulations relative to the disposal of
the dead, excepting in cases requiring an inquest or _post-mortem_
examination. The custom is to bury within twenty-four to thirty hours
after death, but the time is sometimes extended to two or three days.
2. There are no dead-houses, except at the hospitals, which are under
the management of the superintendent.
3. The certificate of the medical attendant is sufficient for burial
purposes. The complete cessation of respiration and the heart’s action
are considered an absolute indication of death. When decomposition sets
in, it usually appears within twenty-four hours after death, although
in winter that process may be longer delayed.
MOSCOW.
Orthodox Russians keep their dead three days before burial. During that
time the body lies with the face uncovered, and a deacon chants and
prays over it twice a day. A medical certificate of death is imperative
before burial.
BRUSSELS.
Burials are regulated by the Communal Council in accordance with law.
The system is complicated, but thorough. The medical men connected with
the Government Medical Service (“Doctors of the Civil Government”) have
the sole control of the examinations of deaths, as well as births,
accidents, sudden deaths, suicides; and attend to burials, autopsies,
postponements of burials, etc., on their own motion. Interments usually
take place within forty-eight hours of death, but they may be carried
out sooner during epidemics for the public safety.
There are mortuaries in the city and suburbs, to which bodies may
be taken at the request of surviving relatives, or by the order of
the health authorities, according to private necessities or for the
public safety. Except by the special authorisation of the officers of
the civil government, bodies cannot remain in the mortuaries longer
than forty-eight hours; and a burial cannot take place in less than
twenty-four hours. Special care is taken to test the reality of
death in still-born infants, and efforts are made to revive them, as
well as all other cases of seeming death. In cases of women dying
during advanced pregnancy, the infant must be roused by artificial
respiration, in order to restore animation if possible. The process
for obtaining a delay for burial is intricate and cumbersome, and to a
foreigner unaccustomed to the language and the local usages the chances
would be against securing such a permit before the time allowed for
burial had transpired.
DENMARK.
Mortuaries are connected with all the churches, cemeteries, and some
of the hospitals, and are growing in favour in the country places; but
as yet they are unprovided with any appliances for the resuscitation
of the apparently dead, or for the prevention of premature burials.
No corpse, however, is allowed to be taken to a mortuary before it
has been inspected, and a death-certificate issued by a qualified
physician; but, when this is done, death is considered absolute. No
corpse is allowed to remain in any church, chapel, or mortuary longer
than seven days after supposed death, without special permission.
Coffins that contain bodies which have died from infectious diseases
must be so indicated, and cannot be opened in the mortuaries.
As a rule, bodies are kept seventy-two hours before burial. The signs
that are considered sufficient to establish death are the glazed
appearance of the eyes, livid spots on the skin, and muscular rigidity.
In doubtful cases, the time before burial can be extended by authority
of the Board of Health, of which the Police Director is a member.
SPAIN.
Burials usually do not take place until twenty-four hours after death.
For example, if a death takes place about four p.m., the burial is
made late in the following afternoon. In time of epidemic, bodies are
hurried to the cemeteries, where depositories are provided, which
are under the care of watchers until the expiration of twenty-four
hours after death. The certificate of a reputable physician as to
death is sufficient to authorise burial. Relatives or friends usually
remain with the body until burial, excepting in cases when judicial
proceedings are held over it to determine the circumstances of the
death.
IRELAND.
There are no laws in Ireland regarding the disposal of the dead, but
the Sanitary Acts of the United Kingdom can be applied in any case
within a reasonable period, on the ground of public health. There is
no fixed period for keeping a body before burial. The Roman Catholics
usually bury on the third or fourth day after death; but in some
districts custom sanctions burial within twenty-four or thirty-six
hours. Local burial authorities sometimes require a medical certificate
before burial, but, there being no legal obligation for it, this is
often omitted. In cases of suicide, sudden death, or death by violence,
the Coroner holds an inquest, and gives a certificate accordingly.
There are no dead-houses in Ireland, where bodies may be observed for a
period of time before burial.
Concerning burials in England, see Glen’s “Burial Acts” for the general
burial practice; also “Regulations for Wilton Cemetery.”
THE UNITED STATES.
In the United States of America, as a rule, everything relative to
the disposal of the dead is regulated by local Boards of Health,
as authorised by State laws. A burial cannot take place without a
certificate from a legally licensed physician, which must state the
cause of death; the place and time when it occurred; the full name;
age; sex; colour; occupation; birth-place; names and birth-places
of both parents. There are no laws or regulations that require the
inspection of the body to verify the fact of death (the certificate,
as in England, as to the cause is considered sufficient for this
purpose), and no time is fixed when a body must, or must not, be
buried. This is regulated by, and left to, the convenience of the
family of the deceased, by the season of the year, by the opinion of
the attending physician, etc. But the Health Officers can order the
burial whenever, in their opinion, the public health requires it. As a
rule, burials after supposed death are made sooner in the South, and
among the poor, than in the North, and among the well-to-do classes. In
remote unsettled regions burials not seldom take place without these
formalities, and they are often carried out in a hasty manner; but
usually they do not take place till three days after supposed death,
and sometimes, particularly in cold weather, a longer time is allowed.
All large cemeteries have chambers for the temporary deposit of bodies,
but they are not under observation, as it is taken for granted that
they are dead.
APPENDIX F.
THE JEWISH PRACTICE OF EARLY BURIAL.
R. J. WUNDERBAR, in his standard work on “Biblisch-talmudische
Medicin,” Riga and Leipzig, 1850-60, gives, in pp. 5-15 of the
concluding section (Abtheil. 4, Bd. ii.), the following summary of the
origin of the peculiar Jewish practice of burying the corpse within a
few hours of death:--
In the Levitical law (Num. xix. 11-22) every dead body was an unclean
thing, including those dead in the tent and on the battlefield.
Touching a corpse involved purification and separation for seven days.
This ordinance is supposed to have had a sanitary motive, having
probably originated with cases of infectious disease. There is only
one Biblical ordinance as to early burial, and that is indubitably
restricted to persons executed for crime: Deut. xxi. 22, 23, “And if
a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death,
and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon
the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for he that is
hanged is accursed of God), that thy land be not defiled which the Lord
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”This statutory limit to the
exposure of the bodies of malefactors was the most convenient way of
checking the practice, common in other countries, of leaving corpses of
criminals to hang upon the gibbet until they rotted, or were consumed
by birds of prey. Its motive was to prevent, by the promptest measure,
an indefinite degree of neglect in altogether special cases.
There is nothing else in the Bible concerning early burial; on the
contrary, the patriarchal practice, in the case of eminent persons,
seems to have been to keep the body for a considerable time above
ground, after the manner of Egypt. Prior to the Babylonian exile
there is not a trace of the later practice of speedy burial. The
post-Talmudic custom had arisen entirely from a misunderstanding.
It is true that the Talmud enjoins that corpses--according to
circumstances--be kept unburied not longer than one day; but it also
permits them to lie above ground for days, so that elaborate funeral
preparations might be made, or time given for mourners to arrive from a
distance. Lastly, the Talmud relates the burial of one apparently dead
who revived and lived for twenty-five years, and begat five children;
whereupon a rabbinical ordinance was made that the corpse (which would
have been laid in a vault or in a tomb above ground) should be visited
diligently until three days after death. (The references to the Talmud
are: Semachoth 8; Moedkaton 1, 6; Sabbat 151, 152; Sanhedrin 46a.)
Wunderbar admits that there had been cases of premature burial
among the Jews, but he asserts their extreme rarity, and doubts the
authenticity of most of the traditional or historical cases in general.
In Jewish circles in Germany towards the end of last century there
was much controversy as to the inexpediency of the practice of early
burial. In the “Berlinische Monatschrift” for April, 1787, p. 329,
(cited by Marcus Herz, “Ueber die frühe Beerdigung der Juden,” Berlin,
1788, p. 6,) there is printed a letter from Moses Mendelssohn to the
Jews of Mecklenburg, in which he advises them to keep their dead
unburied for three days. “I know well,” he adds, “that you will not
follow my advice; for the might of custom is great. Nay, I shall
perhaps appear to you as a heretic on account of my counsel. All the
same, I have freed my conscience from guilt.”
The above-cited essay by Dr. Marcus Herz, of Berlin, arguing against
the Jewish practice, called forth a reply by Dr. Marx, of Hanover, who
was of opinion that the burial might safely proceed after the body had
been left on the bed for three hours, and had then been pronounced
lifeless by the medical attendant, according to the practice in that
part of the country. To that Dr. Herz rejoined, in a second edition,
that the medical attendant was no better judge than an ordinary man,
inasmuch as all experimental tests were fallacious, and decomposition
the only sure sign. He cites the following statement by an experienced
Jewish physician, Dr. Hirschberg, of Königsberg (from the Jewish
periodical, “Sammler,” vol. ii., p. 153):--“I have practised medicine
for forty years, and have always grieved over the practice amongst us
of too hasty burial of the dead--on the day of decease. It happened
once in my practice that a woman lay for dead three days and then awoke
and revived. At first I would not allow the body to be moved from the
bed, but the undertaker’s men violently resisted me, taking up the body
and laying it on the ground. According to their custom, they would have
buried it the same day, had I not earnestly called out to them: ‘Beware
lest you do lay her in the ground this day! She is still alive, and the
blame will be on you.’ I had her covered with warm, woollen clothes; on
the following morning some signs of life were manifest; she lay still,
and gradually awoke out of her death-slumber.”
Herz declared, as Wunderbar did subsequently, that the passages in the
Talmud on which the Jewish custom was based had been misinterpreted;
and he specially accused the rabbis Jacob Emden, of Altona, and
Ezechel, of Prague, of rabbinical subtilty on the one hand, and of a
fallacious dependence upon scientific signs of death on the other.
* * * * *
At the World’s Medical Congress (Division of Eclectic Medicine), held
in Chicago, June 3, 1893, the following resolution was proposed by Dr.
John V. Stevens, and adopted:--
“Whereas we believe that many persons in the past, in the condition
simulating death from various causes, have been buried alive;
therefore,
“Resolved--That it should be the duty of all Governments to pass laws
prohibiting the burial of bodies without positive proofs of death;
that the nature of these proofs should be taught in all schools and
printed in all newspapers throughout the world.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
_SEVENTEENTH CENTURY._
KORNMANNUS (Henricus). De miraculis mortuorum. Francof., 1610.
TIRELLUS (Mauritius). De causis mortis repentinae. Venet., 1615.
ZACCHIAS (Paulus). Quaestiones medico-legales. Lib iv. cap. i., quaest.
xi, “De mortuorum resurrectione,” fol. 241-247 of editio tertia.
Amstelaedami, 1651.
[Gives many of the classical cases, with critical remarks.]
KIRCHMAIER (Theodor) and NOTTNAGEL (Christoph). Elegantissimum ex
physicis thema de hominibus apparenter mortuis. Wittenbergae, 1670.
[Collects cases, from ancient and more recent writers, of the
apparently dead having been taken for dead:--Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib.
vii. 52; Plutarch, De sera numinis vindicta; Apuleius, Floridorum,
lib. vi.; St. Augustine, De cura mortuorum; Thuanus (no ref.); Diomed
Cornarus, Hist. admirand. (case of a Madrid lady who is supposed to
have given birth to a child after she was laid in the tomb, the corpse
having a new-born dead infant in the right hand when the vault was
opened a few months after); Chr. Landinus, notes to Virgil, Æn. vi.
(incident at a funeral, of which he was an eye-witness at Florence);
Horst. Med. mir., cap. ix. (woman left for dead of the plague at
Cologne in 1357); and the case of a glazier, then living at Wittenberg,
who was treated as dead when a child of three years.]
GARMANN (L. Christ. Frid.). De miraculis mortuorum libri tres, quibus
praemissa dissertatio de cadavere et miraculis in genere. Opus
physico-medicum curiosis observationibus experimentis aliisque rebus
exornatum. Ed. L. J. H. Garmann. Dresden and Leipzig, 1709. (First ed.,
Leipzig, 1670.)
BEBEL (Balthasar). Dissertatio de bis mortuis. Jena, 1672.
_EIGHTEENTH CENTURY._
HAWES (Dr.). On the duty of the relations of those who are in dangerous
illness, and the hazard of hasty interment. A sermon preached in the
Presbyterian Chapel of Lancaster in 1703, wherein it is clearly proved,
from the attestation of unexceptionable witnesses, that many persons
have been buried alive.
LANCISI (Johannes M.). De subitaneis mortibus libri duo. Romae, 1707;
Lucae, 1707; Lipsiae, 1709.
WILFROTH (Johannes Christianus). Dissertatio de resuscitatione
semi-mortuorum medica. Halae, 1725.
RANFT (Michael). Tractat von den Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in
Gräbern, worm die wahre Beschaffenheit derer Hungarischen Vampyrs
gezeight, etc. Leipzig, 1734.
BEYSCHLAG (Fr. Jac.). Sylloge variorum opusculorum. “De hominum a morte
resuscitatorum exemplis.” Halae Sueviorum, 1727-31.
WINSLOW (Jacques Benigne), Professor of Anatomy at Paris. An mortis
incertæ signa minus incerta a chirurgicis quam ab aliis experimentis.
Paris, 1740. Dissertation.
---- Dissertation sur l’incertitude des signes de la mort, et l’abus
des enterremens et embaumemens precipités; traduite et commentée par
Jacques Jean Bruhier. Paris, 1742. (With the Latin text.)
BRUHIER (Jacques Jean), d’Ablaincourt. Mémoire sur la nécessité d’un
règlement général au sujet des enterremens et embaumemens--addition au
mémoire presente au Roi. Paris, 1745-46.
---- Dissertation sur l’incertitude des signes de la mort, et l’abus
des enterrements et embaumemens précipités. Second ed. Two vols. Paris,
1749.
---- The uncertainty of the signs of death and the danger of
precipitate interments and dissections. Second ed. London, 1751.
[Bruhier, in his work Dissertations sur l’incertitude des signes de
la mort et l’abus des enterremens, produces accounts of one hundred
and eighty-one cases, among which there are those of fifty-two persons
buried alive, four dissected alive, fifty-three that awoke in their
coffins before being buried, and seventy-two other cases of apparent
death.]
ANON. The uncertainty of the signs of death, and the danger of
precipitate interments and dissections demonstrated. Dublin, 1748.
COOPER (M). Uncertainty of the signs of death, precipitate interment
and dissection, and funeral solemnities. London, 1746.
JANKE (J. G.). Abhandlung von der Ungewissheit der Kennzeichen des
Todes. Leipzig, 1749.
LOUIS (Antoine). Six lettres sur la certitude des signes de la mort, ou
l’on rassure les citoyens de la crainte d’être enterrés vivans; avec
des observations et des experiences sur les noyés. Paris, 1752.
PLAZ (Antonius Gulielmus). De signis mortis non solute explorandis.
Specimen primum, Lipsiae, 1765; secundum, 1766; tertium, 1766; quartum,
1767.
---- De mortuis curandis. Diss. Lipsiae, 1770.
MENGHIN (Joh. Mich. de). Diss. de incertitudine signorum vitae et
mortis. Vienna, 1768.
ESCHENBACH (Christ. Ehrenfr.). De apparenter mortuis. Vienna, 1768.
JANIN DE COMBE BLANCHE (Jean). Reflexions sur le triste sort de
personnes qui sous un apparance de mort ont été enterrées vivants, etc.
Paris, 1774.
DE GARDANE (Joseph Jacques). Avis au peuple sur les asphyxies ou morts
apparentes et subites. Paris, 1774. Portuguese transl. included in
Avisos interessantes sobre as mortes apparentes. Lisbon, 1790.
---- Catechisme sur les morts apparentes, dites asphyxies, etc. Paris,
1781.
NAVIER (Pierre Toussaint). Réflexions sur les dangers des inhumations
precipitées et sur les abus des inhumations dans les eglises, etc.
Paris, 1775.
PINEAU (----). Mémoire sur le danger des inhumations precipitées, et
sur la nécessité d’un règlement pour mettre les citoyens à l’abri du
malheur d’etre enterées vivans. Niort, 1776.
MARET (Hugues). Mémoire pour rappeler à la vie les personnes en état de
mort apparente. Dijon, 1776.
BRINKMANN (Joh. Pet.). Beweis der Möglichkeit dass einige Leute können
lebendig begraben werden, etc. Düsseldorf, 1777.
SWIETEN (Baron Geerard Van). De morte dubia. Vienna, 1778.
TESTA (Antonio Guiseppe). Della morte apparente. Firenze, 1780.
DOPPET (F. A.). Des moyens de rappeler à la vie les personnes qui ont
toutes les apparences de la mort. Chambery, 1785.
[In 1784 the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences, etc., of Brussels
proposed as a subject for a prize essay, What are the means that can be
employed by medicine and police to prevent the dangerous mistakes of
premature burial?]
WAUTERS (Pierre Englebert). Responsum ad quaesitum, Quae tum
medica, tum politica praesidia adversus periculosas inhumationum
praefestinatarum abusus? Reprinted from the Mem. Acad. Imper. et Roy.
de Sc. de Bruxelles. Bruxelles, 1787 [1788].
PREVINAIRE (P. J. B.). Mémoire sur la question suivante proposée en
1784 par l’academie imperiale et royal des sciences, belles-lettres,
et arts de Bruxelles: Quels sont les moyens que la médecine et la
police pourroient employer pour prévenir les erreurs dangereuses des
enterremens precipités? Ouvrage qui a concouru pour la prix de l’annee
1786. Bruxelles, 1787.
---- The above in a German translation by Bernhard Gottlob Schreger.
Leipzig, 1790.
LEDULX (Gul. Petrus). De signis mortis rite aestimandis. Hardervici,
1787. Thesis.
THIERY (Franciscus). La vie de l’homme respectée et defendue dans ses
derniers moments; ou instruction sur les soins qu’ on doit aux morts,
et à ceux qui parroisent l’etre; sur les funerailles et les sepultures.
Paris, 1787.
STEINFELD (Johannes Christianus). De signis mortis diagnosticis dubiis
cautè admittendis et reprobandis. Thesis. Jena, 1788.
HERZ (Marcus). Ueber die frühe Beerdigung der Juden. Zweite vermehrte
Auflage. Berlin, 1788.
DURANDE (J. Fr.). Mémoire sur l’abus de l’ensevelissement des morts,
etc. Strasbourg, 1789.
DE HUPSCH (Baron Joh. Wilh. Carl Adolph). Nouvelle découverte d’une
methode peu couteuse, efficace et assurée de traiter tous les hommes
décédés afin de rappeler à la vie ceux qui ne sont morts qu’en
apparance. Cologne, 1789.
ANON. Des inhumations precipitées. Paris, 1790. (Attributed by Barbier
to Madame Necker.)
HUFELAND (Christoph W.). Ueber die Ungewissheit des Todes, und des
einzige untrügliche Mittel ... das Lebenigbegraben unmöglich zu machen,
etc. Salzburg, 1791; Halle, 1824.
REINHARDT (Julius Christophorus). Dissertatio de vano praematurae
sepulturae metu. Jena, 1793.
MARCELLO (Marin). Osservazioni teoriche-pratiche-mediche sopra le morti
apparenti. Two vols., with nine plates. Venezia, 1793.
ANSCHEL (Salomon). Thanatologia, sive in mortis naturam causas genera,
etc., disquisitiones. Goettingae, 1795.
HIMLY (Carolus). Commentatio mortis historiam causas et signa sistens.
Goettingae, 1795.
PESSLER (B. G.). Leicht anwendbarer Beystand der Mechanik um
Scheintodte beim Erwachen im Grabe auf die wohlfeilste Art wieder
daraus zu erretten. Braunschweig, 1798.
DESESSARTZ (Jean Charles). Discours sur les inhumations precipitées.
Paris, an vii. (1798).
KÖPPEN (Heinrich Friedrich). Nachrichten von Menschen welche lebendig
begraben worden. Als erster Theil des Buchs: Achtung der Scheintodten.
Halle, 1799. (Dedication to Friedrich Wilhelm III., King of Prussia,
Queen Louise, and Friedrich August, Prince of Hesse Darmstadt.)
_RESUSCITATION OF THE DROWNED.--THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY._
GRUNER (Jacobus). Dissertatio inauguralis de causa mortis submersorum
eorumque resuscitatione observationibus indagata. Groningae, 1761.
Memoirs of the society instituted at Amsterdam in favour of drowned
persons. For the years 1767-71. Translated by Thomas Logan, M.D.
London, 1772.
JOHNSON (Alexander), M.D. A short account of a society in Amsterdam
... for the recovery of drowned persons; with observations showing the
advantage ... to Great Britain from a similar institution.... Extended
to other accidents. London, 1773.
JOHNSON (Alexander), M.D. A collection of cases proving the
practicability of recovering persons visibly dead, etc. London, 1773.
---- Relief from accidental death; or, summary instructions for the
general institution proposed in 1773. London, 1785.
---- Abridged instructions. London, 1785.
CULLEN (W.), M.D. A letter to Lord Cathcart concerning the recovery of
the drowned and seemingly dead. London, 1773.