Besides the account of Anne Green, Denham, in the 4th book of his Physico-Theology, quotes the following instance from Rechelin (De Aere et Alim. defect., cap. vii.),—
"Of a certain woman hang'd, and in all appearance dead, who was nevertheless restored to life by a physician accidentally coming in, and ordering a plentiful administration of the spirit of sal ammoniac."
(See also The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, and the Danger of precipitate Interments and Dissections demonstrated, 12mo., London, 1751.)
A paragraph, stating that Fauntleroy, the notorious forger, had survived his execution, and was living abroad, has more than once gone the round of the newspapers. It is sometimes added that his evidence was required in a Chancery suit,—absurdly enough, as, if not actually, he was at least legally dead.
The story of Brodie, executed October, 1788, for an excise robbery at Edinburgh, is probably familiar to most. The self-possession and firmness with which he met his fate was the result of a belief in the possibility of his resuscitation:
"It is a curious fact, that an attempt was made to resuscitate Brodie immediately after the execution. The operator was Degravers, whom Brodie himself had employed. His efforts, however, were utterly abortive. A person who witnessed the scene, accounted for the failure by saying that the hangman, having been bargained with for a short fall, his excess of caution made him shorten the rope too much at first, and when he afterwards lengthened it, he made it too long, which consequently proved fatal to the experiment."—Curiosities of Biography, 8vo., Glasgow, 1845.
There is a powerfully-written story in Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1827, entitled "Le Revenant," in which a resuscitated felon is supposed to describe his feelings and experience. The author, in his motto, makes a sweeping division of mankind:—"There are but two classes in the world—those who are hanged, and those who are not hanged; and it has been my lot to belong to the former." Many well-authenticated cases might still be adduced; but enough at least has now probably been said upon the subject, to show the possibility of surviving the tender mercies of Professor Calcraft and his fraternity.
William Bates.
Birmingham.
In Atkinson's Medical Bibliography, A. and B., under the head "Bathurst Rodolphus," is the following: