Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented

by William Tebb; Edward Perry Vollum

“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.”