Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented

by William Tebb; Edward Perry Vollum

Dr. J. B. Vigné, in his “Memoire sur les Inhumations Précipitées,” Paris, 1839, narrates the following:— “Mr. B., an inhabitant of Poitiers, fell suddenly into a state resembling death; every means for bringing him back to life were used without interruption; from continued dragging, his two little fingers were dislocated, and the soles of his feet were burnt; but, all these having produced no sensation in him, he was thought decidedly dead. As they were on the point of placing him in his coffin, some one recommended that he should be bled in both arms and feet at the same time, which was immediately done, and with such success that, to the astonishment of all, he recovered from his apparent state of death. When he had entirely recovered his senses, he declared that he had heard every word that had been said, and that his only fear was that he would be buried alive.”

APPARENT DEATH IN PREGNANCY.

Hufeland (one of the greatest authorities on the subject in Germany), in his essay upon the uncertainty of the signs of death, tells of a case of the wife of Professor Camerer, of Tübingen, who was hysterical, and had a fright in the sixth month of her pregnancy, which brought on convulsions (eclampsia), which continued for four hours, when she seemed to die completely. Two celebrated physicians, besides three others of less note, regarded the case as ended in death, as all the recognised signs of death were present. However, attempts to revive her were at once resorted to, and were continued for five hours, when all the medical attendants, except one, gave the case up, and left. The physician who remained pulled off a blister-plaster that had been put on one of the feet, when the lady gave feeble signs of life by twitchings about the mouth. The doctor then renewed his efforts to revive her, by various stimulating means, and by burning, and by pricking the spine; but all in vain, for after her slight evidences of revival, she seemed to die unmistakably. She lay in a state of apparent death for six days, but there was a small space over the heart where a little warmth could be detected by the hand, and on this account the burial was put off. On the seventh day she opened her eyes, and slowly revived, but was completely unconscious of all that had happened. She then gave birth to a dead child, and soon thereafter recovered her health completely.

From the Lancet, November 27, 1858, p. 561.

“THE DEAD ALIVE.

“It seems to be always desirable to obtain a contemporary record of all unusual phenomena. It is so more especially where they are of a somewhat indefinite character, and scarcely susceptible of exaggeration. We know of none which are more so than the cases of ‘trance.’MORE CAREFUL EXAMINATION REQUIRED. These examples are both sufficiently unusual to deserve a passing record, and sufficiently mysterious in their character to call for a more careful investigation than it has hitherto been possible to accord to them. We transcribe the facts of a recent instance, as they are circumstantially detailed, and, no doubt, some of the surgeons of Coventry will be able to afford their testimony as to the degree of correspondence of this narrative with their observations. “The girl, whose name is Amelia Hinks, is twelve or thirteen years of age, and resides with her parents in Bridge Street, Nuneaton. She had lately appeared to be sinking under the influence of some ill-explained disorder, and about three weeks since, as her friends imagined, she died. The body was removed to another room. It was rigid and icy cold. It was washed and laid out with all due funeral train. The limbs were decently placed, the eyelids closed and penny-pieces laid over them. The coffin was ordered. For more than forty-eight hours the supposed corpse lay beneath the winding-sheet, when it happened that her grandfather, coming from Leamington to assist in the last mournful ceremonies, went to see the corpse. The old man removed a penny-piece, and he thought that the corpse winked! There was a convulsive movement of the lid. This greatly disturbed his composure; for, though he had heard that she died with her eyes open, he was unprepared for this palpebral signal of her good understanding with death. A surgeon is said to have been summoned, who at first treated the matter as a delusion, but subsequently ascertained stethoscopically that there was still slight cardiac pulsation. The body was then removed to a warm room, and gradually the returning signs of animation became unequivocal. When speech was restored, the girl described many things which had taken place since her supposed death. She knew who had closed her eyes and placed the coppers thereon. She also heard the order given for her coffin, and could repeat the various remarks made over her as she lay in her death-clothes. She refused food, though in a state of extreme debility. She has since shown symptoms of mania, and is now said to have relapsed into a semi-cataleptic condition. The parents are ‘creditable people,’ and there is no apparent ruse in this unusually romantic history, which is causing considerable excitement in Nuneaton and its neighbourhood.”

From the Lancet, December 18, 1858, p. 642.

“‘THE DEAD ALIVE.’
“(To the Editor of the Lancet.)

“Sir,—An article, ‘The Dead Alive,’ in your impression of the 27th ultimo, demands of me a veritable statement of the case alluded to. The subject of the inquiry is still living, and for some time past has afforded me scope for observation.

THE DEAD ALIVE.