Dr. M. S. Tanner in a letter to the New York Times, January 18, 1880, mentions two cases where persons awakened from trance at the moment of sepulture described in turn what their feelings had been. Said one:—
“Have you ever felt the paralysing influence of a horrible nightmare? If you have had such experience, then you are prepared to conceive of the mental agonies I endured when I realised that my friends believed me dead, and were making preparations for my burial. The hours and days of mental struggle spent in the vain endeavour to break loose from the vice-like grasp of this worse than horrible nightmare was a hell of torment such as no tongue can describe or pen portray.”
The other instance mentioned by Dr. Tanner is that of Dr. Johnson of St. Charles, Illinois, who in the hearing of Dr. Tanner, and in the presence of a large audience in Harrison’s Hall, Minneapolis, stated that when a young man he was prostrated with a fever. He swooned away, apparently dead. His attending physician said he was dead. His father was faithless and unbelieving, and refused to bury him. He lay in this condition, apparently dead, fourteen days.VERDICT OF FOURTEEN PHYSICIANS. The attending physician brought other physicians to examine the apparently lifeless form, and all stated unqualifiedly, “He is dead.” Some fourteen physicians, among them many eminent professors, examined the body, and there was no ambiguity in the expression of their conclusion that the boy was dead. But the father still turned a deaf ear to all entreaties to prepare the body for the grave. Public feeling was at last aroused. The health officer and other city officers, acting in their official capacity, and by the advice of physicians, peremptorily demanded that the body be interred without delay. On the fourteenth day the father yielded under protest; preparations were made for the funeral, when the emotions of the still living subject, who was conscious of all transpiring around him, were so intense as to be the means of his deliverance. He awoke from his trance.
From the Lancet, June 7, 1884, p. 1058.
“IMPORTANT SUGGESTION FROM AN M.D.
“(To the Editor of the Lancet.)
“Sir,—Without venturing to express an opinion on the case mentioned by the Rev. D. Williams[5] in the Lancet of the 24th inst., I would beg to say that I have no doubt in my own mind but that people are sometimes ‘buried alive.’ An instance has come to my knowledge where this catastrophe was only avoided by a mere accident. A lady, about forty-five years of age, the wife of a clergyman in a northern county, was taken ill, and after some time, as was supposed, died. The funeral was delayed, and so was the closing of the coffin, in consequence of the absence of a son of the lady from home. When the boy arrived, the kissing, wailing, and commotion roused the supposed dead woman, and brought her to consciousness in her coffin. This lady would most probably have been buried alive were it not that the obsequies were delayed on account of the circumstance mentioned.
“Now, may not cases more or less similar to this sometimes occur, with the catastrophe of ‘buried alive’ added to them? But no such case could happen if it were made compulsory that the interment of a body should not be allowed to take place until after decomposition had set in, as attested by a medical man.
“I am, Sir, yours truly,
“Wm. O’Neill, M.D.
“Lincoln, May 26, 1884.”