“How comes it about that patients, given over as dead by their physicians, sometimes recover, and that some have even returned to life in the very time of their funerals?”—Celsus.
“Such is the condition of humanity, and so uncertain is men’s judgment, that they cannot determine even death itself.”—Pliny.
PREFACE.
A distressing experience in the writer’s family many years ago brought home to his mind the danger of premature burial, and led ultimately to the careful study of a gruesome subject to which he has a strong natural repugnance. His collaborator in the volume has himself passed through a state of profound suspended animation from drowning, having been laid out for dead—an experience which has induced him in like manner to investigate the various death-counterfeits. The results of the independent inquiries carried on by both of us in various parts of Europe and America, and by one of us during a sojourn in India in the early part of this year, are now laid before the reader, with such practical suggestions as it is hoped may prepare the way for bringing about certain needed reforms in our burial customs.
The danger, as I have attempted to show, is very real—to ourselves, to those most dear to us, and to the community in general; and it should be a subject of very anxious concern how this danger may be minimised or altogether prevented. The duty of taking the most effective precautions to this end is one that naturally falls to the Legislature, especially under a Government professing to regard social questions as of paramount importance. Fortunately, this is a non-party and a non-contentious question, it imperils no interest, so that no formal obstruction or unnecessary delay need be apprehended; and it should be urged upon the Government to introduce and carry an effective measure at the earliest opportunity, not only as a security against the possibility of so terrible an evil, but to quiet the widespread and not altogether unreasonable apprehension on this subject which is now so prevalent.
It has been found convenient to retain throughout the body of the work the use of the singular pronoun, but every part of the book receives the cordial approval of both authors, and with this explanation we accept its responsibility jointly.
We have to acknowledge our great indebtedness in preparing this volume to many previous writers, including such as have investigated the phenomena of suspended animation and the signs of death, and such as, with a more practical intention, have dwelt upon the danger of death-counterfeits being mistaken for the absolute extinction of life, illustrating their counsels or warnings by numerous instances. Grouping both classes of writers together, we may mention specially the names of Winslow and Bruhier, Hufeland, Struve, Marcus Herz and Köppen, Kite, Curry, and Anthony Fothergill; and, of more recent date, the names of Bouchut, Londe, Lénormand, and Gaubert (on mortuaries), Russell Fletcher, Franz Hartmann, and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.