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ALIVE IN THE GBAVE.THE CHANCES FOR SUCH A FATE ARE EXTREMELY REMOTE. • / .In Times of Plague and Pestilence the Oreatest Danger of Pretnatnre Durlal Exists—The Death Test That Is Applied In Vienna. ' - - 'Most of as have a lingering love of lire. and. the thought that there is just tho barest possibility of being buriod alive Rends a shudder through us.Medical men know that^the human body in time of illiiess arid1 at other times,’ too, is liable to assumo all the outward appearances of death without the..final separation having actually, taken place.' There aro the coma, cataleptic and other forms of tho unconscious stafe,- each orio bringing in its trond the very simulation of death itself.. “Happily, a medical man nowadays,” said a physician to a reporter, “experiences no difficulty in declaring his patient to bo dead, as a general rule,' but it may perhaps happen once in his lifetime-that he may'have a .doubt, in which case conviction either way. follows upon his findings, which are simple and conclusive, and in which he cannot bo mistaken.*“It is unfortunately true that there are thousands of. nervous people now walking about in fear of being- buried alive, this • morbid conviction coming about through, reading, of an isolated case happening here and there, where perhaps some one has had a narrow os-, capo of being subjected to a living buriaL “These .‘escapes’-greatly outnumber those of the actual occurrence itself. The cataleptio usually show signs. of life just in the nick of * timo to disappoint the undertakers'and to relievo sorrowing friends. ... • ,“Of course, mnoh of tho evidence on which - the allegation of preniaturo burial is based depends on the fact that bodies on- exhumation have been occasionally found distorted, thereby fostering the notion that this or that occupant of the coffin has died. from suffocation, a theory which is supported by tho favorable condition of • other exhumed bodies.. . ’ ’ — -■ “But the idea is altogether wrong,' in fact and in principle It is well known among those who have made it a study that the apparent distortions,-instead of demonstrating a living borial, purely depend upon natural causes brought about by decomposition, the influence of which is. sufficiently stronjj enough' to bulge -out, and*, everi ^burst, leaden coffina This phenomenori'does not happen in every case, but it does in a great many. lt;•»,*-* • ,“No, no I I shall not go so for as to say ..that a premature' burial has never taken place, but it has not'occurred so often as is thought; I dare say it may- oocur in times - of ., plagues ‘and pestilences, where . the presumed • dead are■ buried .within a few hours of death. That iswhere much mischief lies. Brit when'panio prevails where does thought ; come in? . -. -“In plagues, such; as - cholera, the state of. collapse is so profound that it- may perfectly simulate death itsolf, -but the custom of. burying the * dead on the day of death is fortunately, on tho wane, even during advanced epidemics. It is. probable that in the absence of medical aid-iif.panio times -In. country‘places abroad it has led to 'living burial—indeed it, must - have ** done. But thelast •end of all under such conditions is merciful,* for it must not be forgotten that if you are ‘ unconscious’ only while being hermetically .sealed . in your coffin you will never again experience voluntary motion or sensation. _ '“However, where tho .doctor, can be consulted,- living burial Ms -impossible even in a cholera *r panic, for -there are certain bodily movements whioh gonor: ally occur after death from cholera,’in the absence of, which a - medical man would hesitate to certify for burial, i . “In ages gono by.and in uncivilized '^countries still it is possible that unconscious cataleptics, or persons drugged to apparent death, ] may, have been -and perhaps still' are • occasionally buried alive£ but I do not believe that in our own country or in any civilized :land such events aro possible.'. -. ..“In .Vienna -the-, custom prevails of taking a body to the mortuary on the eve of 'burial, where' it is ‘tested.’ Thimbles aro placed on tho fingers of tho dead, to which arri attached wires-omi!cted is.o luoriuary bcils.• *e tever rung?• Yes, once.“It is.in ;.a.- :l:Io tor a doctor to mis-cl:a u:iri-:iv,.iea.-:::cEj :n its varied forun f rli. . ' •• i‘. wr.s f,:;ggi»ied thatx law ,sb;:c':i lie laucu.g it compel, t ry i;.r :*. i:.iman to test bodies uoioru give g certificate cf; death Testing by eitcuicity was thoughtj of, -but it is nu lt;:plt;-fi* tjacsticu yet whether electricity kills or only stuns. * At all events, we in this country aro not coh-vinccd that such a test would bo satis-factory.cr affr.id saflieiust evidenco of lc.alh. it !.:;sJrs\;.!ae. Un theAt lit? I.:*.u;i.' i t fhtii-k fogi.siutica of this l.*:i.vl'la i:nvia;y It v, c-.uhl cer--taiuly reflect, upon tho i..i.iu.l profession. *. . .“Tho Viennese caster.: is a wise one, and 1 should like t.) seo it more jjeuer-ally cdrpted. IVarsoirs Weekly.The i.T ( oichlng,• The coach i igvsti:ui diiTl a lingering, a lamentable death 'I can remember something of a tow conches in reriiote districts which' longest escaped strangulation, and memory, of. those*, distant days has been sweeter without them. They resemble what Nimrod describes as tho obsolete, old fashioned coach of his. boyhood, drawn .by dispirited, ill fed jades over long stages. One of his paragraphs well describes what used to make my blood -boil with impotent fury, imbittering the joy of returning homo for the holidays, and deepening the depression of tho schoolward journey: * • ' •• “The four horse whip and tho Nottingham whipcord were of no avail over the latter part of the ground,-and something like *a _cat-o’-nine-tails was produced out of the boot, which was jocularly called'‘the apprentice,’, and a shrewd apprentice it was to the art of torturing, which was inflicted on tho wheelers without stint or measure, bnt without which the coach might have been often left on'tho road.; - No; thelast of* tho road coaches— corruptio optimi—disappeared arid left nouo to mourn them.—Blackwood’s Magazine. **-. - ' ;*The Doneli Head Dinoorered.
Newspaper Details
Athans Weekly Banner
Athens, Georgia, US
Fri, Oct 21, 1898
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Susanna S.
USA 11 Oct 2023
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