_Dr. Gordon Smith_, in his work on Forensic Medicine, has observed that in cases of precipitancy or confusion, as in times of public sickness, the living have not unfrequently been mingled with the dead, and that in warm climates, where speedy interment is more necessary than in temperate and cold countries, persons have even been entombed alive; we feel no hesitation in believing that such an event may be possible; but the very case with which the author illustrates his position is sufficient to convince us that its occurrence would be highly culpable, and could only arise from the most unpardonable inattention; “I was” says _Dr. Smith_, “an eye witness of an instance in a celebrated city on the continent, where a poor woman, yet alive, was solemnly ushered to the margin of the grave in broad day, and whose interment would have deliberately taken place, but for the interposition of the by-standers;” if the casual observer was thus able to detect the signs of animation, the case is hardly one that should have been adduced to shew the difficulty of deciding between real and apparent death. Many other illustrations might be adduced, but it is not our intention to amuse the reader with a relation of those numerous _nugæ canoræ_ that enliven several popular productions on the subject of _trances_, premature interments, and extraordinary resuscitations; the public have always betrayed a morbid curiosity upon the subject, and the stories of persons buried alive have ever found a ready access to our credulity, as well as to our compassion. Amongst the different anecdotes which have been brought forward in support of the popular belief in the frequency of living interment, and in proof of the fallacy of those signs which are commonly received as the unerring indications of death, we read of numerous instances where the knife of the anatomist has proved the means of resuscitating the supposed corpse; _Philippe Peu_, the celebrated French accoucheur, relates, himself, the case of a woman, upon whose supposed corpse he proceeded to perform the cæsarean section, when the first incision betrayed the awful fallacy under which he operated; the history of the unfortunate _Vesalius_, physician to Philip II. of Spain, furnishes another instance, upon which considerable stress has been laid; upon dissecting a Spanish gentleman, it is said that on opening the thorax the heart was found palpitating; for which he was brought before the inquisition, and would probably have suffered its most severe judgment, had not the king interceded in his behalf, and obtained for him the privilege of expiating his offence by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.[4]