and death, it would follow that putrefaction is the only evidence of real death.’ ... The absence of the circulation of the blood has been looked upon as a certain indication of death; but this test is not much to be depended on, for it is well known that persons may live even for hours in whom no trace of the action of the heart and arteries can be perceived.” Le Guern, in “Du Danger Des Inhumations Précipitées,” chap. iv., p. 24, relates that “The Abbé Prévost was found in the forest of Chantilly perfectly insensible. They thought him dead. A surgeon proceeded to make a _post-mortem_; but hardly had he put the scalpel in the body of the unfortunate victim before the supposed corpse uttered a cry, and the surgeon realised the mistake he had made. Prévost only became conscious to feel aware of the horror of the death by which he perished.” Dr. Franz Hartmann, in his “Premature Burial,” p. 80, has the following:-- “In May, 1864, a man died very suddenly at a hospital in the State of New York, and, as the doctors could not explain the cause of death, they resolved upon a _post-mortem_ examination, but, when they made the first cut with the knife, the supposed dead man jumped up and grasped the doctor’s throat. The doctor was terrified and died of apoplexy on the spot, but the “dead” man recovered fully. Brigade-Surgeon W. Curran in his 8th paper, entitled “Buried Alive,” relates the following:--“At the Medical College at Calcutta, on the 1st of February, 1861,” so writes my friend as above, “the body of a Hindu male, about 25 years of age, was brought from the police hospital for dissection.... It was brought to the dissecting-room about 6 a.m., and the arteries were injected with arsenical solution about 7. At 11 the prosector opened the thorax and abdomen for the purpose of dissecting the sympathetic nerve. At noon Mr. Macnamara distinctly saw the heart beating; there was a regular rythmical vermicular action of the right auricle and ventricle. The pericardium was open, the heart being freely exposed, and lying to the left in its natural position. The heart’s action, although regular, was very weak and slow. The left auricle was also in action, but the left ventricle was contracted and rigid, and apparently motionless. These spontaneous contractions continued till about 12.45 p.m., and, further, the right side of this organ contracted on the application of a stimulus, such as the point of a scalpel, &c., for a quarter of an hour longer.”--_Health_, May 21st, 1886, p. 121.