Premature Burial and How It May Be PreventedTebb, William
Science
Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented
Tebb, William
Burial, Premature
About this period Dr. Herachborg, of Königsberg, Prussia, wrote that,
for forty years, as a doctor, he had always been disgusted with the
practice of hasty burials; and, to show the ignorance of the times,
he mentions the case of a woman he kept under observation in bed for
three days, when her relations took her out and placed her on the
floor, insisting that she was dead. He resisted her burial, and had
her covered with blankets; so that by being kept warm she recovered
completely. He insisted that no sign of death could be relied upon.
[HASTY BURIAL IN TURKEY.]
From the _British Medical Journal_, April 12, 1862, p. 390. “The
_Gaz. Méd. d’Orient_ tells us that people in Constantinople are, in
all probability, not unfrequently buried alive, in consequence of the
precipitancy with which their burial is performed. If the person dies
during the night, he has some chance of escaping premature sepulture;
but if he dies during the day, he is sure to be in his tomb in two
hours after he has drawn his last breath. Facts of daily occurrence in
this country, we are told, prove that persons who were thought to have
died during the night have recovered before morning, and thus, thanks
to the intervention of night, have been saved from being interred
alive. Other facts of not unfrequent occurrence show that persons have
recovered while on their road to the grave. In other rarer cases,
again, the cries of the revivified half-buried ones have been heard by
the passers-by, and thus saved from a horrible conclusion.”
In all countries it is the custom amongst the Jews to bury their dead,
and apparently dead, quickly, without taking the slightest steps for
restoration, and many are the catastrophes recorded.
“The Report of the Royal Humane Society” of 1802 states:--“At the
funeral of a Jewess, one of the bearers thought he heard repeatedly
some motion in the coffin, and informed his friends. Medical assistance
being obtained, she returned to her home in a few hours completely
restored.”
From the _British Medical Journal_, March 8, 1879, p. 356.
“SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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