In keeping with these stories are many curious accounts of recovery after hanging. These are frequent in writings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when hanging was almost an every-day occurrence. These narratives are much more authentic than the anecdotes told of recovery after premature burial, which are as old as literature. Paul Zacchias[73] tells of a young man who died of the plague and was set out with the corpses for burial. He revived and was taken back to the pest-house. He "died" again and was again prepared for the grave, but he came to a second time. The stock story in these premature burial cases is that of the woman who is revived by a thief who cuts her finger in an effort to steal the rings buried with her. [73] _Quaestiones Medico-Legales_, 1701. The important fact, however, is that in any case of death the exact moment in which the soul leaves the body is not knowable by any means we have at present, and where there is question of giving the sacraments the person apparently dead should have the benefit of the doubt. He is to receive conditional baptism, absolution, or extreme unction (preferably by the short method), in case these sacraments are required. For a whole hour after apparent death the probability that the soul has not departed is so strong that, in my opinion, a priest who does not give the necessary sacraments is virtually as guilty as if he neglected to administer them to a person evidently alive. Crile, one of the best medical authorities on this matter of somatic death, holds that the human respiratory system may survive anemia for from thirty to fifty minutes. How long after the hour a priest may administer the sacraments is not known, but a second hour, or even a third, are not unreasonable periods of time during which the sacraments may be administered conditionally. The sacraments are for man, and there is no irreverence if they are administered conditionally and the priest explains to the bystanders the reason he has for his action.