The freeman. (Fremont [Ohio]) 1849-1850, 1850-05-18
MiseelIamt6n us.
of the Signs of Prema-
tuNre Burial.

tWre Burial
The moment which converts a sensitive
body to inanimate matter is often indisting-
Unstable; but one would hardly think that
any one who had deliberately contemplated
a corpse-icy, stiff, and motionless with moth
ing of humanity except the form--could sup
pose that life might put on the borrowed
likeness of shrunk DEATH" and men, who were
still of the present world, be consigned by mis-
take to living tomb; yet many persons, es-
pecially women, are so haunted with the idea
that they will almost fear to sleep, lest they
should wake with six feet of earth for their
covering and coffin for their bed. Solemn
physicians abroad-for England these terri
torist boast no educated disciples-have writ
ten books to accredit the belief and add a
deeper horror to the grave. Each successive
production of the kind, however, is little more
than resuscitation Of its forgotten predecessors,
from which it differs abou, as much as the
almanac of this year from the almanac oflast.
No perfect security can be devised against
wiilful carelessness, any more than against
willful murder; but because friendless
traveller fell victim to the rashness of an
ignorant surgeon, there is no occasion to fright
the world from their propriety, and endeavOr
DGESudOC lIdI Will Tie UCol luIcEtiOiS tHS
living are liable toconfounded with the dead
Ito be packed sleeping in coffin, and stifed
waking in the grave.
In the midst of exaggeration and invention,
there was one undoubted circumstances which
formerly excited the worst apprehensions-thv
fact that bodies were often found turned in
their cofins, and the grave-clothes disarrang-
ed but what was ascribed, with seeming rea-
son, to the throes of vitality is known to. be
due to the agency of corruption. As gass is
developed in the decaying body which mimics
by its mechanical force, many of the move
ments of life. Sopowerfulis the gassin corps
es which lay long in water, that Devergie,
the physian to the Morgue at Paris, and the
author of text book on legal medicine, says
that, unless secured to The table, they are
often heaEed up, and thrown to the ground.
Frequently strangers, seeing the motions Of
the limbs, run to the keeper of the Morgue,
and announce, with horror, that person is
alive. All bodies, sooner or later generate
the gas in the grave: and it constantly twists
about the corpse and blows out skin till it
rends with the distention, and sometimes
bursts the coffin itself When the gass ex-
plodes with noise, imagination has converted
ii into an outcry, or groan; the grave has been
re-opened; the position of the body has con-
irmed the suspicion and the laceration taken
for evidence that the wretch had gnawed his
flesh in the frenzy of despair So many are
the circumstances which professionally concur to
support conclusion that is more unsubstantial
than the fabric of dream. Violent and pain
full diseases, which kill speedily, are favorable
to the idea that the dormant life is rousing it
self up to another effort. Not unfrequently
the food in the stomach is forced out through
the mouth, and blood poured from the nose,
or the opening in vein where the victim
of apoplexy has been attempted to be bled
Extreme mental distress has resulted from
these fallacious symptoms; for where they
occur it's commonly supposed that the former
appearance of death was deceitful, and reeov-
cry was possible, if attendance had been at
hand