Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-04-29
Premature Interment.

To the Editor efthe Eucning Post:
SIR:-A paragraph has recently been repnb
ished from the yNelO Haucn Journal, which un-
der the title of singular circumstance" de-
scribes some unusual Appearances on the face
of corpse, during the performance of some
funeral ceremonies. A flush Of crimson is
stated 10 have overspread the cadaverous fea-
lures, while the forehead exhibited q moisture
resembling perspiration. The account went on
say, that proceedings were at once suspended,
in order to have the body examined by several
physicians, on whose report it was subsequently
buried.
1t is not my intention TO dispute the verdict of
the medical gentlemen in this case: il E'as,
am willing to behave, sound one .hasia. The
body, ,Ohen hey examined 1t, may have been
dead but the previously observed phenomena
recall so many cases of premature interment
lin which a state of trance has been mistaken
for death,) that few words on the general topic
may not be deemed inappropriate.
While refecting on the subject my eye ac-
cidentally rested on the following paragraph in
New York Journal Of 10th February,
"The Courier d.4thenes remarks, that as
the corpse of the wife Of Gipsey, named
" Plassan, was about to be inferred in the ceme'
"try of that city, noise was heard to proceed
"ffom the coffin which was Immediately opened;
" the woman was found to have revived, and
' after some restoraives had been administered
I" she was enabled to return to her home."
The foregoing will be at once recognised as
one of many like accounts which appear from
time to time, excite q vague wonder, perhaps,
and are then quietly referred to the chapter of
inscrutable events, which suggest no caution
and afford no instruction.
Few, indeed, out of the pale of the medical
profession, know anything of the state called
trance, except Its name and an intimate &C.
quantance with lis phenomenon and predispos
ing causes, is by no means if we may credit
an eminent medical authority common in the
profession itself When, therefore, cases like
the one above quoted are narrated, it seldom
occurs to any one to consider the possibility
that he or his friends may, in their own persons,
furnish materials for new tale Of wonder.
DR.. Herbert Mayo, an eminent English
Physician, in his work on "The truths contain
cd In Popular Super stilions," gives very clear
account of the various known forms Of trance,
and of the causes which tend to produce them.
OF that form which alone concerns the present
purpose, he says:
death trance is the image of death. The
heart does not act the breathing is suspended;
L" the body is motionIess not the slightest out.
" ward sign of sensibility or consciousness can
abe detected. The temperature OF the body
" falls. The entranced person has all the ap-
" pearance of corpse from which life has re-
q" Gently departed. The JOINTS are commonly
relaxed, and the whole frame pliable; but II
" 10 likely that spasmodic rigidlty forms an oc-
" casonal adjunct to this strange condition, S.
1.-THE only means of knowing whether life be still
- present. is to wait the event."
ain England, (says DR.. Mayo, further on,
during the last epidemic of cholera. several
I" cases OF death. trance occurred, in which the
s patient, who was on the point of being buried
i" fortunately awoke in time to be saved. Death
trance, it is probable, is much more frequently
"produced by spasmodic and nervous illness
I" than by mental causes it has followed fever
tit has frequently attended parturition."
Examples of premature interment are givel
IN another part of DR.. Mayo's volume, in whcl
ne discusses the superstition called "Vampy
rism," once prevalent throughout Europe, ant
still surviving in the eastern parts Of that contin
ent. 1t may be we'll to explain that The Yam
pyre was corpse, which retaining an unnat ur
al vitality, contrved to preserve itself from de
: composition, by sucking the blood Of the living
for which purpose it nightly fOrsook its grave.
The fears engendered by this horrible bsleI
led, during the l7th and early in the 18th cen
turies, to frequent examinations of buris
= grounds by the local authorities, the records &