The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1866-05-08
Buried Alive.

Ho iucd 10 NV plCdcinS w tuC Mluu,
but it is generally supposed that such
incidents belong only to the line of hor-
rible romance. A recent debate in the
French Senate shows that living burials
are living reality, requiring more strin-
gent public regulations and greater care
on the part Of friends to protect all from
this danger. The debate arose on the
report Of the committee on petition by
! DR.. Carnol, for more stringent ante burial
regulations. The French law requires
that twenty-four hours shall elapse be-
tween death and burial. Dr.. Carnol de-
clared that this minimum was not nearly
enough, and he supported his opinion by
numerous instances of suspended ANNA
tion, showing good ground for his opin-
ion that large number of fpersons are an
nually buried alive in France.
The Senate was about to give the sub
lject the go by, as sufficiently provided for
already. The member presenting the re-
port proposed to shelve it by the motion
to proceed with the order of the day.
Thereupon the Cardinal Archbishop of
Bordeaux rose and expressed his dissent.
He declared, in the first place, that the
existing regulations were often evaded;
but he proceeded to show that if strictly
carried out they were wholly insufficient.
He had himself, while yet Cure, saved
several lives about to be sacrificed to the
indecent haste ofsurvivors. He had seen
man taken from his coffin and restored
to health. Another man of advanced
years had been put in the coffin, and yet
lived for twelve hours after.
Moreover, he had himself worked that
which would be called miraculous resuf-
rection, if not explainable by natural
causes. He had seen the body of yoting
woman laid out for dead. As the attend
ants were covering her face when he en-
tered, he observed SO much as convinced
him that animation was suspended. With
a loud voice he cried out that he was
(come to save her. He abjured' her to
shake off the ,lethargy that oppressed her,
and return to life His voice reached
her numbed sensations, she made the eff
fort, and lived to become wife and a
mother.
But the effect on the assembly grew in
tensely dramatic when the speaker re-
lated another instance, which explained
how his attention came to be directed to
this danger, and how he knew that such
effects could be brought by appealing to
their volition. He said-a young Priest
fell down dead, as it was supposed, while
preaching in crowded church on sui
try day, about forty years ago. The fu-
neral bell was tolled the doctor came and
examined him in the perfunctory official
Istyle, aHd certified that he was dead, all
in the dead mans full hearing Then
came the measuring for tire coffin, the De
Profand,s reeited by Episcopal lips; ac-
companied by the intense agony of one
who was conscious of the preparation thai
were being made for his own burial. Al
length some one present spoke, whose
voice the dead man had known and loved
for years. A cord was touched that gal
vanized the frame, the corps rose up, anu
became once more a. living soul. "That
young priest, gentlemen, Is the same who
is now speaking before you, and who
more than forty years after that event
impleres those in authority not merely tc
watch vigilsntly over the careful exeeu
ton of the legal prescriptions with re
gard to interments, but to enact fresh
ones in order to prevent the recurrence
of irreparabls miSfortunes.
! A man who had seen with perfect con
sciousness all the preparations made fol
his own burial, and whom at length The
voice of a friend had raised from tht
dead, having his attention directed to tn,
matter by this fearful experience, had il
the course of his duties as priest rescued
several persons from living burial Wha
may we calculate for the mass of burial
which are subject to no such watchful
ness, and when the risk of being burist
alive is generally thought to be only
horrible fancy, utterly destitute Of proba
bility?
] II such events happen in the ordinar,
yicissitudes Of life, with all the care o
afflicted friends, and with the interval be
tween death and burial that usual,
elapse, how much greater must be tn
risk in times of epidemic and genera
.. alarm, when burials are hurried to pro
tect the public from infection? We men
tion this in view of the general appre
hension for the coming season. We sup
pose that no civilized people bury will
such haste as the Americans. In times
of epidemic the interval between deaf
and burial is generally made very brief
f, and it is natural to suppose that the ma
; lignant character of the disease leaves nj
, possibility that the apparent death is no
real. But we are not aware that malig
: nant plaques are any assurance agains
this mistake. a
!, LYDIA Maria Childs relates the follow
; ing incident in her own family, of tn
, restoration of the apparently dead t
life:
The yellow fever ragged fearfully i
Boston the last part Of the 18th century
The panic was so universal that wive
!. forsook their dying husbands, in som
1 cases, aad mothers their children, to es
: cape the contagious atmosphere of th
= city. Funeral rites we're generally omit
ted. The ssdeath carts" sent into ever
part of the town we're so arranged as
lpass through each street every half houl
At each house known 70 contain victir
of the fever they rang a bell, and called
"Bring out your dead" When the life
less forms were brought out they wer
i wrapped in tarred sheets, put into th