Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-05-17
Hurried Interments In France.

has recently been issued 1t is an able
protest against the burial laws of France,
which compel interment on the third day
after death, and some facts quoted by the
author DR.. Boille) are certainly startling.
He says:
During the sixteenth century inter-
ments followed death so closely that st.
Charles Borromeo was forced to issue
severe edict against this dangerous pre-
cipitation. 1t was at this epoch that
Cardinal Espinosa, minister to Philip Ii.
OF Spain, rose up beneath the blsody knife
of the surgeon who was dissecting him,
and Immediately after expired in horrible
agony. 1t was also at this epoch that the
celebrated anatomist Vesalius was con-
demned by the Holy Inquisition to make
a pilgrimage to Palestine on foot, to ex-
plate by that dangerous journey, from
which he never returned, the fatal error
which he had committed by cutting open
the supposed corpse of Spanish gentle
man who revived during the operation.
AT the same period there dwelt in France
one Francois de Civille, a gentleman of
| Normandy, thrice dead, thrice inferred,
and thrice, by the grace of God, resusci-
tated, as he describes himself
g II has been calculated that, according
| w VIC NpluiIC VI ICSpiI dDic ar COHtdlutu
in a coffin, and which has been estimated
at about one hundred and twenty litres
death ought to take place before one
quarter OF this provision is expended; it
is, therefore, wellnigh certain that, if the
pail is thick, the coffin alright, and the
grave impenetrable to the atmosphere, life
cannot be prolonged after Inflammation
more than from forty to sixty minutes
but is not that alone a whole century of
| torture?
The question of precipitate interments
was brought before the Senate in 1866.
During that sitting Cardinal Bonnet,
Archbishop OF Bordeaux, after speaking
of three persons of his diocese who had
come to life, so to speak, before his eyes,
related in moving terms the pathetic his
tory OF young priest, stricken with a
lethargy while preaching, and left for
dead by his physician. In that perlous
situation, like many drowning persons,
he preserved his lucidity of mind, but he
could neither move nor utter II single
word he heard the tolling of the funeral
/ knell, and the recital beside him of the
prayers for the dead, and already the last
preparations were begun when the power
OF motion returned to him. And con-
cluded the orator, that priest now stands
| before your
:" Ia 1912 took place the funeral, after "a
long illness, Of wealthy inhabitant of
Nantes. His heirs did things grandly,
and ordered sumptuous obsequies. The
body was borne to the church, and the
ceremony was proceeding, when the sol.
emn funeral chants were interrupted by
"A loud noise proceeding from the coffin;
the dead man had come to life. A few
days later he had entirely recovered, but
the affair was not yet ended. The ac-
counts were still to be settled, and the bill
for the funeral expenses was sent to the
recalcitrant detunct, who refused to paw
for things he had never ordered, and sent
the claimants to his heirs; they, not hav
ing come into possession of the funds ap-
propriated ior that purpose, also refused
10 pay. A lawsuit ensued which gave rise
to many jOcose commentaries, and caused
those present TO weep from very excess of
| laughter"
DR.. Boillet also speaks of the immunity
to crime afforded by these hurried inhu-
nations, and quotes two recent cases in
support of his statements:
| AT the village of Bourg was recently
beheaded the woman Bouyou, convicted
or having assas-inated her sole surviving
child. This internal maker of angels
not content with forcing the young mar
tyr To swallow pins, had literally larded
It's heart with them. 1t was not her first ey-
pertinent, but twas her last This abomina
BILE crime caused people to remember the
six other children that she had already
lost. SO many deaths, occurring in a sin
| gle household, and in so short time,
! gave rise at last to serious comments, and
the law in its turn investigated the mat
| ter. The bodies OF the dead children
were dlslnterred, and the pins found in
large numbers in the remains of the poor
| little creatures proved that this blood.
! thirsty tgress had killed them all in the
same manner; 1t was, as she said, her
| method OF proceeding. Thus such
slaughter had at first amazed no one, and
the grave had closed over six assassinated
children successfully without their deaths
having attracted any particular attention.
| An lnhabltant Of Marseilles, named
| Urban, has just been condemned to death
for having poisoned his own son with
digitalis The death of the young man
which the murderer calmly attributed to
illness, might perhaps have passed for
natural, but the doctor, being called in
SIX hours after the sufferer had expired,
was surprised at this tardy invitation To
attend patient that no longer existed,
and set on loot an inquiry that soon re-
vealed the horrible truth. BY judicial in
vestlgations il was discovered that the as
Sassin had poisoned his wife with the
same substance three years before without
a single protest having retarded for an
hour the interment OF the unhappy vic
TIM
The April number of the Baptist Ms