The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-04

studied the literature Of the profession for
a solution OF this problem. The only thing
| nave learned with any certainty is that
medical men and medical schools know
nothing with certainty about the matter.
The great majority of medical men were
they to speak their honest sentiments
would say with me. there IS only one sure
and infallibie sign of death in any given
case, and that is decomposition. What,
then, is our duty In the premises ? Is it 10
90 on AID bury our dead with the criminal
haste that characterize the age, or seek the
only remedy that will meet the exigencies
of the case, and that is TO defer burial until
positive proof shall Justify the last sad rites
of s%epulturel See the following case: DR..
Joslyn, of st. Charles, H., stated in my
hearing and in the presence OF a large audi
ence in Harrlson's Hall, Minneapolis. that.
when a young man, he was Frustrated with
a fever that refused to yield to professional
treatment. He swooned away, apparently
dead. His attending physician said he was
dead. His father was faithless and unbe-
lieving. and refused to bury. He lay in
this condition, apparently dead, IA days.
The attending physician brought other ply
sicians to examine the apparently lifeless
form, and all stated unqualifiedly He is
dead" Some Il physIcians-among them
many eminent professors-eXamined the
body, and there was no ambiguity in the
expressions of their conclusions, that the
boy was dead. But the father still turned
a deaf ear to all entreaties to prepare the
body for the grave. Public feeling was at
last aroused. The health officer and other
city officers, acting in their official capacity,
and by the advice of physicians, peremp
torily demanded that the body be inferred
without delay. On the fourteenth day the
father yielded, under protest; preparations
were made for the funeral, when the emo
tons of the still living subject, who was
conscious of all Transporting around him,
were so intense as to be the means of his
deliverance. He awoke from his trance,
and he is to-day alive and we'll. SO far as [
know. We, as a people, hold up our hands
in holy horror at the mere mention of the
word cremation; out how quietly and sub
missively we submit to the infinitely more
cruel and barbarous custom of hurrying the
of our loved ones into the grave be-
We have ascertained to a certainty that
he captive spirit is freed from its earthly
entanglements. | am not an advocate of
but far more humane and just
would it be to cOnsign the bodies of our
owed ones to the ~deyouring element, even
f not dead, than to consign them to the
asting, perhaps everlasting, terments of an
in a living tomb. # we cremats,
We have at least one consoling assurance,
md shat is that our lost ones are dead and
heir spirits free.
have written thus strongly because |
eel strongly. l have gone down t, the
Iery portals Of the tomb, and suffered the
of hunger for AZ days that | might
gain light and knowledge on this subject,
now if by my efforts | can aid in ava
lening the slumbering conscicnces of
lotions and individuals to thought and ac-
ion upon this all-important theme, l shall
have suffered in vain.
II. S. TANNER, M. ID.
Minneapolis, Friday, Feb. 9th 1880.