The bee., 1883-02-10
BURIED ALIVE.
A custom Of the Ancienfs---Three Time
Dead, Three Times Buried and Three
Times Raised from the Dead---Strunge
Staries of Decentralization, IL

occasionally people are supposed 10 De
dead when they are not, and buried
alive. A case took place recently in
New York in which the body of a
young man showed so few signs OF Ills
solution after his supposed decease
that the relatives kept the corpse above
ground for much longer period than
is usual.
The surest and almost only infallible
sign of death is decomposition. In all
cases where the ordinary and indis-
putaB1e signs of death do not occur with
in twenty-fOur hours after the apparent
death of a person, a physician should
be called in to examine the body.
The sense of hearing is supposed to
survive the other faculties and to con-
tinue when the vital functions are
suspended and appear to be annihilated.
1t was for this reason that the ancients
called the deceased by his name in a
loud voice for eight successive DAYS.
On the ninth he was buried, or, as they
phrased it, "called for the last time.
Ancient history teens with cases of
people supposed to be dead recovering
on the funeral pyre only to be burned
alive, so that cremation has its terrOrs
as well as our murderOus practice of
placing body upon ice the moment
life is supposed to be extinct.
Many strange and well-authenticated
tales are told of people coming to life
as it is called-thOugh they have not
been dead, under the dissecting knife,
but no physician seems to have suf-
fered SO hard fate rs did Vessalius.
He was celebrated anatOmist, and
chief physician to Philip H. of Spain.
A Spanish gentleman whom Vessalius
was treating died, and the anatOmiSt
obtained permission of his friends to
open his body. As soon as heapplied
the knife to the t',orax, to his astonish-
ment and horror. he saw the heart
palpitating. Instead of keeping the
matter secret, he informed the gentle
mans friends of the horrible incident.
Instead of acquitting him of inten-
tional killing, they prosecuted him for
murder. He was tried before the in
QUESTION and condemned to suffer as a
murderer. By the intercession of the
Spanish king he was pardoned on con-
dition that he should expiate his crime
by pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On
the death of Fallapius, the senate of
Venice invited him to succeed the
great anatomist. He embarked. On
the return voyage he was shipwrecked
and cast upon an uninhabited island,
where he perished of hunger.
The story of a lady who died ap-
parently, and was buried, but re-
covered by thief who got into the
vault to cut ring off her finger, caus-
ing the blood to flow, is told of as Oc-
curing in almost every country where
ladies are buried with valuable rings.
The most extraordinary series Of re-
suscitatiOns occurred to one Francis
de Civille, who is said to have been
three times dead, three times buried
and three times raised from the dead.
Civille's mother just died before ne was
born. She was buried. The day after
the interment her husband. who had
been absent, returned, and ordered his
wife to be raised from the grave. An
incision was made in the side and
Francis de Civille was taken out alive.
When twenty-six years of age, Rouen.
his native city, was besieged by Charles
TX, and CivIlle commanded a company
OF one hundred men. In an attack by
the enemy he was wounded, and falling
from rampant into ditch below it,
he was stripped, thrown into a grave
and a few Shovelfuls of earth thrown
upon him. Here he remained from
IL in the morning till 6 in the |
evening, when faithful domestic !
dug him up. Perceiving some
signs of life he applied restoratives,
but without success, until the end |
of FIVE days, when he recovered. |
The town being taken, some soldiers !
of the victorious army came to lodge |
where CiyilIe lay helpless. They drew
Civille out of window nearly nude.
He fell on pile of rubbish, which
saved him from broken bones. He
lay there three days and nights. when
he was found by some friends, who
restored him to life, for the third time
People who suffer from catalepsy.
that strange malady which so re-
sembles death, are very liable to be
buried alive if they fall into the hands
of ignorant people. Catalepsy is a
disease so rare that little is known of
it, even in our day. Epilepsy slightly
resembles it. All affections that cause
people to fall as if dead are grouped
together by old-ime writer's as "leth-
argies." Here is n specimen
a laboring man of Courcelles fell
into so deep alethargy that every one
supposed MIN dead, but as they were
putting him into the grave without
the usual appendage of a coffin, per-
ceiving some motion in the shoulders
they carried hin home again. where
he perfectly recovered. This incident
caused him ever afterward to be called
the ghost Of Courcelles.'
Medical authorities are of the opin-
ion that when death results from
drowning it is almost always possible
to restore the person to life. There
are cases ON record where woman re-
mained three days under water and
man seven weeks, yet both were
brought to life again. Physicians
seem to be of the opinion that death |
by lightning is about the only cause
of death where recovery is irnnoesibIa !