The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-22
4 Marrow Escape from Psamaiars
Burial.


Only few days ago we reported a
remarkable story which is in itself an
argument, as many would think, in
favor of abolishing the present system
of subterranean interments. A Young
girl was suddenly afflicted with illness.
and a medical man, being called in,
stated, after some time had elasped,
that the patient was actually dead.
Dead, too, she was to all appearances,
as no flutter of the heart and not the
faintest breathing from nose or lips
could be perceived by the friends
gathered round the bedside. The
body of the supposed to be deceased,
was left in the room where she had died,
and the family was assembled in down
stairs apartment. Some hours later,
it is stated, one of the household heard
a faint cry or call, and, coming into the
passage, was hOrror-stricken to observe
the girl, who was believed to be living
cold and inanimate, standing at the
head of the stairs in the clothes in which
she had been laid out. The call which
had attracted attention had really
emanated from her lips. and veritable
resurrection appeared to have taken
place. Only in faint tones could the
arisen corpse articulate, and the chief
complaint was that she felt very cold"
Now, here is an instance of death in
life which recalls all the horrible stories,
true or false, and most of them decidedly
fictitious, which have been told of
persons who were imagined to be dead,
Al ,h5,
after prolonged period of total mani
ton. The tales OF men and women
who may possibly have been buried be-
fore they were dead, as in the instance
Of the young woman inferred close
to Shakspeare's grave in Stratford-on-
Avon Church, are really too shocking
to allow thought to dwell upon them.
In the example to which We have re-
ferred, the reason given for the terrible
occurrence was that sthe girl had died
of the plague, and in such cases the
survivors were glad to bury the bodies
out of sight as quickly as possible for
fear of contagion. In this country,
where burial does not take place until
some days after decease, it is well nigh
impossible, according to the best
medical testimony. that any such
horrible accident should occur.
Catalepsy and kindred illnesses, however,
are known to produce states of coma
which SO closely resemble death that in
certain cases careless physician might
possibly, though not probably, pro-
nounce life to be extinct when it was
not so in reality. The story of the girl
who rose from the bed on which she had
been ''laid out a few days ago Is q
| modern reproduction of the accident
that befell Vesalius, one of the fathers
of modern medical science. He was, so
the history goes, called in to attend on a
young Spanish nobleman, who seemed
to have suceumbed to death, being in
reality in cataleptic condition. After
the great anatomist had actually COM
mensed his post-mortem examination
the heart once more began to beat, and
| the indignant relatives denounced the
| learned Vesalius as an infamous muir
| derer. Nor could the protection of
| Philip IL save him from the condemna-
ton of the Inquisition, and in conse-
quence he was obliged perform several
expiatory pilgrimages to the Holy Land,
in the course of one of which he was
wrecked on the desolate island of Zante,
and died of starvation and exposure.
In our own days, fortunately, the signs
of death are so well understood that
nervous people need not have the slightest
fear of being buried alive. Still the
consciousness that such an awful fate
is barely possible serves to invest crema-
ton with certain favor in the eyes OF
a great many persons. For directly
the body had entered the crematorium
it would be at once subjected to such
intence heat that the idea of any recovery
of life or breath must be simply out OF
question. This and the crowded state
of our cemeteries, together with the
difficulty of finding new burial-grounds
for the constantly growing needs OF
the community, are certainly strong
arguments which can and ought to be
urged in favor of the practice Of crema
ton .-LOnd0n Telegraph.