The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-03-19
PHENOMENA OF DEATH.

Ignorance Of People Conserving Mystic
ries Of Dissolution.
Every year adds mass of testimony
more or less convincing of the popular
and professional ignorance prevalent
concerning the phenomena of death.
Accounts are published from time to
time of premature burials, of suspended
animation and of coffined cOrpses which
have ut the last moment electrified their
respective circles of mourners by giving
some sign of vitality just sufficient to
rescue them from the unyielding grave.
Some people read these stories, others
pass them over, and in few instances
they are cut out and pasted into scrap
books devoted to collection of data
bearing on the subject. Within the
space of fifteen years, for example, the
to the notice of the average casual
newspaper-reader is enormous. 1t will
be enough to fill many large scrap
book. and it will embrace testimony re-
lating to all the phenomena connected
with the mystery of physical dissolution.
Such collection would include case
after case of premature burial, simu-
lated death and resuscitatiOn of those
supposed to be dead. In case the col
lectOr were disposed to make a hobby
of the subject he would have no diff
Guilty in completing his data with testi-
mOny rs to the different phases Of death
by starvation. by drowning and by
hanging. Such a collection not only
might be made. but actually has been
made, and in all instances where it was
practicable every case has been care
fully authenticated.
ANY one who will take the trouble to
review such mass of testimony will
be pretty thoroughly convinced of two
standing of the multitudinous details of
death. The second is the ignorance Of
the simple methods of resuscitation and
restoration that may be effectually em-
plOyed under certain circumstances.
The inevitable conclusion to be reached
from these premises is that there is no
absolute proof of death in one case out
of hundred, as no scientific tests are
applied. In the majority of cases after
respiration ceases the attending physi-
clan is called. He pronounces the pa
tent dead. The minister is summoned.
then the undertaken, and the body is in
TERED. The evidences of death in such
case are found simply in the appear
ance of the body. The limbs are stark
and rigid, the under jaw is fallen, the
eyes are set, the lips discolored and an
ashy pallor has swept over the cOunte-
nance. Yet for all this the vital spark
may not have been entirely extin-
guished. A prolonged period of inani-
ton. cataleptic conditions. syncope. or
trance may account for these appear
ances. This is proved by the numerous
instances in which exhumed caskets
have given indubitable evidence of an APP
palling struggle, in which lining, pillows
and shrouds have been torn to shreds.
A curious fact connected with one
form of inanitiOn may be found in the
trivial circumstance necessary in some
instances to recall the ebbing tide of
life. In one case as the attendants were
removing rings from the finger of q
supposed corpse the body Strengthened
up and respiration commenced. In
another case an accidental puncture by
q lance, and in another q sudden shrek
served to rouse persons just before
burial from state of trance. In other
instances the terrible spectacle of the
closing coffin lid has been sufficient to
release the victim from the cataleptic
state. One man sat bolt upright in his
coffin and exclaimed: what is it all
about?" A little girl said: "Papa,
please don't leave me" and q woman
screamed, Il am not dead" A singu-
lar instance of sudden restoration is
found in the case of Miss Clara Munce,
of Greenpcint, Conn, who has in her
possession a large silver plate on which
is engraved her name, together with
the date of her birth and the date of her
supposed death. On the last mentioned
date she was lying in her coffin perfectly
conscious of the funeral ceremony that
was going on about her. As her friends
passed round the coffin to view her re-
mains for the last time many of them
stopped and kissed her. Suddenly enc
noticed that the corpse's nose was bleed
ing. Mental agony had superinduced
this sign of life.
Decomposition is said to be the only
infallible sign of death. BY using
modern appliances of ice and embalm-
ng-fluids bodies may be kept several
days after decomposition has set in, all
doubt of death being thus removed
The Greeks and Romans seem to have
realized this fact, for laws existed among
them forbidding interment for from
three to eight days after death. The
first recorded instance of the restoration
to life of all individual about to be
buried was that of a woman in Agri-
gentum, in ancient Greece. Her funeral
was arrested by Empedocles, who re-
stored her to Chicago NeUs.
When Mr.. Randall was suffering