The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-01-09
ife. 1t was in vain. To all appear

comes WnSn heath mas frozen inc Nelh
with an icy chill. The moments passed
rapidly by, but without apparent chang
III the condition of things.
"'Hansel,' l said, sternly, turning
to the man who was standing at my
side, his teeth still chattering from hi
paroxysm of fright, you have certainly
made some mistake. The signal mus
have been turned by accident or care
lessness.'
"'No, Herr Doctor, that would be
impossible; nothing could touch the in
strument; see for YOURSELF pointing tc
the one attached to the body, which, il
you have entered these rooms at Colt
saker's, You know to be precisely sim
liar to those in use in the regular
French morgues.'
THE words had scarcely left his lips
before, with a scream of the widest
terror, EIansel dropped upon his knees,
shuddering, half-crazed, and with one
shaking finger directing my attention
to the apparatus above us. Looking
| up, ! saw that the arm of the instru-
mcnt was moving slowly, TREMENDOUSLY,
but unquestionably moving. watched
it with almost the same amount Of
wonderment that IIansel exhibited,
while it rose, trcmbled. and fell upon
the gong, with q stroke hardly stronger
than the blow of an infant, but, so deli
catcly are these signaling instruments
arranged. instantly followed the warn
ing rattle. 1t was but the work of an
instant to follow with my finger the
course of the wire which attached the
instrument to the body. | found that
after leaving the battery this wire
passed down and around the neck Of
the corpse, pressing closely like a tight
neck.acc upon the carotid artery, nat
urally the first place, from its onnec
ton with the heart, where reviving life
currents would be perceptible. The
mystery was no longer q mystery. The
warning signal had undoubtedly been
sounded by the ~throbbing artery. Com
ing at long and irregular intervals the
pulsation either failed to occur while |
was engaged in my efforts at resusci-
or through some disarrange.
Iurnt Of the body itself, caused by
those efforts, had failed to be an.
nOunceI.
The Baronin Friesbach lived; the
throbbing artery proved it. Muscular
contraction, as any physician will tell
you, is entirely possible in the dead.
Artcrial movements are totally different
in character and arc susceptible Of but
one c&planation-that life is not dead,
but sleeping.
"As this is record of plain facts, with
no necessity for a dramatic climax, as
in fiction, formulated theories as to the
cause of such attacks would be useless.
Whatever had been the cause, the re-
suit was a semblance of death that
would deceive the closest scrutiny. 1
not the only physician who has
been driven into q labyrinth of indie
cision by such experiences. Indeed,
VIC are not in such cases justified in
using anything in the shape of rem
2dial agents, except such drugs as act
Is prompters TO torpid organs, the sort
If position occupied by the nan under
he haize at the opera.
After lispatching a messenger for
case of surgical instruments and a
powerful galvanic battery, l had the
Baronin Friesbach lifted from her rest
place among these grim compan-
ions, and, warmly wrapped in blankets,
in the carriage. She was still
unconscious. but was evidently return
ing to a state which, if not exactly life,
bordering too closely upon it to risk
shock which the sight of her sur
rounlings would inevitably produce.
Having also instructed the messenger
who had gone for my instruments to
the family of my arrival with my
burden, there was nothing to de-
tain US. AS we passed into the dewy
freshness of the early morn, the rising
sun was just beginning to throw long
slender fingers of light through
the widely opened windows.
''Catalepsy,' continued the doctor.
a thoughtful pause, "is one of an
series of nervous disorders which
has neve fully conquered or
:omprehcnded. 1t unq%uestionably ex-
sts, but not, as old women's tales
would have us believe, invariably ac-
by the hcllish torture of
whole OF even semi-consciousncss. In
he Baronin's case, whatever the cause
the suspension Of life's forces, she
the same as dead, and, most for
matcly, had been ignorant of every
hing going on about her from the mo-
nent when the delirium i~nseparable
rom violent fever had set in.
"Sne complained to me afterward of
suffered under q painful sensa-
ion of weight and Of a singing or
'rickling in the spinal marrow-as
nearly as could gather from her con-
used statements the kind of feeling
which accompanies the rousing of a
imb which has heen, as laymcn term
t, asleep
''Of the funeral ceremonies, the grief
md agony Of her family, the long line
VI coroneted carriages blocking the
,rn,l ',t,,X c1l.l I'LL, a.