Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-03-23
PREMATURE BURIAL.
Instances of the Kind Probably
Very Rare.
Some Reported Cases of Doubtful Anthem
ticity-Cases of Heart Disease
and Trance whore Death
Is Simulated.

Is Simulated.
1t is usually matter of no difficult
to determine that death has closed tn
drama of life. The cessation of tn
hearts action and of breathing, tn
pallor and shrunken condition of tn
features, caused by the stopping of tn
circulation; tho icy GOODNESS of the ex
tremities, which rapidly ad"ances unit
the animal heat has disappeared from
every part; and, lastly, the rigidit,
which usually soon stitrens every mus
cle-all these indicate that the spark o
life has forever left its corporeal in
vestment But some of these signs o
the dissolution of life may be missing
Life may still exist while the body is
cold and rigid. The mind may continu,
to operate when not the faintest fluttel
can be felt or heard when the ear oil
stethoscope is applied over the heart
and when no trace of moisture can be
detected when the coolest mirror i.
held before the nose and mouth. These
instances are, fortunately, extremely
rare, but sufficient number of them
have been recorded, by trustworthy
observers to cause many nervous indi.
viduals to shudder when the bare pos.
sibility of such an experience is sug-
gested, or even when this last great
change to which mortal man is subject
Is referred to in any directly personal
manner.
Some reported instances of proma-
ture burial. espe tally those of ancient
date. are extremely doubtful. Such
are many of those in which bodies have
been eXhumed years after burial and
found with fingers clinched. an ex-
preston of distress upon the counte-
nance, and those others reported to
have turned over in the coffin, until
the position was found greatly changed
from that assumed when the funeral
rites were celebrated. In the process
of decomposition gases are liberated in
great quantities, distending all the
cavities of tho body as well as the
minute interspaces to be found every
where, in every tissue. When decom-
position has taken place rapidly, as
after death from some of the infectious
diseases, these gases may be evolved
with such rapidity rs to change the
position and appearance of the corpse
In most remarkable manner. In
some of these affections, and these are
the diseases most apt to occur in epi-
demic form. and consequently they in
crease the risk of too hurried burial,
many good observers have witnessed
muscular movements of considerable
extent In every epidemic of Asiatic
cholera and of yellow fever such post
mortem movements have been, or
might have been, seen. When death
occurs rapidly in one who has been in
apparent good health. it is likely that
all the conditions for such move ments
are present In cholera, although for
several hours before the fatal event the
body may have been of corpse-lke
GOODNESS, yet shortly after death the
temperature may rise to nearly the
highest degree noticed in the malig-
nant fevers during the height of the
disease. Whom the muscular move
ments, such as opening and closing
the hand, bending of the arm at shoul-
der and elbow, raising the arm above
the head, placing it across the breast,
are observed they generally occur
when this remarkable rise of Temporal
ture is still present In yellow fever
the same class of movements of mus
cles and rise in heat are to be noticed,
but not usually preceded by the de-
preston of temperature before death,
to be observed in cholera. When the
burial is hurried, as it frequently has
to be in extensive epidemics. the
chances of such movements taking
place after interment are greatly in
creased. Hence, when death has re-
suited from such n cause, and long
afterward it is noticed that the body
has changed its position, there is no
rational ground for the horrible feeling
that the burial has in such case been
premature.
Although there is no positive proof
OF the fact, 1t Is probable that the ter
rible cpidemics of the Oriental plague
and of the black death. which devas-
tated Europe during the Middle Ages,
were accompanied by similar phe-
nomena of post-mortem movements.
These diseases certainly furnished very
similar conditions to those which ac-
company Asiatic cholera and yellow
fever Of our own time.
In the later centuries, those marked
by the revival of learning, the discov-
cry OF several stupefying agents, chief
among them those derived from the
poppy. gave into the hands of the I'M
sucrupulous the means of procuring a
passable counterfeit of death in those
whose disappearance from the ranks of
the living was thought desirable. The
secret poisoner hourished and chemists
had not yet learned to detect the pres
ence in the dead body of the harmful
substance which had been given with
criminal intent II is known that ar
Bcnic in some form was the usual an d
most certainly deadly Of the
destructive agents employed, But