The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-01-28
BURIED ALIVE.
A Chicago Physician Tells of a
Sure Way of Ascertaining
If Life Is Extinct.

About once In so often the news
papers are filled with accounts OF pre-
mature buriaIs, and journalists with
abnormal imaginarions are I'D demand
to paint in vivid colOrs the agonies
that must have been endured by the
hapless wretches who woke up and
found themselves dead, says the Chi.
cago Herald. A few days ago such a
case was reported In South Caroline.
When the coffin of a young girl who
had recently been buried was ex
humed the body was cOntorted in a
horrible manner, the finger nails were
deeply buried in the palm of the
hands, the face was laceraied, and the
appearance of the corpse indicated
that death bad not finally come with
out fearful struggle. 1t was a sad
story aud whether or not it was
flake 1T will probably start the takers
of the newspapers to work, and there
will be no lack of similar blOod-curd-
ling tales for q month or two.
A well known Chicago physician
read the yarn referred to, and he was
SO much wrought up over it that he
came down town TO the office OF the
Herald to learn whether the case was
duly authenticated.
"There are plenty of people mol
dering under the Sod" be said, WHO
were buried before life become ex-
.tinct, but they were never made aware
of the fact. Coffins nowadays are
Theoretically sealed, and there is not
enough air in one of them to bring a
person to life out of a trance. The
lungs must have a certain amount Of
oxygen before the heart will begin TO
act, and one fnll inhalation would ex-
haust all or the oxygen in a modern
casket, and the lungs would, Of
course, be unable to take another.
All these stories of fearful suferiDgs
endured by persons buried alive are
false there's nothing TO them.
"No doubt, bodies are frequently
inferred while life is yet existent, but
this would not be the case if every
body knew of certain infallible and
absolutely certain test Of death. Such
a test | have. 1t has never, so far as
am aware, abeen in print, and the
Herald could do no better service to
humanity than 10 publish it. L wasa
coroner once upon a time. In one OF
the southern ates. An old darby
had died suddenly. and | was called
to sit upon the body and determine
the cause of death. When L arrived
the man had been dead twenty.four
hours, and the negroes of the neigh
borhood were preparing to hold the
funeral. / impaneled a jury; the
family of the deceased testified to the
extent of their knowledge, but l was
unable to find that the old fellow had
any disease sufficient to kill hln. |
looked at the body and examined it
carefully. Then thought struck me
and lighted match and applied it
to the end of one of the fingers of the
corpse. Immediately blister formed.
/ had the dead man put back into his
bed, applied various restoratives, and
to-day the same old darby is alive and
well.
eThat is the test. Do you see the
philosophy of it? If you are alive
you cannot burn your hand without
raising a blister. Nature in the effort
to protect the inner tissues, throws a
covering of water, non conductor OF
heat, between the fire and the flesh.
If you were dead, and flame should
come in contact with any part OF your
body, no blister would appear, and
the flesh would be burned. The
blood has been withdrawn from the
arteries, and your body is like Sc
much beefsteak.
Gall you have to do is to apply
match to any part of the supposed
corpse, If life remains, however
little, a blister will at once form
Simple, isn't it? Why it is so simple
that the most ignorant person in TIT
world can apply it. and no exper
physician could settle the question O
life or death any more certainly.