The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-01
PREMATURE BURIALS.
A SOCIETY TO PREVENT PEOPLE
FROM BEING BURIED ALIVE.

AlaIm-A6 Gays ne GdS NO OOuDl
that Many Persons Are Buried Alive
Every Year and Tells How He In
tends to Prevent 1t.
(Copui0ht)
NEW YORK, May 31.-Are men and
women frequently buried alivel
Are our laws such as to permit Of too
hasty interments Of persons supposed to be
dead, but not dead at all!
Are there open avenues for the destruction
of human life in this wayl
These questions are being much discussed
just now, and the discussion is about to re-
suit in the formation of society that 10 its
way will be unique and that will engage in
a work such as no other organization in this
country at least does.
The society is as yet only in its formative
stage, but good many prominent men are
| interested in it aud it will soon be an es-
| tablished fact, and while it will be formed
| in New York city, it will also ex; end
Throughout the country. This organiza-
ton will be a society for the prevention of
premature burial, and the gentlemen
composing it are Of the opinion that great
many persons are prematurely buried
There can be no doubt that there is a fear
in the minds of many persons that they
may be buried alive
Almost any physician can tell of persons
who have exacted promises that after their
apparent death every meaps known to
science would be used to fully demonstrate
the real presence of death.
The growth of the practice of cremation,
and it is growing in the nsighborhood of
New York, at least Jas figures show, is by
many aScrIbed to the horror that people
have of burial at all, and especially Of a
lingering death by suffocation. There are
few persons who have not heard stories of
bodies that upon disinterment gave every
indication of having gone through some
fearful struggle after the burial. 1t has
been customary to pooh pooh these stories,
to call them the idle tales of old women. and
to assert that they have no foundation in
fact
The men who are organizing this new
society do not believe that all these tales are
untrue. The chief mover in the new move
ment and its originator, in fact, is Simon
n. Leo, NJ. D., Of New York city, and
among others who are authorities in the
matter are Clark Bell, the president of the
Medico-Legal Society; DIR. Worcester Beam,
Henry Morrison, prominent New York
lawyer, and several others. The matter
has already been discussed at meetings of
the Medico-Legal Society, and it was from
such discussion that the present movement
sprang.
There are, of course, some differences of
opinion as to the exact methods that will
be adopted by the society when it is formally
organized. There are those who favor the
method employed in some parts of Europe,
where the body of person supposed to be
dead is kept for certiin length Of time in
mortuary houses, bells being SO arranged
that upon the slightest movement they will
ring and attract the attention of the
attendants NJ w an,
guard in the building. However, there
are many other methods. DR.. Leo, the
chief mover in the new society, has had
about as m ny opportunities to judge of the
different methods of treating persons sup
posed to be dead as any man hat can be
named. AS a student in Heidelberg, as an
observer in Paris and as a practitioner in
st. Bartholomew's hospital in London. as
medical expert employed by the city of
New York for some fourteen years and lat
| terly as physician with a large private
practice he has had chances such as few
men have to acquire knowledge on this par
! ticular subject.
DR.. Leo is most decidedly of the opinion
that persons are only too frequently buried
with a degree of hurry and carelessness
| that is scandalous if not criminal He dis
cussed this matter very freely the other day
| with the writer. He did not at ali mince
words, but spoke out plainly and emphat-
| ically.
II think, and have thought for many
years" said the doctor, that people in very
numerous in tances exhibit a very undue
haste in asserting that life is extinct ia per-
sons supposed to be dead"
"You mean. then, that as assresult of the
system people are often buried alivep'
mo, l don't say that, exactly. l do say,
however. that the means of saying whether
| they are dead or living are not applied as
| they should be, the result being that it is
quite possible for persons to be buried alive,
aud there is a reasonable probability that
| some persons are"
"Have you ever seen cases where a per-
son supposed to be dead was really found
out not to be dead at alls"
81 have. There have been many such
cases. l can recall two that came under
my notice in New York. One was the case
of a gentleman, now living in New York
| City, who was pronounced dead while in
Cuba, AMI preparations were made to bury
him. In fact, the funeral was being held,
when his colored servant insisted that he
bad seen twitching of the muscle of the
supposed dead man. Another examina-
ton of the body was made, and sure
enough, that man was found to be alive.
He is alive now, and Is a prosperous mer-
chant in New Y ork City to-day.
| There is another case that came under
my notice in New York. Among my pa
tientient some years ago there was one
who was possessed of fear of being buried
alive that almost bordered on mania She
had made me promise that in the case of
her death or rather supposed death,
would apply every means
known to science to determine if life was
extinct. Now, this woman was wealthy.
She was not on the best of terms with the
young man who. i'll the natural order of
things, would become her heir, and when
sick she absolutely refused to allow him to
hand le her medicine or attend upon her,
''Well, one night | was surprised to re-
ceive the announcement that Mrs.
was dead. l hurried to her house and was
told she had been dead several hours, and
that she had already been placed in a tenn
porary casket, in accordance with the order
Of the young man of whom have already
spoken. This / found to be true The body
had been hurried into an air-tight casket.
and there was certainly no life In il when
l examined it. Neither was there any
evidence OF foul play nor anything upon
which charges against any one could be
formed. Yet believed. and | believe to-
day, that had a physician been sent for
when that woman was seemingly stricken
by death, and had proper remedies been
applied she would not have died at that
time. But being placed in an alright
coffin settled the matter. l could do moth
| ing.