The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-06
ASHES TO .4SH IFS.
Apparent Death and Cremation.
 [Irom the Urn.i

lNlG hldl ietl ID ti leiSb PlpNS4t DNS SiAo doubt, The exact number of eases will, of course, never be known. To as- contain it would under the present con- ditions require the dislnterment and examination of every buried body, proceeding utterly impracticable, and the experience gained by it would be of value only as emphasizing the necessi- | ty for utmost care and absolute cer- | tainty in the centification of death. Among the comparatively few eases Of disinterment for purposes of remo- val one has occasionally been found where the imprisoned victim in the ag- ony of despair had torn its flesh, hair l and clothes and had turned over on one side or on the stomach Referring to the last named condition, a London pa- per, while not disputing the fact. re- gently suggested that the change from the original position in the coffin might have been brought about while carry | ing the body down several flights of narrow stairs. We doubt the possibili- | ty of it. Of the sixteen hundred bodies brought to Fresh Pond, over one-half of which came from tenement houses and had been carried down from two to four stories, not one was ever found, upon the customary opening of the cof- l fin in the presence of superintendent and undertaken, to be in any other l than the original position, flat on its back. Admitted even that rough hand ling or an accident to the hearse on its way to the grave might explain change of position, it could not possi- bly, account for torn hair and clothes or bleeding limbs. The fact remains that | there are cases where the buried are not really dead.
 Premature burial in every instance | rresupposes apparent death, and the l facility with which the one morges into or results from the other under condi- tions controlled by merest chance makes the existence of both iudisputa- blc One distinguishing feature, how ever, is that where apparent death, leaving it's victim above groun l. with in hearing and sight of, others offers | ample chances for escape, these are cut nff by premature burial, where nothing remains but the slim chance If de!ec- ion wfer It is too late In mos caseS cn record the shock upon returning to l consciou: life in the unburied cosf1n had heen such as to produce death within hours or at most few days af- I ter the re awakening.
 l Dr. Hartmann, in his recent work, "Bmied A!ive," says that m mary cases not even the most experienced | ,, | distinguish case of apparent death from real death, neither by external l examination nor by means of the steth- oscope, nor by any of the various tests which have been proved to be fallible, and it is now useless to discuss them at length because the medical profession has already agreed that there is no cer- tain sign that person is really and not apparently dead except the begin ming of a certain stage of putrefaction, All other tests ought to be set down as delusive and unreliable.
 The book contains many authentica- ted cases from the United States.
 Burkhard Reber, in Vienna Phoenix inviting personal investigation to es- tablish the truth, cites at random, but with every detail for examination the following European eases of apparent death.
 Consul Ovidio Rossi, at Mersin, Asia
 Minor.
 Professor Zngarelli, at Ferrara.
 Woman and stillbi1-th at Szegedin.
 Mrs. Poffis, at Miralbel, France.
 Old man, near Rouen, France.
 Mrs Foures, at Riguepeu, Gers !, France.
 Mrs. Vais, at Cesa, near Naples.
 Countess Irene Szality, Havaja Rous. sa, Russia.
 Mrs. Passat, at Doussard France,
 Old woman, at Antigny, Switzerland
 Old woman, at Merlenbach, Alsace. With such a number of cases of ap.
 parent death, disclosed by mere : chance, the probability of resulting pre-. !. mature burial, for accidental want oi such chance becomes certainty. 1, At what point does apparent deatf become real? The physician will say Beyond doubt, when decomposition sets in. Not exactly; for all practical } lawful purposes 1t becomes real deatf as soon as one or more physicians have so certified. This certificate, given il : truth or error, sets in premature mo , tion, as has been claimed in Mind ] Reader Bishops case, the dissectins
 knife, or the poisonous fluid of the em palmer; it opens the premature grave and more care than at present nigh , well be used in issuing it. But it alsC opens the retort at the crematory, ant
 this is point which some well in , clined friends are apt to overlook. Int ? practice at Fresh Pond, where every
 coffin except in contagious cases i: opened and the body viewed at the las
 moment Tby experienced men, afford: ; an additional safeguard which eartf
 burial precludes. But where learned doctors certify to error the laymar ' may not be implicitly trusted. While
 therefore it appears that premature . burial is not in itself an argument il . favor of cremation, it becomes one by
 comparison, when we look farther upon the consequences and termination
 of apparent death. At the crematory
 not even a breath, no movement. not z
 conscious thought; in the grave: the re turn to consciousness, the terrible eff
 fort to escape, the fearful agony of z second death. These pictures side by side. is not crema ton preferable?
 MAILING FORD.
 The bazaar of Mizpah chapter, O. E