The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1897-12-10
FEW ARE BURIED ALIVE.
THE SIGNS Of DEATH SURE BEYOND
MISTAKE,

Many persons live In fear Of being |
buried alive. This 10 pity, since 10 /
b. 90 easy to distinguish apparent /
death from real death. When asked /
60 talk about premature burial, and |
more especially how 30 distinguish app
parent from real death, DR.. George T. |
Shrady Of this city, said
"It is really astonishing how many
persons fear being buried alive, aud |
more astonishing the number who |
have their dead disiuterred 20 see ii
they have been buried alive. This is
done quietly aud does not reach the
ears Of the public. A child takes %
notion that It's mother has been buried
alive OF q husband concludes in his
hopeless grief that perhaps after an,
his wife was not dead, and the bodies
are taken up 10 satisfy distorted ima-
gination.
"There is little II any danger Of q
body being buried alive. An Of these
horrible stories about premature buri-
ais are on a par with the ghost stories
told in the nursery; the more improba-
BILE they are the more readily are they
believed These stories are circulated
usually in times Of an epidemic, when
bodies have to be disposed Of quickly.
''In almost all cases where burials
are said to have been premature they
have been investigated by unscientifc
persons. Physicians do not make any
tests of death ordinarily when a pa
tient dies. It is altogether unneoes-
sary for them to do 80. A scientific
man is never in doubt in his practice
as to whether a patient is really dead
or not. I don't think there can be
such a thing as premature burial
where a body can be examined by
scientific physician. The physiognomy
of death is so we'll known that il
hardly needs a description. In truth,
it seems almost absurd to talk about
it, There is the pallid lip, the
dropped jaw, the lustreless eyes, and
so on. Besides, any old nurse can see
the approach of death. The poet
speaks of it as a gray veil, and that de-
scribes it about as accurately as any
thing
"Of course, death approaches diff
ferently in different sets of diseases;
sometimes it comes through tho brain;
sometimes through the heart, and
again through the lungs. All signs in
each are we'll understood by physi-
clans, and death is expected by them.
Death comes as a regular, logical con
clusion, and have never yet heard Of
d scientific doctor pronouucing a live
patient dead.
Ceases Of apparent death are very
rare, so of course cases Of premature
burial are still rarer. There are con-
ditions of trance where patients are
apparently dead for days at time, to
the ordinary observer A person in
such a condition might be buried alive
out on the plains or in the woods, or
we might say that miner could fall in
n cataleptic state and be buried prema-
turely by his fellow miners; but these
possibilities would not be realized once
in a million cases. There are too many
conditions to take into account. The
seat of vital power is the heart. When
that ceases to beat, aperson is as dead
as julius Caesar. An imaginative, eX-
citable layman could not listen to the
heart and distinguish a case of appar-
ent from real death, but doctor has
no trouble in doing this.
"The greatest danger of premature
burial, if there is any at all, is in cases
of sudden death in times of epidemic.
Over a century ago several mortuary
chambers were established in Germany
The first was at. Weimar, and the second
at Munich. Dead bodies we're brought
to these places and watched closely by
medical men. During the first forty
eight hours after death bell rope il
attached to the hand of the corpse sc
that in case death was not real the
slightest movement will ring the bell
In all Of these hundred years only one,
has the sound of bell been heard il
any of those mortuary chambers, anC
then it was due to the relaxation Of the
stifened hand Of corpse
''To distinguish apparent from rea
death many things have to be takel
into account. The signs of real dealt
are manifold. There is respiration
breathing, however, often stops befor
the heart ceases to beat. The disap
pearance of the pulse at the wrist i
another sign. Almost the instant tina
death occurs the eye loses its lustre
the pupil dilates, and film comes owe
the eye. Hippocrates, the father o
medicine, thought the moving up an,
down of a patients Adams apple al
infalible sign of real death. Tha
motion is due to paralysis of the res
piratory centre, and patients never re
cover after this condition is reached
Inability to swallow, which shows tn
inability of the nerve centre to presid
over the inherent vital forces, ais
,1oints To the apDrOach of death. Blu