Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-02-16
MANY BURIED ALIVE.
Charges Made BY Noted French Sur
oeor Stir Medical World.

The great medicai men "t t'ltS "'ti-
vcrsity city. like their colleagues III
Berlin. St Petersburg and Munich
are discussing the possibility of heInE
buried though not dead. for on" 'qnat-
~ as terrible. that Of NiSiscetion on
human bodies supposed to b" d"ad.
The widespread discussion is caused,
of course. by the French Academy :
Endorsement of the work Of pr. Jcard.
of Marseilles. who showed that an
nually several persons in Franco die
on the operating table after having
been declared dead. or are buried
alive. The doctors observation and
structures are mainly directed against
the public hospitals. most of them aa-
ministercd by church organizations.
In France. he reminds us. physicians
are not obliged 10 investigate the
death of persons said tn he dead III
hospitals. They merely sign the re
port of death made hy the nurse,
whereupon the body is given over to
burial or viviseCtir. Or. Jeard brings
proof Of 40 such cases in his OWN
town giving names and dates the cor
rectness cf which are acknowledged
by the Academy of Sciences.
He tells of some cases where sup
posed dead people rallied Oh the dis
sectins table under thr surgeon :
knife.
A particularly horrible ease j. that
OF a young girl. whose heart was taken
from the chest to demonstrate some
point 10 the students. As the incision
was made some of the spectators
thought they heard the dead girl
moan, and the action of the iealt sub
segucntly proved that she was alive
when medically slaughtered.
The doctor also tells of a case where
brutal nurses placed dying man in
q coffin. in order to get t" their sup
per few minutes before time. The
man actually died Of fright, as the
autopsy showed.
During the late choleta epidemic
Iere,'' says the doctor. several pa
tients were buried alive every week
owing to the fact that physicians were
not obliged to certify 10 the actual
death"
These French facts, say the Scleh-
lists. here and in other parts of Eu-
rope ought to make the health au-
thorities all over the world revise
their various hospital practices. AS a
general thing, bodies are too quickly
placed on ice. and many people VINO
still had a chance OF recovery no doubt
are frozen to death.
Only quite recently n supposedly
dead person came to While being
transported to the freezing room. and
that happened in the clinic of cele-
bratcd Vienna physician.
In Austria the custom Of connecting
the hand OF the dead or supposedly
dead with a bell-Mark Twain has Il
Gruesomc story about this-was aban-
donod because as dead Dody De-
comes rigid the hand touching the
bell rope. is very liable to give a
twist and thus cause unnecessary
alarm. Besides it was found that
timid death watchers frequently dis
connected the bell to foreStall any pos
sible summons.
\ high army surgeon who attended
the Observation-Disclosures War. referring
to the death bell custom, said:
"Jn one of the skrmishes around
Port Arthur | saw number Of Jap
cavalrymen shot through the breast
or head. great fountains of blood sush-
ing out, yet tlley KEPT oii 'i''ii -
and advanced with their comrades as
if nothing had happened.
Several did fall to the ground 1or
three or four minutes. one being laio
low by cannon ball, causing a ire
mcndous impact. others fell after COZ
liding with their comrades or the
enemy. Their legs got stiifened oS
death and thus they remained IN the
saddle, though dead"
Persons writing to newspapers mere
in Paris, Berlin and St. Petersburg
demand that the freezing of dead bod
les by undertakers and hospitals %
be forbidden by law.
Others demand that the coffin lid be
not screwed down and that the colin
be not covered with earth for several
days after burial. Likewise that the
coffin receive outer air and that an
alarm clock be operated from within
the coffin by dry battery.-F1enna
Cor ROSton Post.