Year: 1870

very lately, Jle present writer was re-


quested to attend on Monday morning,


the funeral of a lady sixty-seven years


of age, the wife of the mayor of small


French town, who had died in the night


between the Thursday and the Friday


previous. On the company assembling


the cure informed US that the body


would remain where it was for awhile


but that the usual ceremonies Except


those at the cemetery would be proceed


ed with all the same. We therefore fol-


lowed him to the church, and had a fu-


neral service without the burial. 1t


transpired that the body was still quite


warm, and presented no signs of decOm-


position.


In the ordinary course Of things, this


circumstance might not have pre-


vented the interment; but the poor


lady herself had requested not to be


Euried until decomposition should have


begun beyond the possibility of mistake;


and the family remembered, andregret-


ted, that her brother had been put into


the ground, three days after his death,


while still warm, and with his cOUnten-


ance unchanged. They had occasional


ly felt uneasy about the matter, fearing


that they might have been too precipi-


tate in their proceedings. So in this
case they resolved to take no irrevOca-


ble step without the full assurance of be-
ing justified in doing so. The corpse is


kept uninterred long after every doubt
was set at rest. Certainly we manage
some things better in England than in
France; amongst them being the inter


val allowed to elapse between death


and interment. Still, there are circum-
stances and cases which, even here, af
ford matter for serious reflection.


1t will easily be supposed that the
dangerous briefness of this interval has
been urged upon the atten-
tion of the French Legislature, and
had been ably discussed by the French
medical press. In 1866, a petition was
presented to the Senate from a person
named De COrnOl, pointing out the dam
ger of hasty interments, and suggesting
the measures he thought requisite to
avoid terrible consequences. Amongst
other things, he prayed that the space
of twenty-fOur hours between the de-
cease and inteTment now prescribed by
the law should be extended to eight
and-fOrty hours. A long debate follow
ed, in which Cardinal DOnnet, Arch
bishop of Bordeaux, took leading part.
He was decidedly of opinion that the
petition should not be set aside by the
'order of the day. but that it should be
transmitted to the minister Of the inter
iOr for further consideration and inquiry.
Some of the venerable prelate's remarks
prOdeced so great an effect on his audi
ence as to merit particular mention. He
said he had the very best reasons for be-
lieving that the victims of hasty inter
ments were more numerous than people
supposed. He considered the regUIla-
tiOns on this head prescribed by the law
as very judiGiOus, but unfortunately
they were not always executed as they
should be, nor was sufficient importance
to them. In the village where
he was stationed as assistant curate in
the first period of his sacerdOtal life, he
saved two persons from being buried
alive. The first was an aged man, who
lived twelve hours after the hour fixed
for his interment by the municipal Of
ficer. The second was a man who was
quite restored to life. In both these in
stances n trance more prolonged than
usual was taken for actual death.


The next case in his experience occur
red at Bordeaux. A young lady who |
bore one of the most distinguished |
names in the department, had passed |
what was believed to be her |
last agony, and as, apparently, all was
over, the father and mother were torn |
away from the heart-Tending spectacle. |
At that moment, as God willed it, the
happened to pass the door Of
the house, when it occurred to him to |
call and inquire how the young lady |
was going on. When he entered the .
room the nurse, finding the body breath
less, was in the act of covering the face,
and indeed there was every appearance
that life had departed. Somehow or
other, it did not seem so certain to him
IS to the bystanders. He resolved to
Try. He raised his voice, called loudly
upon the young lady not to give up all
hope, said that he was come to cure her,
md that he was about to pray by her
side. you do not see me but he said,
but you hear what am saying Those
singular pTesentiments were not un-
'OUnded. The words of hope reached
Ter ear and effected a marvellous change,
II rather called back the life that was
The young girl survived,
md in 1856 was n wife, the mother of
and the chief happiness Of two
most respectable families.


The last instance related by the arcll-
bishop is so interesting, and made such
/ sensation, that it deserves to be given
n his own words.


'In the summer of 1926, OH q close, sui :
ry day, in church that was excessively
crowded, young priest who was i'm the
Ict of preaching was suddenly seized 4,
With giddiness in the pulpit. The words
le was uttering became indistinct; he j
OOn lost the power of speech, and sank