A GROWING RISK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1021, 10 January 1911, Page 5

A GROWING RISK.

THE DANGERS OF TRANCE. Tho 1 risk of premature burial at the present ■ time is greater than twenty years ago, said Dr. J. Stenson Hooker Some tliue back at a meeting held under tuo auspices of the Association for tho Prevention of Premature Burial. . Forit was no uncommon thing to keen a body six or seven days,, but the hurry and scurry of modern lifo seemed even to have entered into tho death chamber. One of the greatest dangers was that of trance, and in such a condition a person might well be taken for dead. It was possible for a person to hypnotise himseli into a, condition of trance, and in London at tho present time there was a gentleman who claimed to bo able to stop the beating of his- heart. i .Sr. Brindley James strongly advocated the substitution of. a new medical certificate in the stead of tho one now required by law, setting forth that the medical man giving the .certificate had attended the patient during life, and saying when he had last seen the patient 1 alive. He also believed in the medical man making a thorough examination of a body after ■ viewing it, and Of applying certain tests, as ho himself did in every case. ■ Mr. George G. Greenwood, M.P., said the laws governing the giving of death certificates were scandalous. For instance. a mother might tell a doctor who had seen her child once that ''it had since suddenly died, and the doctor was legally justified in giving her a certificate of death. ; ALARMING STATISTICS. Statistics compiled by two members of the association from medical sources alone showed that 149 people were known to have been -buried alive, 219 to have had narrow escape's from premature burial, while ten had. been dissected alive. Resolutions were carried to tho effect that the Government be urged to reconstruct tho existing burial laws, and that the association's Bill for the prevention of premature burial, which provides for the examination of all ■ bodies by qualified medical iiicn before death is oertified, lie strenuously supported. This Bill also urges the establishment of waiting mortuaries, where doubtful cases may be kept until the fact of death has been conclusively ascertained. . Tho subject of premature burial, writes a correspondent, recalls the. historic caso of the great doctor Vesalius, who opening a body which was supposed to be dead for the purpose of post-mortem examination,. found the heart still beating when it was laid'bare. Many years ago Bruhier made careful investigations into the matter of premature burial and cases of mistaken death, and brought'to light some terrible facts—four cases of peoplo undergoing dissection while actually alive, fifty-four cases of persons who being buried alive, and fifty T three cases of persons, who were placed 1 in ' their coffins, but regained consciousness before l)urial had taken place; 7"' 1 It is possible for one's circulation and' respiration practically to cease and become so imperceptible that even a skilled medical" man cannot ascertain that life is not extinct. Tho methods of determining whether death has really taken place in doubtful cases are many, and as a rule prove the matter without dispute. A mirror held near the mouth or nostrils will bccome damp within five minutes should respiration not have ceased. A galvanic current applied to the muscles should cause them, to contract if life bo not extinct; while if a vein bo opened and the heart's action has' not ceased, blood should flow after a short time.

A clever, Continental doctor suggested some time back the use of a coloured medium which, if injected into the veins, would alter , in appearance-according as to whether life were extinct or not.