PREMATURE BURIAL

Evening Star, Issue 19126, 18 December 1925, Page 10

PREMATURE BURIAL

Fears of a premature burial have re suited in the formation of a society to effect reforms in the law of death certification (writes Arthur Pendneys in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). There is, howev...er, nothing new 'in these fears! The Egyptians kept the bodies of the dead under careful supervision by tht, priests previous to embalming and until satisfied that life was extinct. The Greeks were aware of the dangers of premature burial, and often cut off the fingers of a person believed to be dead before cremation. In modem times the fear of being buuried alive has haunted many. Wilkie Collins had this fear, and always left overnight on his dress-ing-table a note solemnly enjoining that should he be found dead, his supposed death was to be very carefully tested by a doctor. Hans Anderson always carried a nolo in his pocket to the same effect, Hcrriet Martineau left her doctor £lO to see that her head was amputated before burial. Edmund Yates left twenty guineas with the provision that his jugular vein was to be severed. Lady Burtou ...(the widow of the famous traveller, Sir Richard Burton), who was subject to fits of trance, desired that her heart be picrcced with a needle. Premature burial is of the rarest occurence, and it is doubtful if many authenticated cases could be brought forward.