PREMATURE BURIAL FEARS

Evening Star, Issue 19352, 11 September 1926, Page 10

PREMATURE BURIAL FEARS

COFFIH FITTED WITH SIGNAL TO HOUSE STRANGE CASES OF TRAHCE The most remarkable case on record (says a ‘Sunday Chronicle ’ writer) is that of Mrs Holden, of Hapton, near Accrington, for whom a death certificate was issued by the doctor who had attended her in what was considered her last illness. Sho came to life again when the undertaker came to measure her for her coffin, and subsequently became the mother of several children. Twice, before this sho had been given up as dead, and oven laid out for burial. A commercial traveller of Rochdale, James Turner, was another who recovered from a trance which had rendered him so rigid that ho only awakened when the undertaker had begun to measure him for his coffin. ■ In his case the shock was so terrible that ho very nearly underwent actual death from it. • Then there was the case of Mrs King, of Tonbridge. Her “death" persisted up to the morning of her funeral, when sho sat up in her coffin and tried to speak. Realisation el the horror of her position was too mu eh for her, and within two days she had really died from shock. TERRIFIED SENTRY. Mrs Turner, of Koynham, Somerset, was the subject of a death certificate: the entry of the undertaker with ner coffin aroused her, and she sat up in bed and began to talk. A soldier serving in India, Private M'Devit, of tho Ist Royal Scots, was certified as dead from fever, and the body was laid out on a slab in 1 lie mortuary. Tho sentry on duty hoard a sound of knocking in tho night, and went into the mortuary to drive out the jackal] or hyena which he thought had got in by some means. The sight of tho supposed dead man sitting up on tho mortuary rial so terrified the sentry that lio went raving mad and died within a lew davs. M'Devit, however, recovered, and suffered no ill-effects from Inexperience. When John Maiden, of Bath, fob dead in his shop his wife refused to believe that he was dead, and gave as reason for her belief his narrow escape from being placed living in his coffin only four years before. But on this second occasion all doubt was removed at tho inquest, when ho was proved dead of heart failure. INERT FOR SEVENTEEN MONTHS. Mrs Stankowitz, of Pound, Wisconsin, is one of those rare cases of persons undergoing tho awlul experience of cataleptic trance, permitting oi full consciousness, though the victim of such a seizure is unable to speak or move. For seventeen months Mrs Stankowitz lay inert, hearing all that was said over her bed and di'eading lest her utter lack of any sign of life should be mistaken for actual death. “ The neighbors so often said 1 looked dead,” she said, after she had recovered. “ that 1 was frightened they would bury mo alive, i would feel as though I was struggling in an iron casket. It seemed to me that 1 was writing, so hard' did I try to speak to tell them I was not dead, merely sleeping. “ My mind would carry mo through horrible experiences and sensations, thoughts of being buried alive and beating about a casket under the ground. I told myself undertakers didn’t bury people alive any more, but the thought would keep coming back that my case might be an exception.” Newly-born infants appear to be more subject to the ordeal of premature burial than any other people. Quite recently two cases occurred of new-born children having been placed in their coffins. In one case, at Darlington, the infant was presumed stillborn, and burial arrangements were made. At the graveside a faint cry was heard from the coffin, which was hastily opened, and medical aid was rushed to the spot. A few hours after, however, the infant really died. Throe sisters living at Nantwich emulated the Regent’s Park murderer by living with tho corpse of their mother for years, under tho delusion that tho mother was not really dead. The body was kept laid ou a couch, and a table was sot out with food in case tho mother should wake and require it. Tho three sisters, when the body was discovered, were removed to an asylum and certified insane an extreme case of tho fear of premature burial.

Such precautions as those taken by Lady Carvagh to ensure actual death before burial are by no means uncommon. The usual request is that a vein shall be opened in the corpse before burial, but many testators go to greater lengths. One recent will directed that the testator’s head should be cut off after the death certificate had been given, and placed with the trunk in the coffin. Another will directed that the coffin, properly ventilated, should be placed in a vault electrically connected with the homo of the nearest surviving relatives. The interior walls of the coffin were so arranged that the slightest movement on the part of the dead man would sot an alarm bell ringing at his old homo, where the key of the vault was to be kept hung in a conspicuous position. Tho whole arrangement was to be maintained in perfect working order for three years. CERTAIN PROOF. Nearly two years of the allotted period have passed, and the bell has net signalled any alarm up to the present. The H blue thread ” test, recently announced by a young chemist, provides a certain proof_ of death, and ultimately averts the risk of premature buriaL . A blue thread is passed by means of a needle through a fold of skin in tho corpse, and left in position for thirtyminutes. If the thread turns yellow it is a sure proof of actual death. The method is a repetition of tho familiar litmus paper experiment, and is based on the fact that the blood of a living person is slightly alkaline, while after death it becomes slightly acid. The blue thread will not react and change color so long as the blood remains alkaline, but turns yellow : in response to the presence of acid. Prevalence of the fear of being buried alive is shown by the existence of the Society for the Prevention of Premature Burial, of which Sir George Greenwood is president. 1 For some years now, the society has been urging legislation to ensure absolute proof of death before permission is given for burial to take place. “WHO’S TO PAY?” A case with a humorous side to it is reported from Toulouse, France, where a woman had been certified dead, placed in her coffin, and all arrangements made for the funeral. A long procession followed to the graveside, and the coffin was duly lowered, when the last prayers were interrupted by moans from the coffin. It was quickly raised and opened, when the woman was found to be breathing heavily. Presently she wakened, and saw the great crowd of mourners standing round. “ Who is to pay for all this?” was her first query. her anger had been quieted,^

she accompanied tho mourners back to her home, and presided at the banquet which had been arranged to follow the funeral ceremony. In nigh good humor she made a good meal, and the mourners drank the corpse’s health to her face.