PREMATUFE BURIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 43

PREMATUFE BURIAL.

The risk of premature burial at the present time is greater than 20 years ago, said Dr J. Stenson Hooker in presiding at a meeting held at Anderston's Hotel, Fleet street, London, under the auspices of the

Association for the Prevention of Piemature Burial. Formerly it was no uncommon thing to keep a body some six or seven day 6, but the hurry and scurry of modern life seemed even to have entered into the death chamber. One of the greatest dangers was that of trance, and in such a condition a person mi^ht well be taken for dead. It was possible foi a, person to h\pnoti=e himself into a condition of tiance; and in

London at the present time there was a | died, and the doctor was legally ]ustified .•enrleman who claimed to be able to stop in Riving her a certificate oi death, tin- heating of his heart. Statistics compiled by two members ot Di Bnndley James strongh ad\oeated the association from medical sources alone the substitution of a new medical eertiu- showed that 149 people were known to ha-ie cate in the stead of the one now required been buried alive, 219 to have had -nariow ttt law, setting forth that the medical man escapes from premature burial, while 1U giving the certificate had attended the ha<l been dissected alive. _ patient during life, and saying when he had Resolutions were carried to the offec.

!a»t seen the patient ali\c. He also belie\e<] in the medical man making a thorough examination of a body after Mewing it, and of applying certain tests, as he himself did in every case. Mr George G. Greenwood, M.P., said the laws governing the giving oi death certificates were scandalous For instance, a mother might tell a doctor who had seen her child once that it had since suddenly

1 that the Goiornmcnt be urged to reconstruct the 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 men before death is certified, be 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.

The subject of proinatuie bunal (writ is a correspondent) localls the hi-toric ca*e of j the great doctor Yesaliu^. who, opening j. I body which was supposed to be dead for | Iho purpose of post-mortem examination, found the- heart still boating when it was laid baie Mam \e.ii" ago Biuhier made careful m\e:>ngations into the in.\ttei of i premature burial and cases oi mistaken

death, and brought to light some terrible facts — four cases of people undergoing dissection while actually alive. 54 cases of being buried alivej and 53 cases of persons who were placed in their coffins, but regained consciousness before buiial had taken place. It is possible for one's circulation and respiration practically to cease and become

so imperceptible that c\cn a skilled medical man cannot a-scertain thar life is not extinct. The methods of determining whether death has really taken place in doubtful cases are many, and as a rule piove the matter withcut dispute. A mirror held near the mouth or ucstnls will become damp within five minutes should respiration not | have ceased. A galvanic current applied

to the muscles should cause them to contract if life be not extinct, while if a vein be opened and the heart's action ha 6 not ceaeed, 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.