BURIED ALIVE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 14

BURIED ALIVE

The fact that people are sometimes buried alive, in consequence of a wrong diagnosis, was known as far back as we have any knowledge of the race, and. was early made the subject of serious investigation. But the cases, so it was calculated, in which such an error was committed are so exceedingly rare that the danger arising from it is not greater than that of being struck by a meteoric stone, or of being swallowed up by a chasm suddenly made under our feet by an earthquake. So the matter stood when the celebrated French Physician, Thouret, in 1786, was commissioned to watch over the new gixmnds of the " Cimetiere des Innocents," mainly for the purpose of promoting the sanitary condition of the city. At that time the pickaxe and shovel were busy in the outer portion of the cemetery, which had been used for many generations, and many of the graves were opened in order to remove the skeletons to the Catacombs. Thouret availed himself of this opportunity to investigate, and found, in seven or eight cases, convincing evidences that the subjects had been buried alive. The skeletons in these cases bore unmistakable proofs of there having been a death-struggle. Some of them lay on their faces, and had bitten their fingers to the bone ; in other cases the limbs were drawn up against the coffin-lids, which, in one or two instances, had been broken, unquestionably by a pressure from within. Thouret's discoveries created an immense sensation, and he himself became so fearful that it might be his lot to wake up in a coffin, that he gave every possible direction in his way to guard against such an event. At the same time the authorities made certain changes regaixiing burials, and took the necessary steps to have them more generally observed, so that they could not b? buried before the third morning, or without a certificate from a physician. There was a law to this effect previously, but it had never been generally enforced, and the lower orders almost universally ignored it. That in the nineteenth century, despite all the precautionary measures that have been adopted, s-ich cases as those verified by Dr. Thouret have occurred, in all their frightfulness, there is abundant proof. In the year 1826, a young, robust priest, named Donnet, stood in his pulpit preaching a Lent-sermon, when suddenly his voice began to grow feeble, he changed color, and in a few seconds fell lifeless to the floor. In indescribable consternation, the congregation rushed for the doors of the church. Two or three of the more intelligent and less alarmed hastened to assist the priest, while others ran immediately for a physician, who, however, did not arrive for nearly an hour. The physician examined the young man" very carefully, and finally announced that, in his judgment, it was a case of apoplexy ; that death had ensued almost instantly j and that, of course, the case was one for the undertaker, and not for the doctor. Two days later the priest was put into a coflin and earned to the church where the tenable event had occurred. Right and left burned the usual number of tapers. Solemnly resounded the Be profundis through the dimly-lighted aisles. The supposed dead man, who was afterwards a Cardinal, tells us in his report to the French Senate what he experienced during these ceremonies. He saw and heard everything that was going on around him ; but no exertion of his will was sufficient to remove the lethargy that controlled his organism. His despair surpassed everything that human imagination can picture. He felt that he must at any minute succumb to the agony he suffered, and herein was his only hope. Suddenly he heard the voice of a friend of his youth, whom he had not seen for years. The well-remembered tones awakened a series of recollections which contrasted so strongly with his present situation, and produced so powerful an effect upon him, that all at once his muscles again obeyed the mandates of his will. He rose up, and tried to make the assistants understand that he was still, or rather again, in the possession of his vital energies, k cry of amazement and horror ran through the church. On the following day young Donnet was able to resume his duties. — 'Catholic Sentinel.' _____________