“INTERMENT BEFORE DEATH.

“A case of restoration to consciousness after burial is recorded by the Austrian journals in the person of a rich manufacturer, named Oppelt, at Rudenberg. He was buried fifteen years ago, and lately, on opening the vault, the lid of the coffin was found forced open, and his skeleton in a sitting posture in a corner of the vault. A Government Commission has reported on the matter.”

“PREMATURE INTERMENT.

“Amongst the papers left by the great Meyerbeer, were some which showed that he had a profound dread of premature interment. He directed, it is stated, that his body should be left for ten days undisturbed, with the face uncovered, and watched night and day. Bells were to be fastened to his feet. And at the end of the second day veins were to be opened in the arm and leg. This is the gossip of the capital in which he died. The first impression is that such a fear is morbid. No doubt fewer precautions would suffice, but now and again cases occur which seem to warrant such a feeling, and to show that want of caution may lead to premature interment in cases unknown. An instance is mentioned by the Ost. Deutscher Post of Vienna. A few days since, runs the story, in the establishment of the Brothers of Charity in that capital, the bell of the dead-room was heard to ring violently, and on one of the attendants proceeding to the place to ascertain the cause, he was surprised at seeing one of the supposed dead men pulling the bell-rope. He was removed immediately to another room, and hopes are entertained of his recovery.”

“BURIED ALIVE.

“The Journal de Morlaix mentions that a young woman at Bohaste, France, who was supposed to have died from cholera a few days back, was buried on the following afternoon. The sexton, when about to fill in the grave, fancied that he heard a noise in the coffin, and sent for the medical officer, who, on removing the lid and examining the body, gave it as his opinion that the woman had been alive when buried.”

“PREMATURE INTERMENT.

“The Messager du Midi relates the following dreadful story:—A young married woman residing at Salon (Bouches du RhÔne) died shortly after her confinement in August last. The medical man, who was hastily summoned when her illness assumed a dangerous form, certified her death, and recommended immediate burial in consequence of the intense heat then prevailing, and six hours afterwards the body was interred. A few days since, the husband having resolved to re-marry, the mother of his late wife desired to have her daughter’s remains removed to her native town, Marseilles. When the vault was opened a horrible sight presented itself. The corpse lay in the middle of the vault, with dishevelled hair and the linen torn to pieces. It evidently had been gnawed in her agony by the unfortunate victim. The shock which the dreadful spectacle caused to the mother has been so great that fears are entertained for her reason, if not for her life.”

“BURIED ALIVE.

“A correspondent at Naples states that the Appeal Court has had before it a case not likely to inspire confidence in the minds of those who look forward with horror to the possibility of being buried alive. It appeared from the evidence that some time ago a woman was interred with all the usual formalities, it being believed that she was dead, while she was only in a trance. Some days afterwards, the grave in which she had been placed being opened for the reception of another body, it was found that the clothes which covered the unfortunate woman were torn to pieces, and that she had even broken her limbs in attempting to extricate herself from the living tomb. The Court, after hearing the case, sentenced the doctor who had signed the certificate of decease, and the mayor who had authorised the interment, each to three months’ imprisonment for involuntary manslaughter.”

“A New York undertaker recently told the following story, the circumstances of which are still remembered by old residents of the city:—‘About forty years ago a lady living on Division Street, New York City, fell dead, apparently, while in the act of dancing at a ball.EVIDENCE OF UNDERTAKERS. It was a fashionable affair, and being able to afford it, she wore costly jewellery. Her husband, a flour merchant, who loved her devotedly, resolved that she should be interred in her ball dress, diamonds, pearls, and all; also that there should be no autopsy. As the weather was very inclement when the funeral reached the cemetery, the body was placed in the receiving vault for burial next day. The undertaker was not a poor man, but he was avaricious, and he made up his mind to possess the jewellery. He went in the night, and took the lady’s watch from the folds of her dress. He next began to draw a diamond ring from her finger, and in doing so had to use violence enough to tear the skin. Then the lady moved and groaned, and the thief, terrified and conscience-stricken, fled from the cemetery, and has never been since heard from, that I know of. The lady, after the first emotions of horror at her unheard-of position had passed over, gathered her nerves together and stepped out of the vault, which the thief had left open. How she came home I cannot tell; but this I know—she lived and had children, two at least of whom are alive to-day.’

“Another New York undertaker told this story. The New York papers thirty-five years ago were full of its ghastly details. ‘The daughter of a Court Street baker died. It was in winter, and the father, knowing that a married sister of his dead child, who lived in St. Louis, would like to see her face before laid in the grave for ever, had the body placed in the vault, waiting her arrival. The sister came, the vault was opened, the lid of the coffin taken off, when, to the unutterable horror of the friends assembled, they found the grave-clothes torn in shreds, and the fingers of both hands eaten off. The girl had been buried alive.’

“Until about forty years ago a noted family of Virginia preserved a curious custom, which had been religiously observed for more than a century. Over a hundred years ago a member of the family died, and, upon being exhumed, was found to have been buried alive. From that time until about 1850, every member of the family, man, woman, or child, who died, was stabbed in the heart with a knife in the hands of the head of the house. The reason for the cessation of this custom was that in 1850 or thereabouts a beautiful young girl was supposed to be dead, the knife was plunged into her bosom, when she gave vent to a fearful scream and died. She had merely been in a trance. The incident broke her father’s heart, and in a fit of remorse he killed himself not long afterwards.

“There are many families in the United States who, when any of their number dies, insist that an artery be opened to determine whether life has fled or not.”

“A horrible story comes from Majola, Mantua. The body of a woman, named Lavrinia Merli, a peasant, who was supposed to have died from hysterics, was placed in a vault on Thursday, July 3. On Saturday evening it was found that the woman had regained consciousness, torn her grave-clothes in her struggles, had turned completely over in the coffin, and had given birth to a seven-months’-old child. Both mother and child were dead when the coffin was opened for the last time previous to interment.”

“A shocking occurrence is reported from Cesa, a little village near Naples. A woman living at that place was recently seized with sudden illness. A doctor who was called certified that the woman was dead, and the body was consequently placed in a coffin, which was deposited in the watch-house of the local cemetery. Next day an old woman passing close to the cemetery thought she heard smothered cries proceeding from the watch-house. The family was informed, but when the lid of the coffin was forced off a shocking spectacle presented itself to the gaze of the horrified villagers. The wretched woman had turned on her side, and the position of her arm showed that she had made a desperate effort to raise the lid. The eldest son, who was among the persons who broke open the coffin, received such a shock that he died three days later.”—Undertakers’ Journal, September 22, 1893.

“BURIED ALIVE.

“A story of a horrible nature comes from St. Petersburg in connection with the interment at Tioobayn, near that city, of a peasant girl named Antonova. She had presumably died, and in due course the funeral took place. After the service at the cemetery, the grave-diggers were startled by sounds of moaning proceeding from the coffin. Instead, however, of instantly breaking it open, they rushed off to find a doctor, and when he and some officials arrived and broke open the shell, the unhappy inmate was already the corpse she had been supposed to be a day earlier. It was evident, however, that no efforts could have saved life at the last moment. The body was half-turned in the coffin, the left hand, having escaped its bandages, being under the cheek.”

“SOUNDS FROM ANOTHER COFFIN.

“Grenoble, August 17.

“On Monday last a man was found in a dying condition by the side of a brook near the village of Le Pin. Everything possible was done for him, but he relapsed into unconsciousness, and became to all appearances dead. The funeral was arranged, and, there being no suspicion of foul play, the body was interred on the following day. The coffin had been lowered to the bottom of the grave, and the sexton had begun to cover it with earth, when he heard muffled sounds proceeding from it. The earth was hastily removed and the coffin opened, when it was discovered that the unfortunate occupant was alive. He was taken to a neighbouring house, but rapidly sank into a comatose condition, and died without uttering a word. The second burial took place yesterday.”

“Frank Lascelles, aged thirty-two years, was seated at breakfast with a number of us young fellows, and was in the middle of a burst of hearty laughter, when his head fell forward on his plate and he was ‘dead.’ As there was a distinct history of cardiac disease in his family, while he himself had frequently been treated for valvular disease of the heart, he was alleged to have ‘died’ of cardiac failure, and was duly interred in the Coonor Cemetery. Some six months later, permission was obtained to remove his remains to St. John’s Church-yard in Ootacamund. The coffin was exhumed, and, as a ‘matter of form,’ the lid removed to identify the resident, when, to the horror of the lookers-on, it was noticed that, though mummification had taken place, there had been a fearful struggle underground, for the body, instead of being on its back as it was when first coffined, was lying on its face, with its arms and legs drawn up as close as the confined space would permit. His trousers (a perfectly new pair) were burst at the left knee, while his shirt-front was torn to ribands and bloodstained, and the wood of that portion of the coffin immediately below his mouth was stained a deep reddish-brown-black (blood). Old Dr. Donaldson, whom we were all very fond of, tried to explain matters by saying that the jolting of the coffin on its way to the cemetery had overturned the body, and that the blood stains on the shirt and wood were the natural result of blood flowing (i.e. oozing) out of the mouth of the corpse as it lay face downwards. A nice theory, but scarcely a probable one, as all the jolting in creation could not possibly turn a corpse over in an Indian coffin, which is so built that there is scarcely two inches spare space over any portion of the contained body, and unless the supposed corpse regained consciousness and exerted considerable force, it could not possibly turn round in its narrow casket.

“Mary Norah Best, aged seventeen years, an adopted daughter of Mrs. C. A. Moore, nÉe Chew,DR. ROGER S. CHEW’S CASES. ‘died’ of cholera, and was entombed in the Chew’s vault in the old French cemetery, at Calcutta. The certifying surgeon was a man who would have benefited by her death, and had twice (though ineffectually) attempted to put an end to her adopted mother, who fled from India to England after the second attempt on her life, but, unfortunately, left the girl behind. When Mary ‘died’ she was put into a pine coffin, the lid of which was nailed, not screwed, down. In 1881, ten years or so later, the vault was unsealed to admit the body of Mrs. Moore’s brother, J. A. A. Chew. On entering the vault, the undertaker’s assistant and I found the lid of Mary’s coffin on the floor, while the position of the skeleton (half in, half out of the coffin, and an ugly gash across the right parietal bone) plainly showed that after being entombed Mary awoke from her trance, struggled violently till she wrenched the lid off her coffin, when she either fainted away with the strain of the effort in bursting open her casket, and while falling forward over the edge of her coffin struck her head against the masonry shelf, and died almost immediately; or, worse still,—as surmised by some of her clothing which was found hanging over the edge of the coffin, and the position of her right hand, the fingers of which were bent and close to where her throat would have been had the flesh not rotted away,—she recovered consciousness, fought for life, forced her coffin open, and, sitting up in the pitchy darkness of the vault, went mad with fright, tore her clothes off, tried to throttle herself, and banged her head against the masonry shelf until she fell forward senseless and dead.”