Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — Burying Alive Is Rare. [ARTICLE]

Burying Alive Is Rare.

So defective are many of tho ordinary evidences of death that modical science has givon tho subject a great deal of attention. It used to bo supposed that people were often buried alive through accident, and tho writers of romance havo dwelt upon this species of horror with much unction. During the war many soldiers were said to have been interred while living who wore, merely in a lethargy or stupor artsfhijt from loss of blood, exhaustion, cold, and fear. Bodies havo often boon found turned over in coffins, as if the occupants had turned over and tried to got out. In numerous other cases of a similar sort tho tonguo has been discovered protruding from the mouth, as if from suffocation, and there have been stains from bleeding on the burial clothing. Now, such facts as theso wero amply sufficient in formor days to convince tho most skeptical that the persons concerned had been intorrod alive. But it is now known that such phenomena are exhibited by dead bodies under conditions wholly normal. Tho turning of a corpse in its coffin is brought about by the expansion of the gases of putrefaction. The projection of the tongue from the mouth is an effect of the Bame cause. Bleeding often occurs after death. In fact, such a. hemorrhngo iB known to have taken place eight days after tho demise of the individual. In this instanco tho bleeding was from wounds inflicted during life.—Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. .