Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1874 — A Supposed Corpse Comes to Life After Being on Ice for Three Days. [ARTICLE]

A Supposed Corpse Comes to Life After Being on Ice for Three Days.

A most remarkable instance of a supposed corpse having been found to possess signs of animation, and really being restored to life after lying on ice for three days, has just transpired at Yonkers, Westchester County. It appears that a seven-year-old child of a machinist named Miller, living on Riverdale avenue, in the city above mentioned, having been in delicate health almost from the time of its birth, was attacked by an unusually severest of Illness last Thursday morning. A physician was called in, and he, after apparently satisfying himself as to the course of treatment to be adopted, prescribed for the little one, and on leaving intimated that he would call again in the afternoon. It is understood that the medicine prescribed was a powerful opiate; but whether this was the case or not, it is asserted that when the medical man called in the afternoon a glance at his late patient induced him to pronounce the child dead. The services of an undertaker were, of course, at once procured, and by him the supposed corpse was tenderly prepared for the last rites, and then placed in an ice coffin until the usual time for interment should have elapsed. A wake was accordingly held, and mourning relatives and friends “ sat up” with the body day and night until Sunday afternoon, the time announced for the funeral. Friends of the family had gathered in considerable numbers to assist in paying tbeir tribute of respect to the sorrowing parents, and, almost everything being in readiness for the committal of “dust tp dust,” the undertaker and his assistant, on transferring the body from the ice coffin to the casket in which it was about to be interred, were struck with astonishment at the peculiar appearance of the remains. It Mas noticed that there was a marked absence of rigor mortis, or that stiffness which is an inseparable concomitant of departed life. This discovery produced an indescribably painful state of anxiety to the parents, while the half-frightened guests crowded around the ambiguous corpse, suggesting various means of testing whether the child was really alive or dead. Three or four physicians were sent for, and they at once commenced a thorough search for any lingering evidence of vitality that might remain in the subject, resorting, among other means, to that of tying a cord tightly on the fingers, whereby it was seen that the nails changed color, plainly indicating that the heart had not ceased to perform its all-important functions. When if became apparent that there was life in the child, the most approved manner of administering restoratives was resorted to, and accordingly a more palpable degree of vitality was produced, although it is doubtful if the little one, who was so providentially rescued from a living tomb, can long survive the protracted freezing ordeal through which it has passed. The child was still alive last evening. —New York Herald , Nor. 17.