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USEFUL PROJECTS.

Cautions against the Burial of Per- As foon as the femblance of death fons fuppofed Dead.

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S the following addrefs relates to a fubject in which every individual is interested, the writer wishes to render the knowledge of it as general as poffible.

The cuftom of laying out the bodies of the perfons fuppofed to be dead as foon as refpiration ceafes, and the interment of them before the figns of putrefaction appear, has been frequently oppofed by men of learning and humanity in this and other countries. Monf. Bruhier, in particular, a physician of great eminence in Paris, publifed a piece, about thirty years ago, intitled, "The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death," in which he clearly proved, from the teftimonies of various authors, and the atteftations of unexceptionable witneffes, that many perfons who have been buried alive, and were providentially difcovered in that ftate, had been refcued from the grave, and enjoyed the pleafures of fociety for feveral years after.

But, notwithstanding the numerous and well-authenticated facts of this kind, the custom abovementioned remains in full force.

appears, the chamber of the fick is deferted by friends, relatives, and phyficians; and the apparently dead, though frequently living body, is committed to the management of an ignorant and unfeeling nurse, whofe care extends no farther than laying the limbs straight, and fecuring her accuftomed perquifites. The bed-cloaths are immediately removed, and the body is expofed to the air, which, when cold, must extinguish the little fpark of life that may remain, and which, by a different treatment, might have been kindled into flame *.

I am willing, however, to hope, that, fince it has of late been fo frequently demonftrated, that the vital principle may exift, where the characteristics of death, except putrefaction, are prefent, the rational part of the community are, at length, difpofed to pay fome attention to this fubject.

With that hope I fhall venture to particularize a few of the cafes in which this fallacious appearance is moft like to happen, and point out the mode of treatment, which, according to the beft of my judgment, fhould be refpectively adopted. In apoplectic and fainting fits,

Alluding to the motto of the medal given by the Humane Society, Lateat Scintillula forfan."

and

and in those arifing from any violent agitation of mind, and alfo when opium or fpirituous liquors have been taken in too great a quantity, there is reafon to believe that the appearance of death has been frequently mistaken for the reality. In these cafes, the means recommended by the Humane Society for the Recovery of drowned Perfons fhould be perfevered in for feveral hours, and bleeding, which in fimilar circumstances has fometimes proved pernicious, fhould be used with great caution.

In the two latter inftances it will be highly expedient, with a view of counteracting the foporific effects of opium and fpirits, to convey into the ftomach, by a proper tube, a folution of tartar emetic, and by various other means to excite vomiting.

From the number of children carried off by convulfions, and the certainty, arifing from undoubted facts, that fome who have, in ap

pearance, died from that cause, have been recovered +, there is the greateft reafon for concluding, that many, in confequence of this difeafe, have been prematurely numbered among the dead; and that the fond parent, by neglecting the means of recalling life, has often been the guiltless executioner of her own offspring.

To prevent the commiffion of fuch dreadful mistakes, no child, whofe life has been apparently extinguished by convulfions, should be configned to the grave till the means of recovery above recom. mended in apoplexies, &c. have been tried; and, if poffible, under the direction of fome kilful practitioner of medicine, who may vary them as circumftances shall require..

When fevers arise in weak habits, or when the cure of them has been principally attempted by means of depletion, the confequent debility is often very great, and the patient

I fhould think myfelf extremely culpable, if I neglected this opportunity of cautioning parents and nurfes against the free ufe of Godfrey's Cordial. It is a ftrong folution of opium, and I am perfuaded that the fleep it produces has proved the fleep of death to thousands of children. When this poisonous cordial has been given in a dangerous dofe, and a difcovery of it is made before the power of fwallowing is loft, it will be adviseable to give the child a teafpoonful of ipecacuan wine every quarter of an hour, till the contents of the ftomach are discharged.

† A remarkable fact of this kind may be found in the Ephemerid Medico-Phyf. Germ. Ann. O&t. the substance of which is as follows:-A girl, about feven years of age, who had been for fome weeks before troubled with a bad cough, was fuddenly feized with a fit; a phyfician was immediately fent for, who, finding that the heart and lungs had ceafed to perform their functions, that her lips and cheeks were pale, and her temples funk, concluded that life was irrecoverably loft. For the fatisfaction, however, of her afflicted parents, a clyfter was adminiftered, and her wrifts were chafed with fpirituous water, but no fign of life appearing, the foles of the feet were ordered to be rubbed with strong brine; and the friction was continued without intermiffion three quarters of an hour; at the end of which time he began to breathe. The friction was then increased; two or three deep infpirations followed; and in a fhort time the child, who was fuppofed to be dead by the physician, as well as the bystanders, was, to the furprize of both, and the great joy of her parents, restored to life and health,

fome.

fometimes finks into a state which bears fo close an affinity to that of death, that I am afraid it has too often deceived the bystanders, and induced them to fend for the undertaker when they should have had recourse to the faccours of medicine.

In fuch cafes, volatiles, eau de luce for example, fhould be applied to the nofe, rubbed on the temples, and fprinkled often about the bed; hot flannels, moistened with a ftrong folution of camphorated fpirit, may likewife be applied over the breaft, and renewed every quarter of an hour; and as foon as the patient is able to fwallow, a teafpoonful of the strongest cordial fhould be given every five minutes.

The fame methods may also be ufed with propriety in the fmallpox when the puftules fink, and death apparently enfues; and likewife in any other acute difeafes, when the vital functions are fufpended from a fimilar caufe.

Even in old age, when life feems to have been gradually drawing to a clofe, the appearances of death are often fallacious.

66

paying the laft kind office of hu manity to her remains perceived fome warmth about the middle of the back, and acquainting her friends with it, they applied a mirror to her mouth; but, after repeated trials, could not obferve it in the leaft ftained; her under-jaw was likewife fallen, as the common phrafe is; and, in fhort, fhe had every appearance of a dead perfon. All this time he had not been ftripped or dreffed, but the windows were opened, as is ufual in the chambers of the deceafed. In the evening the heat feemed to increafe, and at length fhe was perceived to breathe."-See Lond. Chron. vol. iv. p. 465.

It was the intention of the writer to publish a work upon this fubject, but as his various avocations will not permit him to carry that defign into execution, he thought it his duty to throw out the above hints; and if they fhould be the means of preventing one perfon from being laid out, or, what is more horrible, buried alive, it will afford the writer a pleasure of the nobleft kind, that arifing from the consciousness of doing good to his fellow-creatures.

Not many years fince, a lady in Cornwall, more than eighty years of age, who had been a con- Palgrave-Place. W. HAWES. fiderable time declining, took to P. S. If that regard be paid to her bed, and in a few days feem- the above addrefs which the fubject ingly expired in the morning. As of it feems to demand, and any life fhe had often defired not to be bu- or lives be faved in confequence of ried till the had been two days the hints that I have thrown out, dead, her request was to have been the communication of any fuch inregularly complied with by her re- ftances of fuccefs will be efteemed a lations. All that faw her, locked particular favour; as it will afford upon her as dead, and the report was me the moft folid pleasure, and be current through the whole place; a fatisfactory evidence, that a man nay, a gentleman of the town who labours to promote the inteactually wrote to his friend in the refts of humanity will be attended ifland of Scilly, that he was de- to by the public. ceafed. But one of those who were

The

The following Cafe, amongst a Variety of others, which have fallen under the immediate Inspection of Mr. Harmant, a celebrated Phyfician at Nancy, furnishes us with a frong Proof of the Neceffity of the Caution recommended above, with fo much Humanity and Judgment, by Mr. Hawes.

whom feemed affected with the
event.

They were already preparing for
his funeral. I immediately exa-
mined his body with the ftrictelt
attention; I found his face livid,
and a little fwollen; the eyes half
open, bright, prominent; the
mouth clofed, teeth fixed, the neck
enlarged, the belly very much
fwoln:
was

DECEMBER 23, 1764, I wer, or refpiration. was neither pulse

de Potier,

Knight of the royal and military order of St. Lewis, &c. at Nancy, to hasten with the utmost expedition to his manfion, to attend his cook, who was dangerously ill. It was about eight o'clock in the morning when the meffenger came to my house; but as I was not at home, they had recourfe to another phyfician. This gentleman judging, from the appearance of the patient, that it was an apoplectic fit, he ordered the remedies ufual in fuch cafes, but without any effect. Clyfters of tobacco, with coloquintida, made not the leaft impreffion. They concluded that the patient was abfolutely dead, and from that moment every remedy was discontinued.

It was not before two o'clock in the afternoon that I was informed either of the invitation in the morning, or of the ftate of the patient. I ran to his affiftance. As I was entering the doors, the other phyfician happened to meet me, told me the cook was dead, and that every kind of aid had been adminiftered in vain.

This account did not abate my defires to fuccour the unfortunate object. I went into the room where the fuppofed corpfe, yet in bed, was expofed to the fight of a multitude of fpectators, all of

By thefe different fymptoms I concluded immediately that they were the effect of the vapour of lighted charcoal. I made enquiry upon this fubject of all the domeflics. The kitchen girl informed me, that he had retired to his chamber about eleven o'clock the preceding evening, in good health; that he had carried up, by his order, a brafier, with charcoal; that finding he did not make his appearance in the kitchen at the ufual hour, fhe concluded that he was ftill afleep; but perceiving that it grew late, fhe went into the room in order to awaken him, and then the found him in the fituation in which I had seen him.

This account confirming my conjectures, I prepared to adminifter afliftance. . I ordered him to be immediately taken out of the bed and out of the chamber, and had him placed naked upon a feat in a court by the fide of a fountain. After he was properly fixed, I began with throwing cold water in his face by glafsfuls. I defired feveral of the affiftants to follow my example, but they complied with reluctance, being prepoffeffed that the man was dead, and that my at tempts were fruitless.

More than an hour elapfed before the patient had difcovered any

figns

figns of fenfibility. The attendants began to despair, and to animate their courage, I affured them that in a fhort time they would perceive their error. This affurance, joined to my entreaties, made them renew the application of the water; they threw it with greater force, and more frequently than before, which foon produced a flight hiccough.

This firft fymptom having ftruck them like a refurrection, the noife thereof was foon spread throughout the manfion, and feveral perfons of distinction ran to the place; I ordered the administration of cold water to be continued in their prefence, frequently, and by glafsfuls. The hiccoughs became ftronger and more frequent, and I perceived that the teeth began to relax.

I had ordered cylinders of liquorice root to be prepared. I introduced fome with the utmoft difficulty between the teeth, to hinder them from fixing again; and we foon perceived the efforts of the air attempting to enter the cheft, and of the cheft endeavouring to diftend and contract itself.

I ordered Spanish fnuff alfo to be blown into the noftrils with a view to excite fneezings, tho' without this effect; but the attendants perceived him to move his head, and give manifeft figns of fenfation; he moved alfo his right hand and fingers, as if he wished to raise them to his nofe. This new indication of his Refurre&ion gave the highest fatisfaction to the company.

The projection of water was continued with vigour, and the frequency of the hiccoughs iucreaf

ed proportionably. This remedy excited a flight vomiting of naufeous matter. I had already fpent three compleat hours in attempting the recovery, and had advanced no further than to the fymptoms mentioned above; but they portended a perfect cure. This I intimated to the attendants, and perfevered in the application of the cold wa

ter.

The continuance of this fimple remedy at length procured a vomiting of frothy matter, refembling foap fuds, to which fucceeded the most violent efforts of the cheft to relieve itself. The body of the patient began to be greatly agitated, and to raife itself. All the members, and particularly the fingers and toes, became violently contracted. In a word, he uttered a cry which I had prefaged to be the moft certain fign of returning life. I redoubled at the fame time the projection of the water, and this renewal produced a fresh difcharge of faponaceous matter, with new attempts to refpire. The movements of the body redoubled with fuch agitation, that they feemed to indicate the pain which the patient fuffered from fo long a continuance of our method of treatment.

I was perfuaded, by the mot urgent entreaties, to convey the patient from the open court, where we all experienced the fevereft cold, into a warmer place. At first Í opposed their entreaties, but was at length obliged to yield to the requests of his relations. He was conveyed into the kitchen; but what I had feared and predicted, came to pafs. The patient was no fooner conveyed thither, than

he

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