are buried, who, with greater perseverance,
might be restored to life.

Nor is suffocation by foul air and
mephitical gas, a rare form of death in the
United Kingdom. It is possible that
suspended animation may now and then have
been mistaken for the absolute extinction
of life. Dr. Londe gives an instructive
case to the purpose. At the extremity of
a large grocer's shop, a close narrow corner,
or rather hole, was the sleeping-place of
the shopman who managed the night sale
till the shop was closed, and who opened
the shutters at four in the morning. On
the 16th of January, 1825, there were loud
knocks at the grocer's door. As nobody
stirred to open it, the grocer rose himself,
grumbling at the shopman's laziness, and
proceeding to his sleeping-hole to scold
him. He found him motionless in bed,
completely deprived of consciousness. Terror-
struck by the idea of sudden death, he
immediately sent in search of a doctor, who
suspected a case of asphyxia by mephitism.
His suspicions were confirmed by the sight
of a night-lamp, which had gone out
although well supplied with oil and wick;
and by a portable stove containing the
remains of charcoal partly reduced to
ashes.

In spite of a severe frost, he immediately
had the patient taken into the open air, and
kept on a chair in a position as nearly
vertical as possible. The limbs of the
sufferer hung loose and drooping, the pupils
were motionless, with no trace either of
breathing or pulsation of the heart or
arteries; in short, there were all the signs
of death. The most approved modes of
restoring animation were persisted in for a
long while, without success. At last, about
three in the afternoon, that is after eleven
hours' continued exertion, a slight movement
was heard in the region of the heart.
A few hours afterwards, the patient opened
his eyes, regained consciousness, and was
able to converse with the spectators
attracted by his resurrection. Dr. Londe draws
the same conclusions as before; namely,
that persons suffocated by mephitism, are
not unfrequently buried, when they might
be saved.

We have had cholera in Great Britain,
and may have it again. At such trying
times, if ever, hurried interments are not
merely excusable, but almost unavoidable.
Nevertheless, one of the peculiarities of
that fearful disease is to bring on some of
the symptoms of death, the prostration,
the coldness, and the dull livid hues, long
before life has taken its departure. Now,
Dr. Londe states, as an acknowledged fact,
that patients, pronounced dead of cholera,
have been repeatedly seen to move one or
more of their limbs after death. While M.
Trachez (who had been sent to Poland to
study the cholera) was opening a subject
in the deadhouse of the Bagatelle Hospital
in Warsaw, he saw another body (that of
a woman of fifty, who had died in two
days, having her eyes still bright, her joints
supple, but the whole surface extremely
cold), which visibly moved its left foot ten
or twelve times in the course of an hour.
Afterwards, the right foot participated in
the same movement, but very feebly. M.
Trachez sent for Mr. Searle, an English
surgeon, to direct his attention to the
phenomenon. Mr. Searle had often remarked it.
The woman, nevertheless, was left in the
dissecting-room, and thence taken to the
cemetery. Several other medical men stated
that they had made similar observations.
From which M. Trachez draws the inference:
"It is allowable to think that many
cholera patients have been buried alive."

Dr. Veyrat, attached to the Bath
Establishment, Aix, Savoy, was sent for to La
Roche (Department of the Yonne), to visit
a cholera patient, Thérèse X., who had lost
all the members of her family by the same
disease. He found her in a complete state
of asphyxia. He opened a vein; not a
drop of blood flowed. He applied leeches;
they bit, and immediately loosed their hold.
He covered the body with stimulant applications,
and went to take a little rest, requesting
to be called if the patient manifested
any signs of life. The night and next day
passed without any change. While making
preparations for the burial, they noticed a
little blood oozing out of the leech-bites.
Dr. Veyrat, informed of the circumstance,
entered Ihe chamber, just as the nurse was
about to wrap the corpse in its winding-
sheet. Suddenly a rattling noise issued
from Thérèse's chest. She opened her
eyes, and in a hollow voice said to the
nurse: " What are you doing here? I am
not dead. Get away with you." She
recovered, and felt no other inconvenience than
a deafness, which lasted about two months.

Exposure to cold may also induce a
suspension of vitality, liable to be mistaken
for actual death. This year, the French
senate has again received several petitions
relative to premature interments.
The question is serious in a country
where custom (to say nothing of law)
rules that burials shall take place within