Premature burial and how it may be prevented : with special reference to trance, catalepsy, and other forms of suspended animation / by William Tebb and Edward Perry Vollum.
- William Tebb
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Premature burial and how it may be prevented : with special reference to trance, catalepsy, and other forms of suspended animation / by William Tebb and Edward Perry Vollum. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
363/412 (page 355)
![the causes of propagation of the epidemic, or of the contagion. In the second case, it is understood that one could not keep longer, without danger to the public health, a corpse in complete putrefaction. There is occasion also to observe that, in these circumstances, the end which the legislator has proposed to himself is equally obtained, since there cannot be any doubt as to the real death. However that may be, it is the mayor (officer of the Civil State) to whom it appertains, according to the terms of the Article ]] of the Civil Code, to give authority to bury; and if he gives that authorisation before the expiration of the delay of twenty-four hours, it is after having established by himself, or by the medical officer of the Civil State, the fact of its necessity, resvilting from the circumstances of which w^e have just spoken. It is to be remarked that the Article ']^ fixes a mininnim and not a 7naxi7mtm delay. It is always the mayor to whom it appertains to fix the <lay and the hour of the burial, and there may happen such and such a circumstance which necessitates a delay of the obsequies. The mayor need only assure himself in that case that no danger will result to the public health, which naturally is the case when the corpse is embalmed, or is placed in a leaden coffin. Outside Paris and other large cities, and especially in the rural districts, much laxity prevails both as to verification of death and the time of burial, and cases of premature burial are not infrequent. AUSTRIA. The laws relative to funerals and burials are very strict—perhaps the most thorough in their requirements of any in Europe. They provide for a very careful inspection of the body by medical inspectors, ■quite independently of the attending physicians, in order to ascertain if the death be absolute. Minute and specific official directions guide them as to the method of examination and the signs of death to be looked for. And they further provide for carrying out any particular method, as to which the •deceased may have given directions, in order to prevent a possible revival in the coffin. Should the surviving relatives desire it, -d. post-mortem opera- tion may be made upon the body, in the presence of the medical inspectors and the police; in which case the heart is pierced through; and a full report of the operations must be forwarded to the civic magistrate. A fee of six florins is allowed for such an operation. CITY OF VIENNA. Every death to be inquired into by the municipal physician. The first of five objects is to ascertain whether the person be really dead. In](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21080306_0363.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
