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Premature burial and how it may be prevented
Premature burial and how it may be prevented Author:William Tebb Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XII. SUDDEN DEATH. Popular Fallacy. The idea commonly entertained is that with animal . . bodies there are only two possible conditions—either ... more »life or death ; that the presence of one of these conditions implies the absence of the other; that when the body has assumed the appearance of death, as . during the sudden suspension of all the functional activities, it must be dead. This last is far from being true; for all the appearances of death are fallacious, especially those that accompany so-called sudden death. All such cases should be challenged as of doubtful character, and held so till recovery or putrefaction of the tissues proves the presence of life or of death. This subject is too often treated by medical writers with indifference. Technically, it is regarded as a failure of the brain, or lungs, or heart, to perform their functions; popularly, we say that "the thread of life is snapped asunder," or it is "the going out of life," like the sudden extinguishing of a candle. Experience, however, teaches that life leaves the body in a gradual manner, and that death j approaches, and takes the place of life, in one part or organ after another, thus creeping through the tissues and sometimes defying all tests to prove its POPULAK FALLACY. 195 presence, leaving putrefaction to be its only sign. There can be no such thing as veritable sudden death, unless the body is crushed into a shapeless mass, like an insect under foot. Authoritative Opinion. The late Dr. Farr, of the Registrar-General's Department, London, says: " No definition of the sense in which sudden death is practically understood by coroners has been given." Dr. Granville says: " The writers on medical jurisprudence do not state with any strictness what they mean by sudden death, whe...« less