PREMATURE BURIALS. 389 



bled without depriving the canal of a ton of the merchandise which is 

 passing through it to-day. Under these conditions the Suez Canal is 

 a prospei'ous enterprise. Its stock, which was issued at 500 francs, is 

 now quoted at 750 francs, and its bonds, payable at only 500 francs, 

 are sold for 570 francs. 



Suppose, then, for the Interoceanic Canal an original outlay of 

 double this sum, more than double, if you please, and put opposite this 

 figure a traffic reduced in the first years to four million tons, instead 

 of seven, and a charge of fifteen francs, which will be a very slight 

 tax on commerce. 



Can it therefore not be admitted that this great enterprise is of a 

 kind to attract large capital seeking an advantageous investment ? 

 But these large sums will not be the only ones on which we can count. 

 Let us not pay our century the poor compliment of supposing that 

 everything is done on a mere money-making basis. The Interoceanic 

 Canal will bring in subscribers from those who, captivated by the 

 grandeur of the work, will wish to help it with their mite, without 

 thinking whether or not they will get anything back. These sub- 

 scribers — who will come from America, from Asia, and from Europe — 

 these subscribers will have for their name legion. Once already, and 

 under less favorable circumstances, they have answered the appeal of 

 him who built the Suez Canal ; they will not be wanting for the Inter- 

 oceanic Canal Company, which will have as its chief and responsible 

 head Ferdinand de Lesseps, 



PEEMATURE BURIALS. 



By G. EEIC MACKAY. 



THE difference between death and a state of trance — or, as the 

 Germans put it, Todt and Scheintodt — has never been quite 

 clearly understood by the generality of mankind. Society, which 

 sometimes does its best for the living, does not always do its best 

 for the dead (or those who ajjpear to be dead), and he would be a bold 

 man who, without statistics, should assert that men, women, and chil- 

 dren are never, by any chance, buried alive. Are the bodies of the 

 poor always examined with care before burial ? Are deaths properly 

 verified in days of epidemic, that is to say in days of social panic ? 



I propose in this article to call attention to a few instances of pre- 

 mature burials on the Continent of Europe : instances which involve 

 stories of trance, or Scheintodt — a trance, the semblance of death, 

 holding its sway over the human body for hours and days, and not 

 merely for minutes, as in the case of ordinary fainting-fits. In days 

 when land is dear, and burial rights are less sacred than the rights of 



