438 WONDERFUL RECOVERY. 



stories (for the truth of which I vouch not) are told to this 

 effect. Amongst the rest, that of a poor fellow, who, on 

 resuscitation, found himself staggering about in his winding- 

 sheet, in a dank, dark, and loathsome cellar, where along 

 with several dead bodies, he had been stowed away, pre- 

 paratory to interment ! 



In the public hospitals every precaution was taken to guard 

 against this evil. " When persons were supposed to be dead," 

 to quote the words of my friend Major Barck, of the Swedish 

 service, who had more than one of the cholera hospitals under 

 his special superintendence, and whose fearless exertions are 

 deserving of all praise, " they were covered with a sheet, or 

 otherwise, that their disfigured countenances might not terrify 

 the sick in the adjoining pallets. In this state they remained 

 three or four hours, when, by means of a blow-pipe, fire was 

 applied to the pit of the stomach, to ascertain if, possibly, 

 vitality remained ; and it was not until the medical attendant 

 was perfectly satisfied on this point, that the bodies were 

 allowed to be removed elsewhere." 



But in spite of every care, singular escapes occurred even 

 in these establishments. " On one occasion," said Major 

 Barck, " a blacksmith named Hellstenius, was believed to 

 be dead, and his face veiled in the way described. 

 After the man had lain in this state for several hours, it 

 happened that the doctor, when attending to a patient in an 

 adjoining bed, noticed that the covering over Hellstenius's 

 countenance was partially removed. He went up to the 

 supposed corpse, and fancied he perceived a slight twitch 

 in the eyelids. A jug of water was standing near, the 

 contents of which the doctor, raising his hand as high as 

 possible, poured in a continuous stream on to the pit of 



