INTERMENT. 
Ip 
is preferved in France only for princes and ecclefiadics. 
In other countries, more or lefs care is taken to prevent 
fudden interments. At Geneva -there are people ap¬ 
pointed to infpefl all dead bodies.' Their duty confifts. in 
examining whether the perfon be really dead, and whe¬ 
ther one died naturally or by violence. In the north, as 
well -s.at Genoa, it is ufual not to bury the dead till 
three days have expired. In Holland, people carry their 
precautions much farther, and delay the funerals longer. 
And in England bodies generally remain unburied three 
or four days. . 
Not with handing the cudoms above recited; dill, m 
many places, and on many occafions in all places, too 
much precipitation attends this lad office j or, if not pre¬ 
cipitation, a neglett of due precautions in regard to the 
body. In general, indeed, the moll improper treatment 
that can be imagined is adopted, and many a perlon made 
to defcend into the grave before he has fighed his laft 
breath. The bidories related by Hildanus, by Camera- 
rius, by Hodius, byMacrobius in his Somnium Scipioms, 
by Plato in his Republic, by Valerius Maximus, and by 
a great many modern authors, leave us no doubt refpeCt- 
ing the dangers or mifcondudt of fuch precipitation. It 
mull appear aftoniffiing that the attention of mankind has 
been after all fo little roufed by an idea the moll terrible 
that can be conceived on this fide of eternity. If nature 
recoils from the idea of death, with what horror mull ihe 
Hart at the thought of death anticipated, precipitated by 
inattention; a return of life in darknefs, didraftion, and 
defpair ; then death repeated under agonies unfpeakable! 
To revive nailed up in a coffin ! The brain can fcarcely 
fuftain the reflection in our cooled fafed moments. 
According to prefent ufage, as foon as the femblance 
of death appears, the chamber of the lick is deferted by 
friends, relatives, and phyflcians; and the apparently-dead, 
though frequently living, body, is committed to the ma¬ 
nagement of an ignorant and unfeeling nurfe, whofe care 
extends no farther than laying the limbs draight, and le- 
curino- her accuflomed perquilites. The bed-clothes are 
immediately removed, and the body isexpofed to the air. 
This, when cold, mud extinguilh any fpark of life that 
may remain, and which, by a different treatment, might 
' have been kindled into flame; or it may only continue to 
reprefs it, and the unhappy perfon afterwards revive amidd 
the horrors of the tomb. 
The difference between the end of a weak lire and the 
commencement of death, is fo fmall, and the uncertainty 
of the figns of the latter is fo well eltablilhed both by an¬ 
cient and modern authors who have turned their atten¬ 
tion to that important objerir, that we can fcarcely fuppofe 
undertakers capable of diltinguilhing an apparent from a 
real death. Animals which lleep during winter ffiow no 
figns of life; in this cafe, circulation is only fufpended ; 
but, were it annihilated, the vital fpirit does not fo eafily 
lofe its action as the other fluids of the body; and the 
principle of life, which long furvives the appearance of 
death, may re-animate a body in which the afction of all 
the organs feems to be at an end. But how difficult is it 
to determine whether this principle may not be revived ? 
It has been found impoffible to recal to life fome animals 
fuffocated by mephitic vapours, though they appeared 
lefs affefted than others who have revived. Coldnefs, 
heavinefs of the body, a leaden livid colour, with a yel- 
lownefs in the vifage, are all very uncertain figns: Mr. 
Zimmerman obferved them all upon the body of a crimi¬ 
nal who fainted through the dread of that puniffiment 
winch he had merited. He was fliaken, dragged about, 
and turned in the fame manner as dead bodies are, with¬ 
out the lead figns of refinance; and yet at the end of 
twenty-four hours he was recalled to life by means of 
volatile alkali. . 
4. dire St or of the coach-office at Dijon, named Colinet, 
was fuopofed to be dead, and the news of this event was 
fpread through the whole city. One of his friends, who 
was deiirous of feeing him at the moment when he was 
about to be buried, having looked at him for a confider- 
ble time, thought he perceived fome remains of fenfibility 
in the mufcles of the -face. He therefore made an at¬ 
tempt to bring him to life by fpirituous liquors, in which 
he fucceeded ; and this direStor enjoyed afterwards for a 
long time that life which he owed to his friend. This 
remarkable circumitance was much like thofe of Empe¬ 
docles and Afclepiades. Thefe inftances would perhaps 
be more frequent, were men of fkill and abilities called in 
cafes of fudden death, in which people of ordinary know¬ 
ledge are often deceived by falfe appearances. 
A man may fall into a fyncope, and may remain in 
that condition three or even eight days. People in this 
fituation have been known to come to life when depofited 
among the dead. A body belonging to the hofpital at 
Caflel appeared to have breathed his laft ; he was carried 
into the hall where the dead were expofed, and was wrap¬ 
ped up in a piece of canvas. Some time after, recovering 
from his lethargy, he recollefted the place in which he 
had been depofited, and drawing towards the door knocked 
againfl it with his foot. This noife was luckily heard 
by the centinel, who on percei/ing the motion of the 
canvas called for affifiance. The youth was immediately 
conveyed to a warm bed, and foon perfectly recovered. 
Had his body been confined by clofe bandages or liga¬ 
tures, he would not have been able, in all probability, to 
make liimfelf heard; his unavailing efforts would have 
made him again fall into a fyncope, and he would have 
been thus buried alive. 
We mud not be adoniffied that the fervants of an hof¬ 
pital ffiould take a fyncope for a real death, fince even the 
mod enlightened people have fallen into errors of the 
fame kind. Dr. John Schmid relates, that a young girl, 
feven years of age, after being afflifted for fome weeks 
with a violent cough, was all of a fudden freed from this 
troublefome malady, and appeared to be in perfect health. 
But fome days after, while playing with her companions, 
this child fell down in an inftant as if druck by lightning. 
A death-like palenefs was diffufed over her face and arms; 
{lie had no apparent pulfe, her temples were funk, and Ihe 
fhowed no figns of fenfation when fliaken or pinched. A 
phyfician, who was called, and who believed her to be 
dead, in compliance with the repeated and preffmg re- 
queftof her parents, attempted, though without any hopes, 
to recal her to life ; and at length, after feveral vain ef¬ 
forts, he made the foies of her feet befmartly rubbed with 
a brufh dipped in ftrong pickle. At the end of three 
quarters of an hour fhe was obferved to figh ; {he was then 
made to fwallow fome fpirituous liquor; and ihe was foon 
after reftored to life, much to the joy of her difconfolate 
parents. A certain man, having undertaken a journey 
in order to fee his brother, on his arrival at his Iroule 
found him dead. This news affedled him fo much, that 
it brought on a molt dreadful fyncope, and he himfelf 
was fuppofed to be in the like fituation. After the ufual 
means had been employed to recal him to life, it was 
agreed that his body ihould be diffected, to difcover the 
caufe of fo fudden a death; but the fuppofed dead perfon, 
overhearing this propofal, opened his eyes, flatted up, and 
immediately betook himfelf to his heels. Cardinal Efpi* 
nola, prime minifter to Philip II. was not fo fortunate; 
for we read in the Memoirs of Amelot de la Houflaie, that 
he put liis hand to the knife with which he was opened in 
order to be embalmed. In Ihort, altnoft every one knows 
that Vefalius, the father of anatomy, having been lent for 
to open a woman fnbjeft to hyderics, who was fuppofed 
to be dead, he perceived, on making the fird incifion, by 
her motion and cries, that (he was dill alive; that this 
circumdance rendered him fo odious, that he was obliged 
to fly ; and that he was fo much affefled by it, that he 
died foon after. On this occafion, we cannot forbear to 
add an event more recent, but no lefs melancholy. The 
abbe Prevoft, fo well known by his writings and the An¬ 
gularities of his life, was feized with a fit of the apoplexy, 
in the fored of Chantilly, on the 23d of October, 1763. 
1 His 
