I N T 
Iffis body was carried to the neareft village, and the offi- 
rers of luftice were proceeding to open it, when a cry 
which he fent forth affrightened all the affiltants, and con¬ 
vinced the furgeon that the abbe was not dead , but it 
was too late to fave him, as he had already received the 
^Senind age, when life feems to have been gradu- 
allv drawing to a clofe, the appearances of death are o 
ten fallacious. A lady in Cornwall, more than eighty 
vears of a°-e, who had been a conliderable time declining, 
X to her bed, and in a few days fee.mngly expired m 
the morning. As flie had often defined not to be buried 
till ffie had been two days dead, her requeft was to have 
b^en regularly complied with by her relations. All that 
fa“ her looked upon her as dead, and the report was cur¬ 
rent through the whole place ; nay, a gentleman of the 
town actually wrote to Ins friend in the lfland or Scilly 
Shat fhe was ^eceafed. But one of thofe who were pay¬ 
ing the laft kind office of humanity to her remains, per- 
cefved fome warmth about the middle of the back , and, 
acquainting her friends with it, they applied a mirror to 
her mouth; but, after repeated trials, could not obleive 
it In the leaft ftained; her under jaw was likewife fallen, 
as the common phrafe is; and, m ffiort, lhe had every ap- 
SSaSw. perfon. All this t.me ihe had not 
been dripped or dreffed ; but the windows were opened, 
as is ufual in the chambers of the deceafed. In the even¬ 
ing the heat feenaed to increafe, and at length fhe was 
Tiercel ved to brcsth6« „ 
F In fhort, not only the ordinary figns are very uncertain, 
but we may fay the fame of the lhffnefs ot the limbs, 
which may be convulfive.: of the dilatation of the pupil 
of the eye, which may proceed from the fame caufe , of 
putrefaction, which may equally attack fome parts of a 
iivino- body ; and of feveral others. Haller, convinced of 
the uncertainty of all thefe figns, propofes a new one 
which he confiders as infallible If the perfon (fays he) 
be Hill in life, the mouth will immediately (hut.of it- 
felf becaufe the ’ contraction of the mulcles of the jaw 
will awaken their irritability.” The jaw, however, may 
be deprived of its irritability though a man may not be 
dead. Life is preferved a long time in the paffage of the 
jnteftines. The fign pointed out by Dr. Fothergill ap¬ 
pears to deferve more attention: “If the air blown into 
the mouth (fays this phyfician) paffes freely through all 
the alimentary channel, it affords a ftrong prefumption 
that the irritability of the internal fphinCters is deftioyed, 
and cpnfequently that life is at an end. Thefe figns, 
which deferve to be confirmed by new experiments, arc 
doubtlefs not known to undertakers. 
The difficulty of diftinguifhmg a perfon apparently 
dead from one who is really fo, has, in all countries where 
bodies have been interred too precipitately, rendered it 
neceffary for the law to affift humanity. Of feveral regu¬ 
lations made on this fubjeCl, we ffiall quote only a few of 
the molt recent; fuch as thofe of Arras in 177? 5 « Man¬ 
tua In 1774 s of the grand duke of Tufcany in 1775 } of 
the fenechauffee of Sivrai, in Poitou, in1 i 7 77 5 and of the 
parliament of Metz in the fame year. To give an idea of 
the reft, it will be fufficient to relate only tliat of Tuf- 
«anv. Bv this edICI, the grand duke forbids the preci¬ 
pitate interment of perfons who die fuddenly. He orders 
the maffiftrates of health to be informed, that phyficians 
and furgeons may examine the body; that they may ufe 
every endeavour to recal it to life, if poffible, or to difco- 
ye r the caufe of its death ; and that they ffiall make a re¬ 
port of their procedure to a certain tribunal. On this oc- 
cafion, the magiftrate of health orders the dead not to be 
covered until the moment they are about to be buried, 
except fo far as decency requires; obferving always that 
the body be not clofely confined, and that nothing may 
comprefs the jugular veins and the carotid artenes. He 
forbids people to be interred according to the ancient me¬ 
thod; and, requires that the arms and the hands ffiould 
' be left extended, and that they ffiould not be folded or 
I N T 
171 
placed crofs-wife upon the bread:. He forbids, above all, 
to prefs the jaws oneagainft the other; or to fill the mouth 
and noftrils with cotton, or other fluffing. Laftly, he re¬ 
commends not to cover the vifage with any kind of clot^i 
until the body is depofited in its coffin. 
We ffiall conclude this article by fubjoinlng, from Dr. 
Hawes’s Addrel's to the public on this fubjeCl, a few of 
the cafes in which this fallacious appearance of death is 
mod likely to happen, together with the refpeCtive modes 
of treatment which he recommends. 
“ In apoplectic and fainting fits, and in thofe arifing 
from any violent agitation of mind, and alfo when opium 
or fpirituous liquors have been taken in too great a quan¬ 
tity, there is realon to believe that the appearance of death 
has been frequently miftaken for the reality. In thefe 
cafes, the means recommended by the Humane Society 
for' the Recovery of Drowned Perfons fhould be per- 
fevered in for feveral hours ; and bleeding, which in fimi-^ 
lar circumftances has fometimes proved pernicious, fhould 
be ufed with great caution. In the two latter inftances 
it will be highly expedient, with a view of counteracting 
the foporific effeCts of opium and fpirits, to convey into 
the ftomach, by a proper tube, a folution of tartar emetic,... 
and by various other means to excite vomiting. 
“From the number of children carried off by convul- 
fions, and the certainty, arifing from undoubted faCts, that 
fome who have in appearance died from that caufe have 
been recovered 3 there is the greateft reafon for conclud¬ 
ing, that many, in confequence of the difeafe, have been 
prematurely numbered among the dead; and that the 
fond parent, by negleCling the means of recalling life, has 
often been the guiltlels executioner of her own offspring,, 
To prevent the commiflion of fuch dreadful miftakes, no 
child, whofe life has been apparently extinguilhed by con- 
vulfions, fhould be configned to the grave till the means 
of recovery above-recommended in apoplexies, &c. have 
been tried ; and, if poffible, under the direction of fome 
ikilful practitioner of medicine, who may vary them as 
circumftances ffiall require. 
“When fevers arife in weak habits, or when the cure 
of them has been principally attempted by means of de¬ 
pletion, the ccnfequent debility is often very great, and 
the patient fometimes finks into a Hate which bears fo 
clofe an affinity to that of death, that there is reafon to 
fufpeCt it has too often deceived the byftanders, and in¬ 
duced them to fend for the undertaker when they ffiould 
have had recourfe to the fuccours of medicine. In fuch 
cafes, volatiles, eau de luce for example, fhould be applied 
to the nofe, rubbed on the temples, and fprinkled often 
about the bed ; hot flannels, moiftened with a ftrong lo- 
lution of camphorated fpirit, may likewife be applied over 
the bread, and renewed every quarter of an hour; and, as 
loon as the patient is able to fwallow, a teafpoonful of the 
ftrongeft cordial fhould be given every five minutes. The 
fame methods may alfo be ufed with propriety in the 
fmall-pox when the puftules fink, and death apparently 
enfues: and likewife in any other acute difeafes, when 
the vital functions are fufpended from a fimilar cafe.” 
INTERMESS',/, [from inter, Lat. between, and ?nefs.~\ 
A fmaller di(h fet between other diflies at table. Phillips. 
To INTERME'TE, v. n. To intermeddle ; to inter- 
pofe. Chaucer. 
INTERMEW'ER, f. A hawk of the firft year. 
INTERMEW'ING, f. [from inter and mew.'] Themew¬ 
ing of a hawk from the change of her firft coat to the 
time in which fhe begins to turn white. 
INTERMI'CATE, v.n. [from inter, Lat. between, and 
mico, to fhine. ] To fliine between ; to ffiine amongft. Cole. 
INTERMICA'TION, /. The aCt of ffiining between. 
Phillips • 
INTERMIGRA'TIQN,yi {inter and migro, Lat.] ACl 
of removing from one place to another, fo as that, of two 
parties removing, each takes the place of the other.—Men 
have a ltrange variety in colour, ftature, and humour; 
and all arifing from the climate, though the continent be 
but 
