anged no less than thirteen times, yet lived
notwithstanding, by the benefit of his windpipe, that after his death
was found to have turned into a bone; which yet is still wonderful,
since the circulation of the blood must be stopt, however, unless his
veins and arteries were likewise turned to bone, or the rope not slipt
close."
Besides the account of Anne Green, Denham, in the 4th book of his
_Physico-Theology_, quotes the following instance from Rechelin (_De Aere
et Alim. defect._, cap. vii.),--
"Of a certain woman hang'd, and in all appearance dead, who was
nevertheless restored to life by a physician accidentally coming in,
and ordering a plentiful administration of the spirit of sal ammoniac."
(See also _The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, and the Danger of
precipitate Interments and Dissections demonstrated_, 12mo., London, 1751.)
A paragraph, stating that Fauntleroy, the notorious forger, had survived
his execution, and was living abroad, has more than once gone the round of
the newspapers. It is sometimes added that his evidence was required in a
Chancery suit,--absurdly enough, as, if not _actually_, he was at least
_legally_ dead.
The story of Brodie, executed October, 1788, for an excise robbery at
Edinburgh, is probably familiar to most. The self-possession and firmness
with which he met his fate was the result of a belief in the possibility of
his resuscitation:
"It is a curious fact, that an attempt was made to resuscitate Brodie
immediately after the execution. The operator was Degravers, whom
Brodie himself had employed. His efforts, however, were utterly
abortive. A person who witnessed the scene, accounted for the failure
by saying that the hangman, having been bargained with for a short
fall, his excess of caution made him shorten the rope too much at
first, and when he afterwards lengthened it, he made it too long, which
consequently proved fatal to the experiment."--_Curiosities of
Biography_, 8vo., Glasgow, 1845.
There is a powerfully-written story in _Blackwood's Magazine_, April, 1827,
entitled "Le Revenant," in which a resuscitated felon is supposed to
describe his feelings and experience. The author, in his motto, makes a
sweeping division of mankind:--"There are but two classes in the
world--those who are _hanged_, and those who are _not hanged_; and it has
been my lot to belong to the former." Many well-aut
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