henticated cases might
still be adduced; but enough at least has now probably been said upon the
subject, to show the possibility of surviving the tender mercies of
Professor Calcraft and his fraternity.

WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham.

In Atkinson's _Medical Bibliography_, A. and B., under the head "Bathurst
Rodolphus," is the following:

"Nuremberg, 4to., 1655. On a maid who recovered after being hanged.

"This is the remarkable case of Elizabeth Gren, whom Bathurst and Dr.
Willis restored after being executed, _i. e._ hanged, for infanticide.
'Vena incisa refocillata est.'

"These poor creatures are seldom considered as maids, after being
hanged for infanticide. A similar recovery also happened to a man who
had been executed for murder at York. My father had the body for public
dissection. Whether the law then required the body to be hung for one
hour or not, I cannot say; but I well remember my father's observation,
that it was a pity the wretch had ever been restored, as his morals
were by no means improved. Hanging is therefore by no means a cure for
immorality, and it will be needless (in any of us) trying the
experiment'--P. 255.

H. J.

Sheffield.

There is a record of a person being alive immediately after hanging, in the
_Local Historian's Table-book_, vol. ii. pp. 43, 44., and under the date
May 23, 1752. It is there stated, Ewan Macdonald, a recruit in General
Guise's regiment of {455} Highlanders, then quartered in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, murdered a cooper named Parker, and was executed on
September 28, pursuant to his sentence. He was only nineteen years of age,
and at the gallows endeavoured to throw the executioner off the ladder. The
statement concludes with--"his body was taken to the surgeons' hall and
there dissected;" and the following is appended as a foot-note:

"It was said that, after the body was taken to the surgeons' hall, and
placed ready for dissection, the surgeons were called to attend a case
at the infirmary, who, on their return, found Macdonald so far
recovered as to be sitting up. He immediately begged for mercy; but a
young surgeon, not wishing to be disappointed of the dissection, seized
a wooden mall, with which he deprived him of life. It was farther
reported, as the just vengeance of God, that this young man was soon
after killed in the stable by his own horse. They used to show a mall