gery are fitter than all others to discover some
less uncertain signs of doubtful death. He therein maintained that
there are several occurrences in which the signs of death are very
doubtful; and he adduces several instances of persons believed to be
dead, and interred as such, who nevertheless were afterwards found to
be alive.

M. Bruhier, M.D., has translated this thesis into French, and has
made some learned additions to it, which serve to strengthen the
opinion of M. Vinslow. The work is very interesting, from the matter
it treats upon, and very agreeable to read, from the manner in which
it is written. I am about to make some extracts from it, which may be
useful to my subject. I shall adhere principally to the most certain
and singular facts; for to relate them all, we must transcribe the
whole work.

It is known that John Duns, surnamed Scot,[558] or the Subtile Doctor,
had the misfortune to be interred alive at Cologne, and that when his
tomb was opened some time afterwards, it was found that he had gnawn
his arm.[559] The same thing is related of the Emperor Zeno, who made
himself heard from the depth of his tomb by repeated cries to those
who were watching over him. Lancisi, a celebrated physician of the
Pope Clement XI., relates that at Rome he was witness to a person of
distinction being still alive when he wrote, who resumed sense and
motion whilst they were chanting his funeral service at church.

Pierre Zacchias, another celebrated physician of Rome, says, that in
the hospital of the Saint Esprit, a young man, who was attacked with
the plague, fell into so complete a state of syncope, that he was
believed to be really dead. Whilst they were carrying his corpse,
along with a great many others, on the other side of the Tiber, the
young man gave signs of life. He was brought back to the hospital and
cured. Two days after, he fell into a similar syncope, and that time
he was reputed to be dead beyond recovery. He was placed amongst
others intended for burial, came to himself a second time, and was yet
living when Zacchias wrote.

It is related, that a man named William Foxley, when forty years of
age,[560] falling asleep on the 27th of April, 1546, remained plunged
in sleep for fourteen days and fourteen nights, without any preceding
malady. He could not persuade himself that he had slept more than one
night, and was convinced of his long sleep only by being shown a
building begun some days before this