d raised when the
first incision was made. There is a story of an occurrence which
happened on a return voyage from India. The wife of one of the
passengers, an officer in the army, to all appearances died. They were
about to resort to sea-burial, when, through the interposition of the
husband, who was anxious to take her home, the ship-carpenters started
to construct a coffin suitable for a long voyage, a process which took
several days, during which time she lay in her berth, swathed in robes
and ready for interment. When the coffin was at last ready the husband
went to take his last farewell, and removed the wedding-ring, which was
quite tightly on her finger. In the effort to do this she was aroused,
recovered, and arrived in England perfectly well.

It is said that when a daughter of Henry Laurens, the first President
of the American Congress, died of small-pox, she was laid out as dead,
and the windows of the room were opened for ventilation. While left
alone in this manner she recovered. This circumstance so impressed her
illustrious father that he left explicit directions that in case of his
death he should be burned. The same journal also contains the case of a
maid-servant who recovered thrice on her way to the grave, and who,
when really dead, was kept a preposterous length of time before burial.

The literature on this subject is very exhaustive, volumes having been
written on the uncertainty of the signs of death, with hundreds of
examples cited illustrative of the danger of premature interment. The
foregoing instances have been given as indicative of the general style
of narration; for further information the reader is referred to the
plethora of material on this subject.

Postmortem Anomalies.--Among the older writers startling movements of a
corpse have given rise to much discussion, and possibly often led to
suspicion of premature burial. Bartholinus describes motion in a
cadaver. Barlow says that movements were noticed after death in the
victims of Asiatic cholera. The bodies were cold and expressions were
death-like, but there were movements simulating natural life. The most
common was flexion of the right leg, which would also be drawn up
toward the body and resting on the left leg. In some cases the hand was
moved, and in one or two instances a substance was grasped as if by
reflex action. Some observers have stated that reflex movements of the
face were quite noticeable. These movements continued