Historical Cases of Live Burial

“A woman had been buried in the morning. In the following morning whining was heard in her grave. It was opened and the woman was found still alive, but she mutilated half of her right arm and the whole hand. She was finally restored.”

From: Premature burial and how it may be prevented: with special reference to trance, catalepsy, and other forms of suspended animation, by William Tebb and Edward Perry Vollum. Second edition by Walter R. Hadwen. London, Swan Sonnenschein, 1905 p. 254.

A useful tool...

From time immemorial it has been the custom in the East, and even in some parts of the Continent to place women around a dead man’s bed to cry and howl for the purpose of awaking him should be only apparently dead…Pricking the skin with sharp instruments has also been adopted, and one savant, Josat by name, obtained first prize at the Academy of France for the invention of a pair of clawed forceps for pinching the nipples of the supposed dead, and this method held premier place as a means of distinguishing real from apparent death until it was demonstrated that subjects under profound hysteria were as indifferent to this painfully acute process as the dead.

From: Premature burial and how it may be prevented: with special reference to trance, catalepsy, and other forms of suspended animation, by William Tebb and Edward Perry Vollum. Second edition by Walter R. Hadwen. London, Swan Sonnenschein, 1905. p. 305)

Inside(s), ca 1390

From Mansūr ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad's Tashrīh-i badan-i insān [The Anatomy of the Body].

Additional information available here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/mansur_home.html

Skeleton hanging out

Here is a funny picture from William Cheselden: Osteographia, or The anatomy of the bones posted on the NLM's Historical Anatomies exhibition.

<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/cheselden_home.html>

Strawberries bgock...

Hemangioma, Cavernous

A vascular anomaly that is a collection of tortuous BLOOD VESSELS and connective tissue. This tumor-like mass with the large vascular space is filled with blood and usually appears as a strawberry-like lesion in the subcutaneous areas of the face, extremities, or other regions of the body including the central nervous system.

Entry terms:
· Cavernous Hemangiomas
· Hemangiomas, Cavernous
· Cavernous Hemangioma
· Strawberry Hemangiomas
· Hemangioma, Strawberry
· Hemangiomas, Strawberry
· Strawberry Hemangioma
· Angioma, Cavernous
· Cavernous Angioma

Here is one option for dealing with “lively emotions”…

From Practical Instruction in Animal Magnetism by J.P.F. Deleuze [translated from the 1825 Paris edition by Thomas C. Hartshorn.]
Appendix p. 29,

“After the dressing had been put on, M. Chapelain awoke the patient, whose somnambulic sleep had lasted ever since one hour before the operation, that is to say, for two days. This woman did not appear to have any idea or any impression of what had passed but on learning that she had been operated on and seeing her children around her, she experience a very lively emotion, which the magnetizer put an end to by putting her asleep immediately.”

The Diary of Mrs. Bird, the Arsenic Prophetess.

From The Lancet (New York ed., April 1847).

Mrs. Bird, a self proclaimed clairvoyant, describes her paranormal experiences to the “mesmeric attendant”, Mr. Luxmore. Here is a taste…

“Jan. 5th, 1846 – During sleep walking Mrs. Bird said, ‘The first thing that injured me was being salivated. I ought not to have had any mercury. My then medical attendant also gave me a solution of arsenic, which I took until my mouth was all over black spots. It created inflammation in the stomach which has never subsided….’
9th – ‘How beautiful! I see all my inside.’
12th – In her sleep to-day, she described a sort of coating over the inside of her stomach.

Feb. 5th – Bled and put to sleep. Said, ‘The coating in my stomach, which I mentioned in January, is rather loosened. My food should be nourishing.’
27th – She still vomits her food and says she shall continue to do so until the coating is removed from the stomach.

Mar. 6th – Vomited nearly two quarts of water. Says, ‘the day before on the same morning I vomit the coating from my stomach, I shall eject a little blood.’
....
Apr. 22nd – ‘On the 1st of May I shall throw a little blood from my stomach. On the 2nd I shall be very ill. On the 3rd I shall throw up something gritty. It will contain part of the coating of my stomach I have before spoken of. After I have thrown up the gritty substance, I must have a does of medicine….’

Perhaps she should have thought twice about ingesting arsenic.