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.

  • Tebb, William, 1830-1918.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: 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. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    of the medical profession who have given special at- tention to the subject. The source of difficulty has been an enibarras de ricJiesse, or how from a mass of material, the extent of which will be seen by reference to the Bibliography, to select typical cases Avithout needless repetition. The premature burials and narrow escapes from such disasters, which are reported by distinguished physicians and reputable writers, may be numbered literally by hundreds, and for every one reported it is obvious from the nature of the case that many are never heard of. Amongst the names of notable persons who have thought the subject sufficiently practical for their attention may be mentioned those of Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Pliny, Celsus, Plutarch, and St. Augustine in antiquity ; of Fabricius, Lancisi, Winslow, Haller, Bufifon, Lavater, Moses Mendelssohn, Hufeland, and Alexander von Humboldt in modern times. The subject has several times engaged the attention of the French Senate and Legislative Chamber, as well as the Legislative Assemblies in the various States of Germany. In 1871, Dr. Alex. Wilder, Prof, of Physiology and Psychological Science, read a paper before the members of both houses of the New York State Legislature at the Capitol, Albany; but we are not aware that the subject has ever been introduced in any of the other State Legislatures, or in the British Parliament, or in any of the Colonial Assemblies.