Burying Live People – Another Lucky Escape

1878

Burying Live People

Another lucky escape from burial alive has occurred in Paris in the case of a lawyer named Lelone. His son, summoned to his deathbed, found him, as it was supposed, dead, kissed his brow, and was surprised at its warmth. Some hours later he revived, and said: "Ah, doctor, these few moments sleep have done me a world of good."

The French laws require that interment shall follow death within at most thirty-six hours, and thus it often happens that burial takes place previous to putrefaction. It was against this limited time imposed by the burial bill that an eminent prelate so powerfully protested in the French Chamber, relating how he himself had been laid out for burial. Here, too, in Summer, burial takes place much too soon. In England at least five days intervene.