Embalmer's Knife Flashing, Mom Insists Son "Alive"; He is!

Rhode Island, 1888

COFFINED, BUT ALIVE

Story of a Man Who had a Narrow Escape from Premature Burial

Mauly Z. Corwin, of Providence, R. I., has enjoyed the sensation of being coffined and prepared for burial, says the Boston Globe. But for an accident he would have been embalmed. He lives on Smith's hill, and is a carpenter by trade. Some years ago he was at work on the roof of a three-story house, and had a sun-stroke. Falling at his work, he rolled down the sloping roof and fell, an inert mass, to the street below. He was picked up and conveyed to the office of the nearest medical man, who pronounced him dead. An undertaker was sent for, and soon his assistants were measuring the corpse and making preparations for the embalming process, which was considered necessary for preserving the body for the funeral.

That evening a casket arrived with the name of the deceased, age and manner of death engraved on a silver plate.

After the body had been coffined and the room cleared, Mrs. Corwin, the mother, arrived, and, while laying her head upon his breast, she fancied she detected a motion of the heart. Another doctor was sent for, who, after making a stethoscopic examination, confirmed the opinion of the other physician, and declared life to be extinct.

The weeping mother was led from the apartment, and the watchers awaited the coming of the embalmer. The man was delayed so long that when he arrived the family requested him to postpone making the incision until the following morning.

The morning found the loving and disconsolate mother at her son's bier again, and again did the maternal instinct within her tell her that her boy was not dead, but sleeping. The embalmer came and displayed his instruments for opening the veins and for eviscerating the deceased. Then the mother refused to allow the operation. In vain they urged her to accept the verdict of medical science, but she refused to budge, and, throwing her body across that of her son, she declared she would not leave his presence until all doubt was ended. The weather was fearfully hot, and it was expected that the condition of the corpse would be unendurable by the next night, but it was not, nor the next night, and then some weight was attached to the old lady's belief. More doctors came, other examinations were made, and at the end of the sixth day a slight pulsation was felt.

The man was alive beyond all doubt.

The house swarmed with physicians after that. They came from New York, from Boston and from Philadelphia, and all agreed that the vital spark had not left the body, although how to fan it into a life-sustaining flame was a question not so easily settled. Various expedients were resorted to, and on the fifteenth day the "corpse" opened an eye. After that the man's recovery was but a question of time. To-day he is at work, a better and stronger man than he ever was, and the silver plate on his coffin, framed in crimson plush, adorns his parlor.

—St. Joseph Herald, Saint Joseph, Michigan, April 28, 1888, p. 5.

Comes To Life In The Tomb

1910

Cleveland Woman Tells Weird Tale of Mother's Experience.

Cleveland, O., Nov. 25. — That Mrs. Anna Hubbell of Aurora, O., was buried and came forth alive from the tomb several hours later, is the story Mrs. Etta Winfield, a daughter of Mrs. Hubbell, tells.

Mrs. Winfield, who lives in Cleveland, says she was called to Aurora two weeks ago by the announcement that her mother had suddenly died. She says she believed Mrs. Hubbell was merely in a trance and so told the doctors and the undertaker. At her request the woman was placed in a cemetery vault and the sexton was told to watch the body.

About seven hours after burial the sexton discovered that the body had moved in the casket and notified the relatives of Mrs. Hubbell, who had the body removed, and physicians succeeded in apparently bringing the body back to life.

This is the story vouched for by Mrs. Winfield, but Mrs. Hubbell, who is at Aurora, declines to discuss the affair, as do others of the family living there. They admit that the woman was very ill, however.

—Coschocton Daily Age, Coshocton, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1910, p. 1.

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.