While returning to his country house Asclepiades, a physician
denominated the "God of Physic," and said to have been a
descendant of aesculapius, saw during the time of Pompey the
Great a crowd of mourners about to start a fire on a funeral
pile. It is said that by his superior knowledge he perceived
indications of life in the corpse and ordered the pile destroyed,
subsequently restoring the supposed deceased to life. These
examples and several others of a similar nature induced the
Romans to delay their funeral rites, and laws were enacted to
prevent haste in burning, as well as in interment. It was not
until the eighth day that the final rites were performed, the
days immediately subsequent to death having their own special
ceremonies. The Turks were also fearful of premature interment
and subjected the defunct to every test; among others, one was to
examine the contractility of the sphincter and, which shows their
keen observation of a well-known modern medical fact.
According to the Memoirs of Amelot de la Houssaye, Cardinal
Espinola, Prime Minister to Philip II, put his hand to the
embalmer's knife with which he was about to be opened; It is said
that Vesalius, sometimes called the "Father of Anatomy," having
been sent for to perform an autopsy on a woman subject to
hysteric convulsions, and who was supposed to be dead, on making
the first incision perceived by her motion and cries that she was
still alive.
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