In the
effort to do this she was aroused, recovered, and arrived in
England perfectly well.
It is said that when a daughter of Henry Laurens, the first
President of the American Congress, died of small-pox, she was
laid out as dead, and the windows of the room were opened for
ventilation. While left alone in this manner she recovered. This
circumstance so impressed her illustrious father that he left
explicit directions that in case of his death he should be
burned. The same journal also contains the case of a maid-servant
who recovered thrice on her way to the grave, and who, when
really dead, was kept a preposterous length of time before
burial.
The literature on this subject is very exhaustive, volumes having
been written on the uncertainty of the signs of death, with
hundreds of examples cited illustrative of the danger of
premature interment. The foregoing instances have been given as
indicative of the general style of narration; for further
information the reader is referred to the plethora of material on
this subject.
Postmortem Anomalies.--Among the older writers startling
movements of a corpse have given rise to much discussion, and
possibly often led to suspicion of premature burial.
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