Suspended Animation

Within two weeks the N. Y. Herald reported tbree cases of supposed death, in each of which some person who had been placed m a coftin exhibited some pha3es of countenance that are not commnn to dead persons. It is hardly probable that, if a spark of life was in any of these bodies when they were prepared for burial, they were really bnried alive, for several minutes in a closed coifin would be sufflcient to kill a healthy person, let alone one who was too t'eeble to speak or make auy motion. Still, it is -well to remember that if a slck person seems likely to die the quickest way to hasten the íinal shuffling oiï of the mortal coil is to lay him on his back in a coffln or any other place and put ice under or around him. To lie flat upon the back, witli the head on the same level as the body, is an experieiice that no healthy persoh can long end ure without f rightful sensations, and to any one exhansted by disease the position offers a positive prospect of early decease. When a body in a coffln shows signs of life there is little trouble and no risk in removing it, laying it on its side upon a bed and gently agitating the chest and-abdomen as is done in the case of a persoñ who has been drowned. The opinión of a physician is generally satisfactory evidence of death, but when there is any doubt it is simple idiocy to leave a body in a cofflo, particularly if natural warmth is being antagonized by ice.