"Singular and distressing affair: - A highly respectable gentleman of Baltimore city, who transacted a mercantile business on the wharf, was taken sick and died, as was supposed, a short time since. Being a native of an adjoining city, his wife and friends desired to inter his remains there, and his body was accordingly placed in a coffin and conveyed to that city. When the coffin arrived, it was opened in order to transfer the remains to a more suitable one, which had been prepared for the final interment. When the lid was removed, the body was found lying upon the face, which upon examination was braised. A moisture was observed upon the skin, and on a close examination, it was found that the vital spark had not as yet fled. All the restoratives that the best medical skill could advise, were used, and the man was actually revived and lived for two days afterwards, before the 'spirit departed unto him that gave it.' No doubt was entertained here of the decease, and the feelings of relatives and friends at such a discovery cannot be for one moment imagined.,, *

* Dr. Binns's Anatomy of Sleep.

The St. Louis Republican for December, 1843, contains the following: "Rescue from a living grave: - A young lady, belonging to a Jewish family in this city, died on Tuesday of a nervous disease, and yesterday her friends started with her remains for interment. According to a Jewish custom, the body is taken to the grave-yard in a square box, in the same covering in which the deceased person has expired, and there in a house appropriated for that purpose, the female friends of the family unrobe the body, wash it with cold water, and anoint it for its last resting-place.

* Philadelphia Ledger, June, 1847.

"While performing this ancient custom upon the body of this supposed inanimate corpse, a healthful warmth evaporated from it, and evident signs of life became manifest; the fact was announced by the females, physicians were sent for, and the sorrowful certainty of death which overshadowed the countenances of friends, gave place to a gleam of hope. On the arrival of the physicians, the certainty of her being alive was established and means taken to fan the spark into health."

Again, "In October, 1830, a servant girl, who had retired to bed in apparently perfect health, was found the following morning, as it was supposed, dead. A surgeon who was sent for, pronounced her to be certainly dead, and stated that she had probably been so for some hours. A coroner's inquest was summoned for four o'clock of the same day to inquire into the cause of death, and directions were given that a postmortem inspection of the body should be made in the meantime. The reporter of the case was requested to give his assistance. Accompanied by the surgeon who had been consulted, he went to the house about two o'clock for the purpose of making the inspection. The deceased was found lying on the bed, in an easy posture, on her left side, her body forming somewhat of a semicircle. The countenance was pallid, but so perfectly placid and composed as to give her the appearance of being in a deep sleep. The heat of the body, although she must have been dead eight or ten hours, was not in the least diminished. The room was carefully searched, but nothing in the shape of poison, nor any other means of self-destruction, could be discovered. Every article of apparel lay round, as might be supposed to have been left by a person going to bed in perfect health as usual. The heat of the body not diminishing, a vein was opened, and various stimuli applied, but without producing any signs of resuscitation. The respiratory and circulatory process had ceased; no artery could be felt pulsating. Two hours had now elapsed since their arrival, and the parties still hesitated to perform the inspection, when a message was sent to them stating that the jury were waiting for their evidence. The inspection was then commenced, but on removing the body for the purpose, the warmth and pliancy of the limbs were such as to give the examiners the idea that they were inspecting a living subject. The internal cavities were so warm that a very copious steam issued from them when they were laid open. All the viscera were healthy, there were no signs of disease; nothing appeared to account for death, and from what they saw, the inspectors regretted that they had not postponed the examination until the signs of death had been completely manifested. For obvious reasons, the name of the place where this extraordinary case occurred, and the name of the reporter, were suppressed. He had evidently communicated the details in a fit of remorse for his precipitancy."*

The Paris Constitutionnel, 1846, states that the cases of premature interments prevented by fortuitous circumstances amounted in France since the year 1833, to ninety-four. Of these, 35 persons awoke of themselves from their lethargy at the moment the funeral ceremony was about to commence; 13 recovered in consequence of the affectionate care of their families; 7 in consequence of the fall of the coffins in which they were inclosed; 9 owed their recovery to wounds inflicted by the needle in sewing their winding sheet; 5 to the sensation of suffocation they experienced in their coffins; 19 to their interment having been delayed by fortuitous circumstances; and six to their interment having been delayed in consequence of doubts having been entertained of their death.

Dr. Struve, in an essay on the art of recovering suspended animation, makes the following remarks: - "The Earth-bath is not only useful for persons struck by lightning, but may also be beneficially applied in other cases of apparent death. Its efficacy is partly owing to the proportionate warmth, and partly to the invigorating vapors of the earth. It is a common practice among miners, when one of their companions is suffocated by mephitic air, and drops down lifeless, to bury him in the ground to his neck, and at the same time to sprinkle his face with cold water. If in very frosty weather it were practicable to dig the ground, the earth-bath would afford an excellent and novel process for the resuscitation of those apparently destroyed by cold. The following anecdote on this subject deserves attention.

* London Medical Gazette.

"A beggar arrived very late at night, and almost frozen to death, at a German village ; and observing the school-house open, he resolved to sleep there. The next morning, the school-boys found the poor man sitting motionless in the room, and hastened, affrighted, to inform the schoolmaster of what they had seen. The villagers, supposing the beggar to be dead, interred him in the evening. During the night, the watchman heard a knocking in the grave, accompanied by lamentations; he gave information to the bailiff of the village, who declined to listen to his tale. Soon afterwards the watchman returned to the grave, and again heard a hollow noise, interrupted by sighs. He once more hastened to the magistrate, earnestly soliciting him to cause the grave to be opened; but the latter, being irresolute, delayed this measure till the next morning; when he applied to the sheriff, who lived at a distance from the village, in order to obtain the necessary directions. He was, however, obliged to wait some time before an interview took place. The more judicious sheriff severely censured the magistrate for not having opened the grave on the information of the watchman, and desired him to return and cause it to be opened without delay. On his arrival the grave was immediately opened; but, just Heaven! what a sight! the poor wretched man, after having recovered life in the grave, had expired for want of air. In his anguish and desperation, he had torn the flesh from his arms. All the spectators were struck with horror at this dreadful scene."

Should the views of our German author relative to the influence of the earth-bath be correct, what a warning have we in the instance before us, to be doubly cautious in submitting the body to a process that may again reanimate its slumbering energies, only to consign it to the unimaginable terrors of a living tomb!

When, in our concluding remarks, we come to consider memory in its connexion with, and its dependence upon external sensation, the psychological application of trance will more fully appear.