1794. Folio, pp. [8]; with woodcut ornament on title-page; lightly soiled, with old accession number in upper margin, and faint signs of signature at tail though seemingly bleached out, otherwise clean and fresh; uncut, unbound and unstitched as issued. The fear of being buried alive is arguably one of humanity’s greatest anxieties, with terrifying accounts of wrongful burial recorded throughout the centuries. Towards the end of the 18th century, however, a corpus of literature emerged on the resuscitation of the apparent dead, ‘a matter of particular importance at the end of a century in which the fear of being buried alive was an overriding concern’ (Lesky, The Vienna Medical School of the 19th century, p. 88). ‘Special lectures on the subject had been instituted in Prague since 1779 and a rescue society as well as a special rescue house had existed there since 1797’ (ibid).
The present Royal decree issued by the Prussian Health authorities in Berlin provides instructions for rural village preachers in particular, so that they, in turn, could instruct members of their congregation about the signs of actual death, ‘so that no living person is buried’. In the absence of city physicians, certification of the dead was the duty of the clergy. Eight signs of death are listed, ranging from the lack of a pulse and not breathing to being ice cold, with advice then given on how to determine these (for example placing a flame in front of the nose of mouth to check for signs of breathe). Other suggestions include tickling the throat with a feather, burning a feather or ammonia under the nose, or placing a burning candle in front of the eyes to check for eye movement, and in the case of apparently stillborn children, vigorous rubbing and blowing air into the lungs. Other techniques such as blood-letting, galvanic impulses, the application of cold and hot compresses to the heart, and the use of tobacco smoke are also mentioned. It suggests that too, no deceased person, even if signs of death are observed, should be laid out naked in a cold room, but should be left clothed in moderately warm air, for at least one or two days in summer, spring and autumn, and three to four days in winter. The instructions also describes the signs of putrifaction, the various conditions that might lead to death, and provides advice on how best to store corpses whilst awaiting burial in different seasons.
Footnotes at the end reveal that the authorities have drawn upon Hufeland’s work of 1791, Über die Ungewißbeit des Todes as well as Mayer’s treatise Abhandlung von den zeichen des wirtlich ersolgren todes und von der zur verhütung des lebendig-begrabens notingen vorsicht bey behandlung der leichen, published in Berlin in the same year. This dealt in particular with the setting up of temporary mortuary tents and coffin design for use in rural areas, and for those areas too far from the public mortuaries recently built in cities such as Weimar, Brauschweig and Berlin.