PREFACE.

IT has afforded a frequent topic of observation, that a train of ideas, wholly remote from the general course of our studies or pursuits, sometimes seizes upon the mind, and continues in different periods of life, under various degrees of interest or effect, to excite our feelings and to occupy our reflections. Powerful impress→ ions of this kind have long possessed the Writer of the present Work, and they have at last been exhibited under a visible form in the discussion of a theme, which is wholly foreign to the familiar object of his daily meditations. On such an occasion, it may be necessary perhaps briefly to commemorate a few facts, which are connected with the compilation and appearance of the present Volume.

A period of twenty years has now almost elapsed,, since the materials of the work were collected-at a time

favourable

favourable for the purpose, when the writer enjoyed an opportunity of consulting the Medical Libraries in our Capital-a spot so abundant in the means of acquir ing and of exercising every species of human knowledge. These materials lay almost neglected, without addition or arrangement,during that period,till a strong impulse urged the Writer to place a new value on the conceptions, which he had formed on this subject, and to prepare his collections for the Public eye,with all the care and diligence, which such an impulse demanded.

The combination, which I have adopted in the title of my Work, the DISORDER OF DEATH, can startle only for a moment the most unfurnished and superficial of readers. All agree that Death, or a frame under the Signs of Death, may sometimes admit the benefit of Remedy, as the same frame may be delivered from any other Disorder, with which it is afflicted. All likewise. will acknowledge, who are accustomed to reason or to think, the propriety or expediency of a combination, which under a new and brief form may render familiar an important fact, remotely or imperfectly understood. The subject, which is discussed in this Volume,has often passed before the attention of the Public, in various Languages

Languages; and there is a well-known French work by Bruhier, published in the middle of the last century, on the Uncertainty of the Signs of Death,in which many examples are collected of persons, who have returned to Life, after a full exhibition of the Signs of Death.

The Works, which have been written on this subject, appear at various times to have excited violent alarms on the danger of Premature Interment; yet they seem never to have represented the matter under a just point of view; and it is certain, that they have never produced an important effect on the institutions of any country, in which these fears have been excited. The only change, which has ever been pretended to be effected, and which the writers on this subject appear ever to have projected, is the delay of Interment,and it will not be difficult to understand, that a more extraordinary device cannot well be imagined. This project does not consist in attempting to preserve the good, which these alarms suppose and proclaim,-the possibility of Life; but it is directed to intercept the existence of that good, by securing the opposite evil Death, or in other words, the alarms have not operated in endeavouring

vouring to cherish and revive latent Life, but to provide for its extinction, and to secure absolute and Putrefactive Death.

I have produced in the present Volume a few extraordinary Stories relating to the subject, which I discuss; yet I have purposely refrained from introducing any Narratives but those, which were absolutely necessary for the elucidation of my argument. A collection of these Narratives might supply the contents of another Volume, by detailing,among other matters, the history of those persons, who have retained their perceptions under the Signs of Death, or who have revived when these signs have been exhibited,sometimes before, but commonly after Interment. The warm genial Earth possesses, I believe, mighty virtues for assisting the Resuscitative process,and I grievously fear, that the examples of revival in the Grave are more fre, quent than the World,amidst all their alarms existing on Premature Interment,has yet ventured to conceive,

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Every one is enabled to form some judgment on this matter from the same species of evidence, which has considerably operated in impressing such an opinion on the Writer of these Enquiries. I may safely affirm,

that

that 1 scarcely ever communicated with any intelligent person on the subject, who has not been able to supply a Narrative applicable to the occasion, either by personal knowledge, or by connections more immediate or remote with the object of the Narrative,

If the curiosity of the Public should be excited into due attention from the appearance of this Work, another Volume might be published at some future period, of great interest and importance. It might contain a collection of these Stories, which should be derived from printed documents of authority, already extant, or from the private accounts of individuals, if they were communicated to the Author of this Work, or published for the common benefit of enquirers into this subject. The story of the German Lady, detailed in the follow ing pages, (201.) who was witness to the preparations for her own funeral, may be illustrated, I fear,by many Narratives of a similar kind; and I have already heard, that our own country can supply us with some portentous examples of a similar nature.

I have endeavoured, in the course of my enquiries, to explain the pretensions, by which a Writer,not enrolled