Dr. J. B. Vigné, in his “Memoire sur les Inhumations Précipitées,” Paris, 1839, narrates the following:-- “Mr. B., an inhabitant of Poitiers, fell suddenly into a state resembling death; every means for bringing him back to life were used without interruption; from continued dragging, his two little fingers were dislocated, and the soles of his feet were burnt; but, all these having produced no sensation in him, he was thought decidedly dead. As they were on the point of placing him in his coffin, some one recommended that he should be bled in both arms and feet at the same time, which was immediately done, and with such success that, to the astonishment of all, he recovered from his apparent state of death. When he had entirely recovered his senses, he declared that he had heard every word that had been said, and that his only fear was that he would be buried alive.”
Hufeland (one of the greatest authorities on the subject in Germany), in his essay upon the uncertainty of the signs of death, tells of a case of the wife of Professor Camerer, of Tübingen, who was hysterical, and had a fright in the sixth month of her pregnancy, which brought on convulsions (eclampsia), which continued for four hours, when she seemed to die completely. Two celebrated physicians, besides three others of less note, regarded the case as ended in death, as all the recognised signs of death were present. However, attempts to revive her were at once resorted to, and were continued for five hours, when all the medical attendants, except one, gave the case up, and left. The physician who remained pulled off a blister-plaster that had been put on one of the feet, when the lady gave feeble signs of life by twitchings about the mouth. The doctor then renewed his efforts to revive her, by various stimulating means, and by burning, and by pricking the spine; but all in vain, for after her slight evidences of revival, she seemed to die unmistakably. She lay in a state of apparent death for six days, but there was a small space over the heart where a little warmth could be detected by the hand, and on this account the burial was put off. On the seventh day she opened her eyes, and slowly revived, but was completely unconscious of all that had happened. She then gave birth to a dead child, and soon thereafter recovered her health completely.