Premature Burial: How It May Be Prevented

Long out of print, this book was written to reassure the many nineteenth-century people who were apparently worried (to death?) about being buried alive. Indeed, one of the authors himself had a narrow escape, as his collaborator writes: 'Dr. Vollum first became interested in the important question of Premature Burial in consequence of his own very narrow escape from live sepulture, having been pronounced dead from drowning, and prepared for interment, when consciousness happily returned spontaneously.' This edited version of the book extracts the most frightening stories of narrow escapes and living burials from a mass of historical material. Its contents list includes: Animal and So-called Human Hibernation, Narrow Escapes from Premature Burial, Premature Burial of Doubtful Cases, Death-Counterfeits, The Danger of Hasty Burials, Sudden Death, Embalming and Dissections and Count Karnice-Karnicki's Invention.