the act of interring, i.e. burying or laying a deceased person in the ground.

Aristotle asserted, that it was more just to assist the dead than the living. Plato, in his Republic, does not forget, amongst other parts of justice, that which concerns the dead. Cicero establishes three kinds of justice; the first respects the gods, the second the manes or dead, and the third men. These principles seem to be drawn from nature; and they appear at least to be necessary for the support of society, since at all times civilized nations have taken care to bury their dead, and to pay their last respects to them. See Burial.

We find in history several traces of the respect which the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Syrians entertained for the dead. The Syrians embalmed their bodies with myrrh, aloes, honey, salt, wax, bitumen, and resinous gums; they dried them also with the smoke of the fir, and the pine tree. The Egyptians preserved theirs with the resin of the cedar, with aromatic spices, and with salt. These people often keep such mummies, or at least their effigies, in their houses, and at grand entertainments they were introduced, that by reciting the great actions of their ancestors they might be better excited to virtue. See Funeral Rites.

The Greeks, at first, had probably not the same veneration for the dead as the Egyptians. Empedocles, therefore, in the eighty-fourth Olympiad, restored to life Pontia, a woman of Agrigentum, who was about to be interred*. But this people, in proportion as they grew civilized, becoming more enlightened, perceived the necessity of establishing laws for the protection of the dead.

At Athens the law required that no person should be interred before the third day; and in the greater part of the cities of Greece a funeral did not take place till the fifth or seventh. When a man appeared to have breathed his last, his body was generally washed by his nearest relations, with warm water mixed with wine. They afterwards anointed it with oil; and covered it with a dress, commonly made of fine linen, according to the custom of the Egyptians. This dress was white at Messina, Athens, and in the greater part of the cities of Greece, where the dead body was crowned with flowers. At Sparta it was of a purple colour, and the body was surrounded with olive leaves. The body was afterwards laid upon a couch in the entry of the house, where it remained till the time of the funeral. At the magnificent obsequies with which Alexander honoured Hephestion, the body was not burned until the tenth day.

The Romans, in the infancy of their empire, paid as little attention to their dead as the Greeks had done. Acilius Aviola having fallen into a lethargic fit, was supposed to be dead; he was therefore carried to the funeral pile; the fire was lighted up; and though he cried out he was still alive, he perished for want of speedy assistance. The Praetor Lamia met with the same fate. Tubero, who had been Praetor, was saved from the funeral pile. Asclepiades a physician, who lived in the time of Pompey the Great, about one hundred and twenty years before the Christian era, returning from his country-house, observed near the walls of Rome a grand convoy and a crowd of people, who were in mourning afflicting at a funeral, and showing every exterior sign of the deepest grief. Having asked what was the occasion of this intercourse, no one made any reply. He therefore approached the pretended dead body; and imagining that he perceived signs of life in it, he ordered the bystanders to take away the flambeaux, to extinguish the fire, and to pull down the funeral pile. A kind of murmur on this arose. Interment rose throughout the whole company. Some said that they ought to believe the physician, while others turned both him and his profession into ridicule. The relations, however, yielded at length to the remonstrances of Aelephiades; they consented to defer the obsequies for a little; and the consequence was, the restoration of the pretended dead person to life. It appears that these examples, and several others of the like nature, induced the Romans to delay funerals longer, and to enact laws to prevent precipitate interments.

At Rome, after allowing a sufficient time for mourning, the nearest relation generally closed the eyes of the deceased; and the body was bathed with warm water, either to render it fitter for being anointed with oil, or to reanimate the principle of life, which might remain suspended without manifesting itself. Proofs were afterwards made, to discover whether the person was really dead, which were often repeated during the time that the body remained exposed; for there were persons appointed to visit the dead, and to prove their situation. On the second day, after the body had been washed a second time, it was anointed with oil and balm. Luxury increased to such a pitch in the choice of foreign perfumes for this purpose, that under the consulship of Licinius Crassus and Julius Caesar, the senate forbade any perfumes to be used except such as were the production of Italy. On the third day the body was clothed according to its dignity and condition. The robe called the praetexta was put upon magistrates, and a purple robe upon consuls; for conquerors, who had merited triumphal honours, this robe was of gold tissue. For other Romans it was white, and black for the lower classes of the people. These dresses were often prepared at a distance, by the mothers and wives of persons still in life. On the fourth day the body was placed on a couch, and exposed in the vestibule of the house, with the visage turned towards the entrance, and the feet near the door; in this situation it remained till the end of the week. Near the couch were lighted wax tapers, a small box in which perfumes were burnt, and a vessel full of water for purification, with which those who approached the body besprinkled themselves. An old man, belonging to those who furnished every thing necessary for funerals, sat near the deceased, with some domestics clothed in black. On the eighth day the funeral rites were performed; but to prevent the body from corrupting before that time, salt, wax, the resinous gum of the cedar, myrrh, honey, balm, gypsum, lime, asphalt, or bitumen of Judea, and several other substances, were employed. The body was carried to the pile with the face uncovered, unless wounds or the nature of the disease had rendered it loathsome and disgusting. In such a case a cloak was used, made of a kind of platter; which has given rise to the expression of funera larvata, used in some of the ancient authors. This was the last method of concealment which Nero made use of, after having caused Germanicus to be poisoned: for the effect of the poison had become very sensible by livid spots and the blackness of the body; but a shower of rain happening to fall, it washed the plaster entirely away, and thus the horrid crime of fratricide was discovered.

The Turks have, at all times, been accustomed to wash the bodies of their dead before interment; and interment, as their ablutions are complete, and no part of the body escapes the attention of those who assist at such melancholy ceremonies, they can easily perceive whether one be really dead or alive, by examining, among other methods of proof, whether the fibres and has lost its power of contraction. If this muscle remains still contracted, they warm the body, and endeavour to recall it to life; otherwise, after having washed it with water and soap, they wipe it with linen cloths, wash it again with rose-water and aromatic substances, cover it with a rich dress, put upon its head a cap ornamented with flowers, and extend it upon a carpet placed in the vestibule or hall at the entrance of the house.

In the primitive church the dead were washed and then anointed; the body was wrapped up in linen, or clothed in a dress of more or less value according to circumstances, and it was not interred until after being exposed and kept some days in the house. The custom of clothing the dead is preserved in France only for princes and ecclesiastics.

In other countries, more or less care is taken to prevent sudden interments. At Geneva, there are people appointed to inspect all dead bodies. Their duty consists in examining whether the person be really dead, and whether one died naturally or by violence. In the north, as well as at Genoa, it is usual not to bury the dead till three days have expired. In Holland, people carry their precautions much farther, and delay the funerals longer. And in England bodies generally remain unburied three or four days.

Premature Interment. Notwithstanding the customs above recited; still, in many places, and on many occasions in all places, too much precipitation attends this last office; or if not precipitation, a neglect of due precautions in regard to the body. In general, indeed, the most improper treatment that can be imagined is adopted, and many a person made to descend into the grave before he has sighed his last breath. The histories related by Hildanus, by Camerarius, by Horstius, by Macrobius in his Somnium Scipionis, by Plato in his Republic, by Valerius Maximus, and by a great many modern authors, leave us no doubt respecting the dangers or misconduct of such precipitation. It must appear astonishing that the attention of mankind has been after all so little roused by an idea the most terrible that can be conceived on this side of eternity. If nature recoils from the idea of death, with what horror must the start at the thought of death anticipated, precipitated by inattention—a return of life in darkness, distraction, and despair—then death repeated under agonies unspeakable! To revive nailed up in a coffin! The brain can scarce sustain the reflection in our coolest safest moments.

According to present usage, as soon as the semblance of death appears; the chamber of the sick is deserted by friends, relatives, and physicians; and the apparently dead, though frequently living, body, is committed to the management of an ignorant and unfeeling nurse, whose care extends no farther than laying the limbs straight, and feeding her accustomed perquisites. The bed-cloths are immediately removed, and the body is exposed to the air. This, when cold, multt must extinguish any spark of life that may remain, and which, by a different treatment, might have been kindled into flame; or it may only continue to repress it, and the unhappy person afterwards revive amidst the horrors of the tomb.

The difference between the end of a weak life and the commencement of death, is so small, and the uncertainty of the signs of the latter is so well established both by ancient and modern authors who have turned their attention to that important object, that we can scarcely suppose undertakers capable of distinguishing an apparent from a real death. Animals which sleep during winter show no signs of life; in this case, circulation is only suspended; but were it annihilated, the vital spirit does not so easily lose its action as the other fluids of the body; and the principle of life, which long survives the appearance of death, may re-animate a body in which the action of all the organs seems to be at an end. But how difficult is it to determine whether this principle may not be revived? It has been found impossible to recall to life some animals suffocated by mephitic vapours, tho' they appeared less affected than others who have revived. Coldness, heaviness of the body, a leaden livid colour, with a yellowness in the visage, are all very uncertain signs: Mr Zimmerman observed them all upon the body of a criminal, who fainted through the dread of that punishment which he had merited. He was shaken, dragged about, and turned in the same manner as dead bodies are, without the least signs of resistance; and yet at the end of 24 hours he was recalled to life by means of volatile alkali.

A Director of the coach-office at Dijon, named Colinet, was supposed to be dead, and the news of this event was spread throughout the whole city. One of his friends, who was desirous of seeing him at the moment when he was about to be buried, having looked at him for a considerable time, thought he perceived some remains of sensibility in the muscles of the face. He therefore made an attempt to bring him to life by spirituous liquors, in which he succeeded; and this director enjoyed afterwards for a long time that life which he owed to his friend. This remarkable circumstance was much like those of Empedocles and Asclepiades. These instances would perhaps be more frequent, were men of skill and abilities called in cases of sudden death, in which people of ordinary knowledge are often deceived by false appearances.

A man may fall into a syncope, and may remain in that condition three or even eight days. People in this situation have been known to come to life when deposited among the dead. A boy belonging to the hospital at Caen appeared to have breathed his last: he was carried into the hall where the dead were exposed, and was wrapped up in a piece of canvas. Some time after, recovering from his lethargy, he recollected the place in which he had been deposited, and crawling towards the door knocked against it with his foot. This noise was luckily heard by the sentinel, who soon perceiving the motion of the canvas called for assistance. The youth was immediately conveyed to a warm bed, and soon perfectly recovered. Had his body been confined by close bandages or ligatures, he would not have been able, in all probability, to make himself heard: his unavailing efforts would have made him again fall into a syncope, and he would have been thus interred buried alive.

We must not be astonished that the servants of an hospital should take a syncope for a real death, since even the most enlightened people have fallen into errors of the same kind. Dr John Schmid relates, that a young girl, seven years of age, after being afflicted for some weeks with a violent cough, was all of a sudden freed from this troublesome malady, and appeared to be in perfect health. But some days after, while playing with her companions, this child fell down in an instant as if struck by lightning. A death-like pallor was diffused over her face and arms; she had no apparent pulse, her temples were sunk, and she showed no signs of sensation when shaken or pinched. A physician, who was called, and who believed her to be dead, in compliance with the repeated and pressing request of her parents, attempted, though without any hopes, to recall her to life; and at length, after several vain efforts, he made the foals of her feet be smartly rubbed with a brush dipped in strong pickle. At the end of three quarters of an hour she was observed to sigh; she was then made to swallow some spirituous liquor; and she was soon after restored to life, much to the joy of her disconsolate parents.—A certain man having undertaken a journey, in order to see his brother, on his arrival at his house found him dead. This news affected him so much, that it brought on a most dreadful syncope, and he himself was supposed to be in the like situation. After the usual means had been employed to recall him to life, it was agreed that his body should be dissected, to discover the cause of so sudden a death; but the supposed dead person overhearing this proposal, opened his eyes, started up, and immediately betook himself to his heels.—Cardinal Spinola, prime minister to Philip II., was not so fortunate; for we read in the Memoirs of Amelot de la Houfai, that he put his hand to the knife with which he was opened in order to be embalmed. In short, almost every one knows that Vesalius, the father of anatomy, having been sent for to open a woman subject to hysterics, who was supposed to be dead, he perceived, on making the first incision, by her motion and cries, that she was still alive; that this circumstance rendered him so odious, that he was obliged to fly; and that he was so much affected by it, that he died soon after.—On this occasion, we cannot forbear to add an event more recent, but no less melancholy. The Abbé Prevost, so well known by his writings and the singularities of his life, was seized with a fit of the apoplexy, in the forest of Chantilly, on the 23d of October 1763. His body was carried to the nearest village, and the officers of justice were proceeding to open it, when a cry which he sent forth affrightened all the assistants, and convinced the surgeon that the Abbé was not dead; but it was too late to save him, as he had already received the mortal wound.

Even in old age, when life seems to have been gradually drawing to a close, the appearances of death are often fallacious. A lady in Cornwall, more than 80 years of age, who had been a considerable time declining, took to her bed, and in a few days seemingly expired in the morning. As she had often desired not to be buried till she had been two days dead, her request was to have been regularly complied with by her relations. All that saw her looked upon her as dead, and the report was current through the whole place; nay, a gentleman of the town actually wrote to his friend in the island of Scilly that she was deceased. But one of those who were paying the last kind office of humanity to her remains, perceived some warmth about the middle of the back; and acquainting her friends with it, they applied a mirror to her mouth; but, after repeated trials, could not observe it in the least strained; her under jaw was likewise fallen, as the common phrase is; and, in short, she had every appearance of a dead person. All this time she had not been stripped or dressed; but the windows were opened, as is usual in the chambers of the deceased. In the evening the heat seemed to increase, and at length she was perceived to breathe.

In short, not only the ordinary signs are very uncertain, but we may lay the same of the stiffness of the limbs, which may be convulsive; of the dilation of the pupil of the eye, which may proceed from the same cause; of putrefaction, which may equally attack some parts of a living body; and of several others. Haller, convinced of the uncertainty of all these signs, proposes a new one, which he considers as infallible. "If the person (says he) be still in life, the mouth will immediately shut of itself, because the contraction of the muscles of the jaw will awaken their irritability." The jaw, however, may be deprived of its irritability though a man may not be dead. Life is preserved a long time in the passage of the intestines. The sign pointed out by Dr. Fothergill appears to deserve more attention. "If the air blown into the mouth (says this physician) passes freely through all the alimentary channel, it affords a strong presumption that the irritability of the internal sphincters is destroyed, and consequently that life is at an end." These signs, which deserve to be confirmed by new experiments, are doubtless not known to undertakers.

The difficulty of distinguishing a person apparently dead from one who is really so, has, in all countries where bodies have been interred too precipitately, rendered it necessary for the law to assist humanity. Of several regulations made on this subject, we shall quote only a few of the most recent; such as those of Arras in 1772; of Mantua in 1774; of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1775; of the Seneschal of Sivrai, in Poitou, in 1777; and of the Parliament of Metz in the same year. To give an idea of the rest, it will be sufficient to relate only that of Tuscany. By this edict, the Grand Duke forbids the precipitate interment of persons who die suddenly. He orders the Magistrates of Health to be informed, that physicians and surgeons may examine the body; that they may use every endeavour to recall it to life, if possible, or to discover the cause of its death; and that they shall make a report of their procedure to a certain tribunal. On this occasion, the Magistrate of Health orders the dead not to be covered until the moment they are about to be buried, except so far as decency requires; observing always that the body be not closely confined, and that nothing may compress the jugular veins and the carotid arteries. He forbids people to be interred according to the ancient method; and requires that the arms and the hands should be left extended, and that they should not be folded or placed cross-wise upon the breast. He forbids, above all, to press the jaws one against the other; or to fill the mouth and nostrils with cotton, or other stuffing. Lastly, he recommends not to cover the visage with any kind of cloth until the body is deposited in its coffin.

We shall conclude this article by subjoining, from Dr. Hawes's Address to the Public on his subject, a few of the cases in which this fallacious appearance of death is most likely to happen, together with the respective modes of treatment which he recommends.

In apoplectic and fainting fits, and in those arising from any violent agitation of mind, and also when opium or spirituous liquors have been taken in too great a quantity, there is reason to believe that the appearance of death has been frequently mistaken for the reality. In these cases, the means recommended by the Humane Society for the Recovery of Drowned Persons should be persevered in for several hours, and bleeding, which in similar circumstances has sometimes proved pernicious, should be used with great caution. (See the article DROWNING.) In the two latter instances it will be highly expedient, with a view of counteracting the soporific effects of opium and spirits, to convey into the stomach, by a proper tube, a solution of tartar emetic, and by various other means to excite vomiting.

From the number of children carried off by convulsions, and the certainty arising from undoubted facts, that some who have in appearance died from that cause have been recovered; there is the greatest reason for concluding, that many, in consequence of this disease, have been prematurely numbered among the dead; and that the fond parent, by neglecting the means of recalling life, has often been the guiltless executioner of her own offspring. To prevent the commission of such dreadful mistakes, no child, whose life has been apparently extinguished by convulsions, should be consigned to the grave till the means of recovery above recommended in apoplexies, &c. have been tried; and, if possible, under the direction of some skilful practitioner of medicine, who may vary them as circumstances shall require.

When fevers arise in weak habits, or when the cure of them has been principally attempted by means of depletion, the consequent debility is often very great, and the patient sometimes sinks into a state which bears so close an affinity to that of death, that there is reason to suspect it has too often deceived the bystanders, and induced them to send for the undertaker when they should have had recourse to the succours of medicine. In such cases, volatiles, eau de luce for example, should be applied to the nose, rubbed on the temples, and sprinkled often about the bed; hot flannels, moistened with a strong solution of camphorated spirit, may likewise be applied over the breast, and renewed every quarter of an hour; and as soon as the patient is able to swallow, a tea-spoonful of the strongest cordial should be given every five minutes.

The same methods may also be used with propriety in the small-pox when the pustules fink, and death apparently ensues; and likewise in any other acute difficulties, when the vital functions are suspended from a similar cause.