Dr. Hartmann sends me the following, for which I gladly make room:
It is a fact universally recognized by the medical profession, that in all cases where no vital organ is destroyed, there is no certain sign that a person is dead, except the beginning of an advanced state of putrefaction, and that whenever this does not take place even the best physician, coroner, juryman, or undertaker can truthfully only say that a person appears to be dead; but not that he is actually dead. We all know, however, that in thousands of instances it is not found to be convenient to wait for the appearance of these signs of putrefaction before a such apparently dead body is hurried into the grave, especially in countries where no public “chambers for the dead” exist. For this reason cases of premature burial and a return to consciousness in the coffin are of far more frequent occurrence than is usually supposed or than the majority of people are willing to admit. Thus in Austria only a few months ago, a young woman having been buried, and owing to some gossip arising exhumed a few days afterwards, was found to have awakened in the coffin, given birth to a child and died a second time. At Salzburg, in this vicinity, not very long ago, the wife of a prominent merchant was buried with her jewellery. The following night the undertaker’s servant opened the grave secretly for the purpose of robbing the body, and as he unscrewed the coffin lid the woman sat up; he ran away, and the lady crawling out of the grave walked back in the midst of the night to her residence, where she rang the bell and returned to her family in her shroud and wreaths, causing no little consternation. Of course such instances of burying alive are seldom discovered, owing to the nature of the case; but carefully made researches give the number of people buried alive as being two per cent of all burials, while some authorities estimate the number much higher.
Owing to these considerations steps have been taken by one of the foremost medical authorities of the United States, Col. E. P. Vollum, Med. Dept. U.S. Army, ret., well known for having introduced many reforms on medical, hygienic and sanitary lines in America, for the purpose of introducing certain legal enactments in the United States regarding the disposal of the (apparently) dead, and he is collecting the respective legal enactments existing in the various European countries.
Now, my cooperation has been asked for the purpose of writing a book on this subject, a task which I have nearly finished, giving therein also the occult views of the nature of life and death; but I am desirous of quoting therein well authenticated instances of cases of premature burial and vivisection, such as have occurred in modern times, there being abundant material of that kind which has already been published. I frequently meet with people who know of such cases, which goes to show that they are not of rare occurrence, and I would therefore ask those of your readers, to whom such cases are known, to inform me of them.
Friendly papers are asked to aid in this movement.
Franz Hartmann, M.D.[1]
Address: Hallein (Austria).
Dr. Hartmann’s book—which is to be entitled, Buried Alive—ought to be one of great interest, and I ask the readers of Lucifer to give him, as far as they can, the assistance he asks for.
Note:
[1] Correspondence to the Editor, Lucifer magazine, by Franz Hartmann, regarding “premature burial.” Lucifer 14, no. 81 (May 1894), 271. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}