Gunnison Gazette | 1915-04-09 | Page 5 | Preventing Premature Burials

Preventing Premature Burials. The fear of being buried alive always al-ways has been, and is, so widespread that the French Academy of Science some years ago offered a prize equal to $7,500 for the discovery of some means by which even the inexperienced inexperi-enced might at once determine whether, wheth-er, in a given case, death had ensued or not. A physician obtained the prize. He had observed the following I well-known signs: If the hand of the suspected dead person is held towards la candle or other artificial light, with the fingers extended and one touching the other, and ono looks through the spaces between the fingers towards the light, there appears a scarlet red color where the fingers touch each other, due to the blood still circulating; circulat-ing; it shows itself through the tissues tis-sues wtiirh have not yet congested. When life is entirely extinct, the phenomenon phe-nomenon of scarlet spaces between the fingers at once ceases. The most extensive and thorough trials established estab-lished the truth of his observation.