SINGULAR INSTANCES OF TRANCE. THE TRANCE STATE; Or SUSPENDED ANIMATION.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 72, 18 October 1884, Page 5

SINGULAR INSTANCES OF TRANCE. THE TRANCE STATE ; Or SUSPENDED ANIMATION.

" The mysteries connected with the trance and othor forms of apparent death are a phenomenon that cannot fail to appeal to wonder-loving minds. Occasionally a case of|[premature burial sends a thrill of horror through the community; but the lesson that it teaches, that less haste should be manifested in committing deceased persons to their silent homes, does not soem to have been heeded, and under the present oustom the body is hardly cold ere the undertaker is called to perform his sad office. We lately heard a physician say that in a course of medical lectures an eminent professor enjoinod most earnestly and solemnly upon his students that they should never presumo to decide positively that any porson is dead till that infallible evidence, mortification, appeared. Cases are occasionally recorded by physicans whero persons have been restored to conscioiisness by the probing of the anatomical knife, and who recovered thoir health and lived for years thereafter. One medical writer, Bruhier, in a disserta- ; tion upon the uncertainty of tho signs of death and the danger of procipitato burials, has collected one hundred and eighty cases in which persons still living wei-e treated as dead. Fifty-two of theso were actually buried alive, four wore opened before doath, fifty -three revived spontaneously after boing placed in their coffins, and seventy-two were supposed to have died when they roally had not. One of the most remarkable experiences of trance on record, and which has passed into history as perfectly authentic, is the case of the Rev. William Torment, who was pastor oi the Presbyterian Ghurch at Freehold, New Jersey, where he died a hundred years ago. We learn from the ' Memoirs of his Life,' that after a regular course of study in theology Mr Tennent was preparing for his examination by the Presbytery as a candidate for the Gospel ministry. His intense application affected his health, and brought on a pain in his breast and a slight hectic. He soon becamo emaciated, and at length was like a living skeleton. His life was now threatened. He was attended by a physician, a young man who was attached to him by the strictist and warmest friendship. He grew worse and worse, till little hope of life was left. In this situation his spirits failed him, and he began to entertain doubts of his final happiness. He was conversing one morning with his brother in Latin, on tho state of his soul, wh^n he fainted and died away. After tho usualu 5 ual time he was laid out on a board, according to the common practice of the country, and the neighbourhood were invited to attend his funeral on the next day, In the evening his physician and friend returned from a ride into the country, and was afllicted beyond measure at the news of his death. He could not be persuaded that it was certain ; and, on being told that one of tho persons who hod assisted in laying out the body thought he had observed a little tremour of tho flesh under the arm, although the body was cold and stiff, he endeavoured ! to ascertain the fact. He first put his own I hand into warm water to make it as sensiblo as possible, and then felt under the arm and at the heart, and affirmed that he felt an unusual warmth, though no one else could. He had the body restored to a warm bed, and insisted that the people who had been invited to the funeral should be i*equested not to attend. To this the brother objected as absurd, the eyes being sunk, the lips discoloured, and the whole body cold and stiff, j However, the doctor finally prevailed, and all probable means were used to discover symptoms of returning life. But tho third day arrived, and no hopes were intertained of success but by the doctor, who never left him night nor day. The people were again invited, and assembled to attend the funeral. The doctor still objected, and at last confined his request for delay to one hour, then to half an hour, and finally to a quarter of an hour. He had discovered that the tongue was much swollen, and threatened to crack. He was endeavouring to soften it by some emollient ointment put upon it with a feather, when the brother came in about the expiration of the last period, and mistaking what the doctor was doing for an attempt to feed him,manifcsted some resentment, and said, in a spirited tone : 'It is shameful to be feeding a lifeless corpse ; ' and insisted with earnestness thafc the funeral should immediitely proceed. At this critical and important moment the body, to the great alarm and astonishment of all present, opened its eyes, gave a dreadful groan, and sank again into apparent death. Mr Tennent continued in so weak a state for six weeks that great doubts were entertained of his final recovery. However, after that period he recovered much faster ; but it was about twelve months before he was completely restored. A man is alive in Boston to-day who was supposed to be dead when on board a ship returning home, and preparations were made for his burial in the deep. He knew everything that was going on around him, but could make no sign of life. The preparations went on, and he was actually lowered over the side of the ship, when he felt that he must make tho last desperate effort to bring the mind to act in the body, and he succeeded in lifting his hand. This motion arrested attention, he was taken into the ship again, and was restored to health. Marvellous is the fact of this knowledge of outward things, when the mind seems locked up, and not a single sense reports the news of the outward world ! "—"" — " Phrenological Journal," New York.