A SUPPOSED TRANCE.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1749, 11 August 1874, Page 2

A SUPPOSED TRANCE.

REVOLTING EXHIBITION OF THE BODY.

In our local columns yesterday we mentioned the case of a young woman ' named Elizabeth Coleman, whose death was reported as having occured on Thursday last in Lower Collins-street, It.has, for some days past been rumoured that;' the girl was really in a st?to of trance, and feeling there might possibly become truth in the rumor, our reporler' yesterday paid a visit to the house of the girl. " This was shortly after niidday, and, to our reporter's groat'surprise, he found the street in front of the house fairly crowded with women and children, and it was net without the utmost effort ihiit h«^«fts enabled to make his way througK^iie crowd and reach the doorway. The house where the body of the girl lies is exceedingly mean in its outward appearance, and when, the interior was reached the same cold and uncomfortable aspect was. presents d. The first room, however, is a workshop, and when our reporter had been conducted through, it, he found himself in the chamber of the dead. Men, women, and children, of every size and of every age, were there, looking with strango curiosity on the supposed dead body, and, with a morbid feeling,.applying their own peculiar tests as to the'life or death of the girl. Some inquisitive women, instead of showing that regard for the dead which human nature in a Christianized country is apt to exhibit, almost wrangled over the remains ; and used their hands in a variety of ways as though the touch thereof was magical. The reporter was conducted to the bedside of the girl by her father; and certainly her appearance was not suggestive of the k.st mortal agony having passed. The features appeared calm and settled, the flesh giving no evidence to the touch of the rigidity of death, except by ' its icy coldness. The lips exhibitednbne of the livid symptoms usually noticeable in a corpse, but rather appeared to retain the life fluid, as when in health. When pressed downwards by the finger the nether hp was quite pliable, and returned " to its former position as soon as the touch was removed. The general appearance of the face was composed, and but .for the fact that her head was partially bound up, the girl would have certainly b«en, taken to be enjoying a quiet sleep after some muscular excitement. All the muscles were pliable, and in fact the skin of the face was almost natural color. There was, however, a slight discoloration of the flesh on the chest bone between the breasts, and that was the only- noticeable external sign of impending decomposition * From enquiries made of the girl's father, i it appears that .the first symptoms of life after her supposed decease' were manifested on Monday, when the body was being placed by Mr.' Clark in a coffin. Observing certain indications of what he thought was life, Mr. Clark acquainted the father, and the result was, that instead of carrying her remains to the cemetery, the girl "was taken out of the coffin and placed in bed. Several medical gentlemen were called in and they pronounced the girl to be dead, but subsequently her father applied some warm bricks to her feet. He alleges that in a very short time the lower limbs became quickened in a slight degree, and consequently he was prompted to forego all funeral arrangements until further enquiries were made. Dr. Cams was sent for, and opened veins in various parts of the body, and tho result showed no blood. The father, however, was still dissatisfied; and the same medical gentleman at fire o'clock yesterday applied the galvanic battery to the body, bufc ..without the slightest apparent restoration of animation, thereby confirming the opinion that after all the girl had expired from natural causes. Setting as.de the ghastly aspect of the case, and the morbid anxiety manifested by numbers of idle gossips, as well as by numerous parties of persons, whose pretensions to superior knowledge—or, at least, whose .affectation to ignore everything in the way of sensation—ought to have told them better, the whole surroundings of the mournful event were repulsive in the extreme. Hundreds of people were permitted access to the room. Children of tender age were allowed to approach the death chamber ; and, in fact, the chamber itself was degraded, unintentionally perhaps, into a theatrical scene. The parents were, undoubtedly, under the circumstances, i' us tified in retaining the body; but if a ittle more circumspection, as regards tho most sacred feelings of our nature, had been observed, the idle tongue of rumor would have been more quickly silenced. It was commonly reported that the girl ■' had taken poisoa, but the medicatavidence was wholly against the presumption* „ —Hobarton Mercury, June 10. - The Mercury of the following day (Thursday) adds :—'l Notwithstanding the experiments made by Dr. Cams on the supposed dead body of the girl E. Coleman, which were mentioned in our last issue, the house where she lies continued to be visited throughout yesterday by a large number of people, curious to. pee what th,ey seeded to have made up their minds to be a real case of trance. There were no fresh signs of decomposition visible in the early part of the day, but towards evening it became -patent that the body'- was decaying, and it if likely that the parents will not carry out their original intention of postponing the funeral until Friday. The oody was considerably swollen last night, and though the lips presented an appearance far from death-like, many of those who had believed in the theory that the girl was entranced admitted that vitality had departed from the body. Since the above was written, public curiosity in the strange.;. eas.o seems to have again revived. At ■.' nine o'clock hist night scores, of peophj were ftbout the bedside., and'm^ny conflicting opinions were expressed as to Her.

condition; but of course they were wholly unreliable. The sad spectacle has now; we regret to say, been reduced to a mere show, a woman being stationed at the entrance-door with.a plate in her hands, on which is placed a piece of paper with an inscription soliciting alms on behalf of father, ' who is out of employ.' Several small coins were_ collected in this way, and the result is that the excitement, instead of being allayed, is intensified. Such conduct on the part of the parents in making a theatre out of a death chamber is highly.reprehensible, and reflects considerable discredit on the public who encourage it."