MISCELLANEOUS.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 922, 3 February 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

Eighteen hundred pounds was offered by a gentleman in Cbristchu.tcb (says the " Wellington Post") for the receipts of Cagli and Pompci's Opera Company at Dunedin, and refused. One of the Auckland butchers announces his intention of soiling j,»ood joints of beef and mutton at 2d per Jh. After a lecture at Greytown, "VVe'llington, upon the Mutual Life Assurance, Mr Short, of the Mutual Provident Society, received ten applications amounting to £7200. —" Post." Referring to' the dangers of premature burial, Dr' Crichton, physician to tlie Grand Duke Nicholas, brother to tho Emperor of Russia, relates a fact from his own experience, which powerfully instances the narrow escape occasionally experienced by persons whose appearance resembles death. A young girl (says Dr Crichton) in the service of the Princess of , who had for some time kept her bed with a nervous affection, at length, to all appearances, was deprived of life. Her face had all the character of death,. her body was perfectly cold, and every other symptomsofdeathwas manifested. She was removed into another room and placed in a coffin. On the day fixed for her funeral, hymns according to the custom of the country were sung before the door, but at the very moment when they were going to nail down the coffin, a perspiration was seen upon her skin, and in a few minutes it was succeeded by a convulsive motion in the hands and feet. In a few moments she opened her eyes and uttered a piercing scream. The faculty were instantly called in, and in a space of a few days health was completely re-established. The account she gave of her situation was extremely curious. She said that she appeared to dream that she was dead, but that she was sensible to everything that was passing around her, and distinctly heard her friends bewailing her death ; she felt them envelope her in the shroud, and place her in the coffin. This sensation gave her extreme agony, and she attempted to speak, but her soul was unable to act upon her body. She describes her sensations as very contradictory —as if she was and was not in her body at one aud the same instant. She attempted in vain to move her arms, to open her eyes, or to speak. The agony of her mind was at its height when she heard the funeral hymn, and found that they were about to nail down the lid of the coffin. The horror of being buried alive gave a new impulse to her mind, which resumed its power over its corporal organization, aud produced the effects which excited the notice of those who were about to convey her to a premature grave.