Before the 'heart beat' was discovered, these people took weird measures to keep a body from being buried alive
I found this piece of info rather interesting. It shows how far man has come in the area of medicine.
Long time before heart beat was discovered, there were cases of people being buried alive because there was no way to identify the difference between paralysis or coma and being dead.
During Cholera epidemics in the Victorian times (18th and 19th century Europe), victims of cholera often fell into a coma and were buried soon after death to prevent germs from spreading.
So they invented safety coffins with the most popular type being escape vault where each grave door was built as a hatch that could be opened from the inside.
Another type of safety coffin was equipped with elaborate bell mechanisms to flag systems so that the trapped person can send signal from the underworld.
They also invented a waiting mortuary where the dead were laid out inside halls and monitored day and night for signs of revival, or until the decomposition of a body.
But after the discovery of the heartbeat as a clear sign of life or death, the fear of being prematurely buried diminished.
Photos:bizarrepedia
*Knowledge is power and ignorance is a disease. It reminds of what God said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." To think many people would have lost their lives at this period because nobody knew what a heart beat was.
Don't mind me. I'm just musing.
Do you know how much evil one would have averted if only he knew something as simple and yet very powerful as the Word of God? *Still musing*
Long time before heart beat was discovered, there were cases of people being buried alive because there was no way to identify the difference between paralysis or coma and being dead.
During Cholera epidemics in the Victorian times (18th and 19th century Europe), victims of cholera often fell into a coma and were buried soon after death to prevent germs from spreading.
So they invented safety coffins with the most popular type being escape vault where each grave door was built as a hatch that could be opened from the inside.
Bell and flag mechanism |
Another type of safety coffin was equipped with elaborate bell mechanisms to flag systems so that the trapped person can send signal from the underworld.
They also invented a waiting mortuary where the dead were laid out inside halls and monitored day and night for signs of revival, or until the decomposition of a body.
Waiting mortuary |
But after the discovery of the heartbeat as a clear sign of life or death, the fear of being prematurely buried diminished.
Photos:bizarrepedia
*Knowledge is power and ignorance is a disease. It reminds of what God said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." To think many people would have lost their lives at this period because nobody knew what a heart beat was.
Don't mind me. I'm just musing.
Do you know how much evil one would have averted if only he knew something as simple and yet very powerful as the Word of God? *Still musing*
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