Concerning Premature Burial
According to a case quoted by Tebb and Vollum in Premature Burial and How It May Be
Prevented (1905) the handling of plague victims during the 19th century did little to prevent the danger of premature burial:
"A solicitor, living in Gloucester, recently informed the
editor that, when first in practice, he had as caretaker
of his offices an old woman who, with her husaband, had
been in charge of the cholera wards, erected just outside the city, at the the time of the severe epidemic of 1849, when,
in Gloucester alone, there were 119 fatal cases.
She told him that as soon as the patients were dead they
put them
in shells and screwed them down, so as to get them out of
the way as quickly as possible, as the small sheds were so crowded. 'Sometimes,' she callously remarked, 'they come to afterwards, and we did hear 'em kicking in their coffins,
but we never unscrewed 'em 'cause we knew they'd got to die!'"
From Premature Burial and How It May Be
Prevented
by Tebb and Vollum (105).
