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One Fear Laid To Rest

© Sharon K. West

In today's culture, one's fears might be of becoming a victim of a car jacking or not having enough money to live on during retirement. However, during the 19th century, one of the greatest fears was of being buried alive. Before medical science could measure brain waves and before the custom of embalming became popular, it was indeed possible to be considered dead prematurely and buried alive.

In small churchyards in England, the practice of digging up old coffins to reuse grave plots produced a startling discovery. Estimates range from about 2% to 1 in 50 coffins that had scratch marks on the inside, leading people to believe that the occupants had been buried alive.

How could this have happened? One problem at that time was that pewter cups and plates could contain too much lead. If a food or beverage had a high acid content, this would cause the lead to leach out from the pewter. Ingesting lead caused a lengthy, unconscious state that was often mistaken for death. Tomatoes' reputation with pewter plates most probably was one reason people stopped eating them, only they thought the tomatoes were poisonous rather than the lead.

Couple this with ignorance about comas and other medical problems, and it is no wonder people had a great fear of being buried alive. As a result, a great deal of care was given to determine if someone was actually dead.

The ceremony known as a "wake" allowed family and friends to sit with the deceased to give them time to wake up, while at the same time gave them time to properly grieve.

A reference was also found to something called a "waiting mortuary," which was started in 1791. This was a place where the deceased was kept for two weeks on zinc trenches filled with an antiseptic solution and surrounded by flowers. A system of cords and pulleys were connected to the deceased's fingers, toes, and head which caused bells to ring if there was any movement whatsoever.

Numerous patents were issued for coffin escape devices. One particular design has given us several phrases that are in common use today in the English language. A bell above ground was attached to a string which ran down into the coffin and was attached to the wrist of the deceased. Someone was hired to keep watch on the bell to quickly dig up the person if the bell rang. The "dead ringer" was "saved by the bell" by someone working the "graveyard shift."

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