Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/407

Rh Septuagenarians 170

Sexagenarians 384

By drowning. 1098

Fire-arms 450

Hanging or strangling 954

The greatest number of cases occurred in the month of May.

The following statistics relate to France, from 1833 to 1846, a period of thirteen years.

The whole number of cases of premature interment prevented by fortuitous circumstances, amounted to 94. Thirty-five awoke of themselves from their lethargy, when the funeral ceremony was about to take place; 13 recovered in consequence of the affectionate care of their families; 7 recovered in consequence of the fall of the coffin in which they were placed; 9 owed their recovery to wounds inflicted by the needle in sewing their winding-sheet; 5 to the sense of suffocation they experienced in their coffin; 19 to their interments having been delayed by fortuitous events; and 6 to their interment having been delayed in consequence of doubts entertained of their death.

These facts indicate that friends should be careful of assuming that persons are dead, without satisfactory evidence. It is much more difficult to determine when a person is really dead, than is generally supposed.

following determinations regarding the human brain were made by M. Bourgery, of Paris.

Mean weight of the encephalon, or whole brain. . 20,393.5 grs. Troy.

hemispheres, or brain proper. 16,940.46

cerebellum, or little brain. . 2,176.7

cephalic prolongation of the cerebro-spinal axis, viz.

Thalami optici and corpora striata .... 879.9

Medulla oblongata and pons varolii .... 432.3

Total 1,312.2

Mean weight of the spinal cord 710.1