Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 40
? 40 ‘Cases have undoubtedly presented themselves in which persons labouring under concussion, syncope, cat- alepsy, hysteria, or lifelessness from exhaustion have been pronounced dead by by-standers merely because there happened to be inanimation, coldness of the surface, and no outward signs of respiration or circulation. If the decision of the question of life or death was always left to such persons and internments were to follow in a few hours upon their dictation, there is no doubt living bodies would be exposed to the risk of premature burial. But this can rarely happen in any civilized country of Europe and then only as the result of gross or culpable neglect. ’ (p. 18) The Editor says (p. 246): ‘…The circumstances on which we may rely as furnish- ing conclusive evidence are the following: (1) The absence of circulation and respiration for at least an hour, the stethoscope being always employed; (2) the gradual cooling of the body, the trunk remaining warm while members are cold; and (3) as the body cools the supervention of a rigid state of the muscles successively attacking the limbs and trunk, and ultimately spreading through the whole muscular system. When these condi- tions are observed the proof of death is conclusive. ’ Applying these principles to the instances of reviv- ification above mentioned, if they had happened at the present day, should we have any hesitation in saying that the Shunamite lad was unconscious from sunstroke; that Eutychus was stunned by his fall; that the daughter of Jairus was suffering from exhaustion from her illness? It