John Galt’s The Steam Boat, is a collection of stories related to traveller Thomas Duffle on a steamboat trips from Glasgow to Greenock, Helensburgh and various other places. Buried Alive is a story narrated by "a young man with a white face and a slender habit of body" and is a strange tale of death and burial. Buried Alive was first printed in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1821. Galt tells the story from the victim’s point of view.
In the tale, the pale young man recalls "… I heard the
sound of weeping at my pillow - and the voice of the nurse say, "He is
dead." I cannot describe what I
felt at these words. I exerted my utmost
power of volition to stir myself, but I could not move even an eyelid. After a short pause my friend drew near; and,
sobbing and convulsed with grief, drew his hand over my face, and closed my
eyes. The world was then darkened, but I
could still hear, and feel, and suffer."
The narrator then goes on to recall his misuse by the undertakers who "treated what they believed a corpse, with the most appalling ribaldry." Next comes the horrific tale of funeral and burial. The earth is thrown on his coffin - he can hear the sound but can do nothing about it. He thinks about how his flesh will rot and decay, buried in the earth -
"In the contemplation of this hideous thought, I heard
a low and undersound in the earth over me, and I fancied that the worms and the
reptiles of death were coming - that the mole and the rat of the grave would
soon be upon me. The sound continued to
grow louder and nearer."
This story could have been taken from an event which was widely publicised in various newspapers and periodicals in January 1819. It was the ghoulish report on the death of Baron Hornstein who was said to have been buried alive in the family mausoleum. The report reads: -
“Extraordinary Occurrence – Extract of a letter from Bavaria - We have witnessed here a superb funeral of the Baron Hornstein, a courtier; but the result is what induces me to mention it in my letter. Two days after the workmen entered the Mausoleum, when they witnessed an object which petrified them! At the door of a sepulchre lay a body covered with blood – it was the mortal remains of this favourite of Courts and Princes. The Baron was buried alive! On recovering from his trance he had forced the lid of the coffin and endeavoured to escape from the charnel-house – it was impossible! And therefore, in a fit of desperation, it it is supposed, he dashed his brains out against the wall. The Royal Family, and indeed the whole city, are plunged in grief at the horrid catastrophe.” (January 1819).
But the pale young man has more to relate, there are a couple of surprises for the reader. After being buried he suddenly feels hands about his neck, and he is dragged from his coffin and his body thrown into a carriage. He has been taken by the body-snatchers or resurrection men!
He is carried into a room, stripped of his shroud and placed on a table. He is now in an anatomy theatre where galvanic experiments are to be made on his body - "The first shock vibrated through all my nerves; they rung and jangled like the strings of a harp."
Once again, John Galt was reimagining dramatic reports which had appeared in many publications describing actual events of 1818. In November 1818, Matthew Clydesdale was tried for murder in Glasgow. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, after which his body to be handed over to Dr James Jeffrey, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow to be publicly dissected and anatomised. The hanging took place in public in front of the Jail, attended by a large crowd. After Clydesdale’s body had been left hanging for an hour, it was placed in a coffin and then taken by cart the University where the experiments were to be carried out - again in front of a large crowd. Dr James Jeffrey (1763-1848) conducted the experiments assisted by Dr Andrew Ure.
Describing one of the “galvanic experiments” Dr Ure wrote - "The pointed rod connected with one end of the battery was not placed in contact with the spinal marrow, while the other rod was applied to the sciatic nerve. Every muscle of the body was immediately agitated with convulsive movements, resembling a violent shuddering from cold. The left side was most powerfully convulsed at each renewal of the electric contact. On moving the second rod from the hip to the heel, the knee being previously bent, the leg was thrown out with such violence, as nearly to overturn one of the assistants, who in vain attempted to prevent its extension."
More experiments followed including - "The supra-orbital nerve was laid bare in the forehead, as it issues through the supra-ciliary foramen, in the eyebrow: the one conducting rod being applied to it, and the other to the heel, most extraordinary grimaces were exhibited every time that the electric discharges were made, … every muscle in his countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action; rage, horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous expressions in the murderer's face, surpassing far the wildest representations of a Fuseli or a Kean. At this period several of the spectators were forced to leave the apartment from terror or sickness, and one gentleman fainted." Dr Jeffrey eventually cut Clydesdale’s jugular vein thus ending the galvanic experiments.
Similarly, "the pale young man" tells his fascinated audience - “When they had satisfied themselves with the galvanic phenomena, the demonstrator took the knife, and pierced me on the bosom with the point. I felt a dreadful crackling, as it were, throughout my whole frame – a convulsive shuddering instantly followed, and a shriek of horror rose from all present.”
So, how did the victim of being buried alive and horrific experiments survive to tell his tale? Well, John Galt's story Buried Alive is available to read online - why not read the whole fascinating account!
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| Dr Andrew Ure |
Andrew Ure (1778-1857) had been an army surgeon and became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow's Andersonian Institution. He had an interest in all aspects of science - chemistry, mechanics, astronomy and was a regular contributor to the Philosophical Magazine owned and edited by John Galt's father-in-law, Alexander Tilloch.
Read more from The Steam Boat by John Galt here.
