There is an excited but happy father and mother in Pittsgrove, N. J., and a wondering child and a number of astonished neighbors, says the New York Advertiser. The parents are happy because their baby was given back to them apparently from the dead. Nobody is wondering its mother clasps it to her breast and cries over it half a dozen times a day, and the neighbors are astonished to think that a doctor and experienced nurse should lay the child out for burial when it was alive. The case is a remarkable one of suspended animation. To all appearances the child died, and then, after being unconscious nearly twelve hours, it came back to life. The child belongs to Louis Erdner. Early Tuesday morning it was taken sick and a physician was summoned. The doctor treated the little one, but after a time pronounced it dead. The body was laid on a cot and covered with a sheet. The mother then sent word to her husband, who was at work a couple of miles from home. On his way to the house in the evening Erdner stopped at the office of Undertaker Evans and engaged him to care for the body. The father selected the coffin and made all the arrangements for the funeral. About two hours later the undertaker with and ice box, arrived at the house. Instead of finding a grief-stricken family the undertaker found and excited by joyful one. Shortly after the return of the father the child, which had previously been cold, showed signs of life and again became warm. The doctor was summoned in haste, and he with but little effort restored the child. It was weak and pale all night, but yesterday it seemed to recover all of its health and was crawling about the rooms as though nothing unusual had happened.
Mr Erdner and his child have no presence on the web. It’s interesting that in the 19th century, it appears that people did not assign gender to babies until they were at least toddlers.
I wonder what caused the child to fail, then thrive?