Moisture added to the temperature relation will hasten the rapidity of the decomposition as can be noticed in those localities with a high temperature but moist climate that the decomposition takes place very quickly. In those climates with high temperature, but dry or absence of moisture, the tendency is to dry up the tissues, and instead of putrefaction we have mummification as the result. This last statement then serves to explain the reason for the high state of preservation in the forms of mummification as exists in those countries like Egypt with their extremely hot and dry climates. Exposure added to the temperature and the moisture relations adds greatly to the rapidity of the decomposition. A moist climate with a hot temperature and free exposure favors rapid decomposition. We notice that putrefaction progresses much more rapidly in the air than in the water and in the earth its progress is slower than in the water. The more exposed a body is then, to the elements, especially the air, the more rapid will be the decomposition. An elevated temperature and the presence of air and moisture hasten the advent and progress of putrefactive changes. Bodies dying in high fever and edematous subjects are much more quickly decomposed than those dying with the ordinary wasting away disease. The bodies of infants usually decompose more rapidly than those of adults, fat bodies more rapidly than lean ones. The infectious diseases, intemperance, and the puerperal condition promote rapid decomposition as also does death from suffocation. Poisoning from arsenic, alcohol, antimony, sulphuric acid, strychnine and chloroform may retard the progress of decay. It is impossible, then, to say how long a body will keep without the use of preservatives, as it depends partly upon temperature, partly upon moisture, partly upon the amount of exposure and partly upon the conditions existing in the body before death. We can easily understand the reason for all this if we understand the bacteriology relating to the subject.