_Treatment._—When the body is placed in your care, the embalmer should make a careful and thoughtful survey of the condition of the body and the cause of death. Any inflammatory disease of the abdominal tissues or a full meal eaten shortly before death will almost always predispose to the formation of gas. The treatment would be to take proper care of the stomach contents. (a) Insert the trocar at a point two inches to the left of the median line, half the distance from the ensiform cartilage and the umbilicus. Direct the trocar downward and diagonally to the left to a depth of three to four inches. Remove the trocar rod and allow the gas to escape into a fluid bottle, containing a small amount of fluid, so that the gas may be deodorized. Before removing the trocar, inject not less than one pint of normal fluid into the stomach, so that the fermentable materials and the bacteria may be destroyed. (b) Make an incision in the median line of the body, three inches long, from the tip of the ensiform cartilage downward toward the umbilicus, and proceed as directed for the direct incision described on page 257. The treatment for gastric fermentation demands the specific treatment as directed above. No short treatments can be depended upon for certain results. Cotton placed in the mouth only delays the time for the purging to begin from the mouth. Gastric fermentation can be prevented in all cases by the use of the specific treatments as described in (a) and (b). If in your practice, you receive a body from a shipping undertaker, which unfortunately was not treated in the correct manner, and which is purging from the mouth, arrange to puncture the stomach in the manner described in treatment (a). This can be done without disturbing the position of the body in the casket, by opening the clothes above the stomach. After puncturing the stomach and allowing the gas to escape, inject not less than one pint of fluid therein, cleanse the mouth with absorbent cotton by the use of the lock forceps and a recurrence of the purge will not be possible. If in your practice you have overlooked the possibility of gastric fermentation, and find, either by advice from the family or from your own observation, that purging is going on, use either the treatment (a) or (b), neutralize the fermentable material, cleanse the mouth and no recurrence will be possible. =Intestinal Fermentation.=—Here we have the fermenting gases in the intestines and the colons. The pressure of the gases will bear upon the stomach and there may or may not be purging from the mouth depending upon the fact of presence or non presence of material in the stomach. The abdomen though will be greatly distended, and when palpated will give a drummy note.