Cases of premature coffining may be extremely numerous or extremely rare. It is a purely speculative question. There is, however, little doubt that where a supposed dead body is left to the tender mercies of funeral scavengers, few of these men would scruple to coffin the same, though still animate, if the chance of discovery were remote. And the chance of discovery would be remote--indeed, it might be quite absent in nine out of ten such cases. Obviously, the most perfect way to prevent premature coffining would be for the relatives or friends of the deceased to retain possession of the body until definite indications of decomposition or putrefaction were present. In many cases, the eight days allowed under ordinary circumstances by the new Bill would enable interested persons to secure evidence of this character. An advantage which England has over France lies in the fact that in this country hasty burial has never been enforced. The climate here certainly lends itself to a comparatively tardy process of decomposition. In tropical countries, when a man dies his body is buried or otherwise disposed of a few hours after death. In France, unless special permission is obtained from the local authorities (which involves having the body embalmed), it is usual to carry out burial within forty-eight hours from the time of death. This applies to the North of France, Normandy and Brittany, where hasty burial is in no sense climatically necessary. But there are many other things associated with French regulations regarding the dead which would not find much support in this country. The grave lease, for instance, which merely secures _temporary burial_, is one. A person dies and a grave is leased for five years. At the end of the five years, the body may be exhumed, and, for want of a better purpose, it is removed to a factory where the residue of the decomposed flesh is boiled off, or steamed off, and a skeleton is the result. The skeleton is afterwards sold to the anatomical specimen dealer. As a regular traffic, the whole scheme is odious and would not appeal to the legislators of this country. Another French institution for the disposal of the dead is the “funeral pomp monopoly.” A _concessionnaire_ obtains the right to bury all the dead in a certain district, with the result that there is no competition and no choice of undertakers or methods left to the person who is responsible for the burial of a friend or relative. In Havre, in Rouen, in Paris, these monopolies exist. One finds them in the smaller towns, too, where the old peasant in the street feels distinctly uncomfortable, on beholding the very men who will certainly pack him in his coffin the moment he dies!