Another trick which the police have to guard against is the simulation of death by suicide. This is a very ancient imposture. Captain Bacon, in his "First Impressions in Hindustan," describes how he saw a corpse bearing three wounds on the chest and many marks of violence brought to a magistrate's house, with the idea of fixing an accusation of murder on a certain man. The magistrate, having his doubts, was about to examine the body, when he was implored by those who carried it not to pollute it by touch before the rites of sepulture had been performed. He did no more, therefore, than thrust the sharp end of his billiard cue once or twice into the side with such force that the point of the cue penetrated between the ribs. Upon this the muscles of the supposed corpse quivered, and there was a barely perceptible movement of the head. The natives around were now told that life could not be yet extinct, but they persisted in declaring that the man had been dead since cock-crow. Whereupon, a kettle of hot water was produced and a small stream poured upon the foot of the corpse, which there and then jumped up from the litter and ran away at full speed! The same test was applied by a young officer when the body of a native, who was supposed to have been murdered by sepoys, was brought to his tent. There was no more evidence than the existence of the corpse, but the officer was at breakfast, and had the kettle handy. At the first touch of the scalding fluid "the murdered remains" started up and scampered away. Boiling water, by the way, is no doubt a generally satisfactory test of whether life is actually extinct. But there is a better, as practised by a French doctor in a Lyons hospital. He applied the flame of a candle for some seconds to one digit of the hand or foot. A vesicle formed, as it will invariably; if this vesicle contains serous fluid, there is life; if vapour only, death has certainly supervened.