Dr. Roger S. Chew, of Calcutta, in reply to the author’s inquiries while in India in the early part of the year (1896) says: “There are hundreds of instances on record where from some cause, as syncope, shock, chloroform, hysteria, or other condition not clearly understood, the powers of life assumed a static condition in which oxidation was completely arrested, carbonification was held in abeyance, and nitrification maintained at positive rest, with the consequence that the vital functions have passed into a condition of hibernation or apparent death so closely simulating real or absolute death as to render differential diagnosis an almost impossibility, and to lead to the interment or cremation while yet alive of a body apparently dead.” Dr. Franz Hartmann, of Hallein, Austria, whose book, “Buried Alive,” is now being translated into French, has collected seven hundred cases of premature burial and narrow escapes, several of which have occurred in his own neighbourhood, and is of opinion that the actual danger to every member of the human family is of serious proportions, and that the subject should not be trifled with. He is a strong advocate for cremation as offering the easiest practical method of prevention. It will have been noticed that whenever the subject of premature burial has been introduced in an influential journal published in England, the United States, or the Continent, one contribution follows another in quick succession, by persons furnishing particulars of cases of trance, catalepsy, and of narrow escapes from living burial. The Paris _Figaro_ opened its columns two years ago for this subject, and in fifteen days received four hundred letters from all parts of France. When we consider that nearly all the reported cases of resuscitation have come about spontaneously and independently of human intervention, it becomes evident, owing to our ignorance and apathy, that cases of premature burial are far from infrequent, and our church-yards and cemeteries, like those examined by Dr. Thouret in Paris, are probably the silent witnesses of unnumbered unspeakable tragedies. Immediate legislation is called for to remedy a national evil, and to remove the feeling of disquietude which extensively prevails. CHAPTER XVII. EMBALMING AND DISSECTIONS. AN intelligent and observing correspondent writes to the author that “under the prevailing custom of embalming in vogue in the United States, it is almost impossible to have a living burial, as the injection of the fluids used in the operation would prevent revival and make death certain. Of course, the class denominated ‘poor folks,’ who cannot afford this security, have to take their chances with the mysteries of trance and other forms of apparent death, as well as with ignorance, indifference, and unseemly haste, that seem to encompass a man at a time when he is in need of the most considerate care.”