Dr. Léonce Lénormand, in his admirable work “Des Inhumations Précipitées,” p. 140, accuses the _médecins des morts_ in France with culpable carelessness in the exercise of their function, which consists in verifying the reality of the death. Instead of making a minute examination of the body to ascertain the fact of death, this writer says they are content (except in cases of death from violence) to merely glance at the body, and immediately to hand the family the necessary authorisation for interment. The inspector knows that if he examined every part of the body, as in duty bound, he would be accused of barbarism and profanation. Those, therefore, who think that premature burial could be prevented in England by means only of a more stringent law of compulsory death-certification, would, if it were carried, find themselves in hardly any better position than at present, where the fact of death is left to a great extent to the judgment of friends, if the deceased has any, or to the perfunctory inspection of the undertaker. It is in France where probably, in spite of _médecins verificateurs_, more premature burials occur than in any country in Europe except Turkey, immediate burial after real or apparent death being the inexorable rule. Dr. Lénormand attributes the frequency of premature burials in France, first of all, to the negligence and prejudices of the families of the deceased; then to the carelessness of the doctors charged by the State with the inspection of the dead; and lastly, to the imperfection of the police regulations. From the _British Medical Journal_, January 28, 1893, p. 204. (Special Correspondence, Paris.) “PREMATURE BURIAL.