That the risk of premature burial is not an imaginary one, as recently declared by a leading London medical journal, has been shown by the citation in this volume of cases of death-like trance which have baffled the ablest of medical experts; also the instances of numerous narrow escapes from this terrible occurrence, and of others where the victims were suffocated before timely aid could be obtained, most of which are drawn from medical sources, and some from the columns of the said sceptical journal. The painful reality is also shown by the multitude of preventive measures suggested by medical authorities, and by the ingenious contrivances of those who have made this distressing subject one of patient and laborious research. Several of the remedies suggested for adoption in cataleptic cases are really homicidal, or seriously mutilative; many of them are impracticable, and have been shown by Hufeland, Lénormand, Richardson, Hartmann, Bouchut, Fletcher, and Gannal to be delusive. The merits and demerits of some of these methods might be inquired into by the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee, or a Royal Commission, as a supplement to that appointed in 1893, by Mr. Asquith, on Death-Certification. CUTANEOUS EXCITATION. Dr. James Curry, F.R.S., in his “Observations on Apparent Death,” pp. 56, 57, says, concerning the application of stimulants to the skin:-- “To assist in rousing the activity of the vital principle, it has been customary to apply various stimulating matters to different parts of the body. But, as some of these applications are in themselves positively hurtful, and the others serviceable only according to the time and manner of their employment, it will be proper to consider them particularly. “The application of all such matters in cases of apparent death is founded upon the supposition that the skin still retains sensibility enough to be affected by them. It is well known, however, that even during life the skin loses sensibility in proportion as it is deprived of heat, and does not recover it again until the natural degree of warmth be restored. Previous to the restoration of heat, therefore, to a drowned body, all stimulating applications are useless, and, so far as they interfere with the other measures, are also prejudicial.”