“In another case, that of my son, aged two years, after a series of brain symptoms and severe clonic convulsions preceding an outbreak of confluent small-pox, the stethoscope told me and a medical friend who was present that my little boy had ceased to exist; but a liberal application of ice to his head and cardiac region, together with violent friction and artificial respiration vigorously employed for _forty_ minutes, restored the child to me, and I thanked God that I had refused to accept the evidence of the stethoscope as final.” ELECTRICITY. The application of the electric current is a powerful restorative agent in cases of suspended animation, if judiciously applied. Struve in his essay, “Suspended Animation,” p. 151, under the head of “Apparent death from a fall,” says:--“A girl, three years of age, fell from a window two stories high upon the pavement. Though she was considered as lifeless, Mr. Squires, a natural philosopher, applied electricity. Almost twenty minutes elapsed before the shocks produced any effect. At last when some of the electric force pervaded the breast he observed a slight motion of the heart. The child soon after began to breathe and groan with great difficulty, and after some minutes a vomiting ensued. For a few days the patient remained in a state of stupefaction, but in the course of a week she was perfectly restored to health.” [THE ELECTRICAL TEST.] Referring to the subject of premature burial, Dr. W. S. Hedley, writing to the _Lancet_, October 5, 1895, says:--“Forty years ago the subject was investigated by Crimotel, twenty years later by Rosenthal, and more recently by Onimus. It seems safe to say that in no disease, certainly in none of those conditions usually enumerated as likely to be mistaken for death, is galvanic and faradaic excitability abolished in every muscle of the body. On the other hand, electro-muscular contractility disappears in all the muscles within a few hours after death (generally ninety minutes to three hours, according to Rosenthal), its persistence varying to some extent with the particular muscle examined (1), and with the mode of death (2). Therefore, if electro-muscular contractility be present in any muscle, it means life or death only a few hours before. It is clear that no interment or _post-mortem_ examination ought to take place so long as there is any flicker of electric excitability. To me it seems almost equally obvious that in all doubtful cases, sometimes in sudden death, and often to allay the anxiety of friends, this test ought to be applied, and applied by one who is accustomed to handle electric currents for purposes of diagnosis.”