A correspondent in the _English Mechanic_, October 25, 1895, says:--“I have long advised hypodermic injection of morphia before placing in coffin for burial. _Ex hypothesi_, the vital spark is not supposed to have expired, and the circulatory system not finally stopped. Hence the hypodermic injection cannot be futile.” A medical correspondent writing from Dresden, August 18, 1895, sends me the following as showing the value of ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION. “Major J. H. Patzki, Surgeon, U.S. Army, reports that in 1882, at St. Augustine, Florida, a lady patient of his had an attack of tetanus, caused by a scratch upon her foot by a nail while bathing. The convulsive symptoms commenced in the muscles of the face, and increased in violence in spite of energetic treatment, until the fifth day, when the respiratory muscles became involved. The breathing was completely suspended by the spasmodic action, and the radial and carotid pulse ceased. The cardiac sounds became utterly inaudible to careful stethoscopic examination repeatedly employed. The lady assumed all the appearances of death, and there was _rigor mortis_, the result of muscular spasm. Artificial respiration was resorted to, but not until after the expiration of eighteen minutes did the first faint efforts of respiration, and a feeble action of the heart, become perceptible. Artificial respiration was continued for an hour afterwards, and the life of the patient was saved, although the muscular spasms continued to some extent for six days. “This case is instructive in showing that tetanus, when it involves the chest, may produce a state of apparent death, by interfering with the respiratory and cardiac functions; and that artificial respiration, if persistently employed, may rescue patients so affected from the perils of apparent death.” [DR. JOHN OSWALD’S OPINION.]