The Parisian newspapers did not mention the case. They were probably forbidden by the French Government to do so. But would it not have been wiser to let the whole world know of it, and thereby prevent repetitions of such dreadful occurrences? A similar case of live sepulture occurred in a village near Wiesbaden some thirty years ago, where a girl of sixteen was found with the same signs of suffocation in her coffin as those of that unfortunate young man in Paris. We are assured by a German authority that thousands of people are buried alive every year. But why should this be the case? If people must be buried before they begin to show signs of putrefaction (which seems to be the only reliable proof that life is really extinct), why not shorten their sufferings, in case of resuscitation, by opening an artery before they are buried? There is still much prejudice against the cremation of dead bodies, although two great facts are decidedly in its favour--viz., the impossibility of recovering consciousness when once inserted in the crematory oven, and the prevention of the unhealthiness which the slow process of putrefaction must entail.--Yours, etc., “J. H. BONAWITZ. “London.” Professor Alexander Wilder, M.D., in his “Perils of Premature Burial,” 1895, p. 16, says:--“I have often wished that the old Oriental practice of cremation was in fashion among us. There would then be at least the comfortable reflection of no liability to suffocation in a coffin. The application of fire, however, will generally rouse the cataleptic person to some manifestation of life.” [CREMATION SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.] Having regard to the importance of the subject the author wrote to the hon. secretary of the Cremation Society of England, and received the following reply, dated 8 New Cavendish Street, London, W.:-- “With reference to your inquiry as to the steps adopted to prevent a person in a trance being cremated, I may say that this society has not made any special provision in that respect. You will notice, however, that before a cremation can be carried out, the cause of death must be certified without the slightest shadow of doubt by two duly qualified medical men. This being so, I think there is less likelihood of a person who is simply in a trance being cremated than buried, one doctor’s certificate being sufficient in the latter case. “(Signed) T. C. SWINBURNE-HANHAM.” In the present state of medical knowledge on an occult subject not usually taught in the medical schools, and regarding phenomena as to which a large number of medical men are sceptical, to say the least, we fail to see how the fact of death, in the absence of putrefaction, can be certified “beyond the slightest shadow of doubt.” Many of the cases cited in this volume are those regarding which the examining medical practitioners have been most sure. The Rev. John Page Hopps, in _Light_, July 4, 1896, says:--