That the people have a right to protection by the State against preventable sources of danger, all civilised nations have acknowledged, by the making of laws that guard their citizens from the invasion of diseases of domestic or foreign origin, as well as many other perils. But the German-speaking countries have gone further than any other in this humane direction _by recognising apparent death as a special peril to be guarded against by law_, in order to prevent living burials. For this purpose they have established mortuaries connected with cemeteries, in which the apparently dead are placed, under the observation of physicians and attendants. Here the bodies are placed upon tables, dressed in their ordinary clothes, amidst light, warmth, and ventilation, surrounded by plants and floral tributes. Thus they are kept from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, unless decomposition sets in earlier, or the death was due to an infectious disease. Further delay is allowed on application by the attending physician, or by some member of the family interested. Cords connected with an alarm bell are attached to the fingers, under the conviction that the least movement of the body would arouse the attendant in an adjoining room. No doubt these mortuaries have saved a certain number from being buried alive; but the system can be improved by extending the observation until such time as death is certain, for experience shows that no stated limit of time can apply to all cases of trance and catalepsy, which are the chief causes of apparent death. Some of these continue for a week, and cases of even longer duration are not unknown. It often happens that returning vital activity consists merely in scarcely perceptible movements of the eyelids or the mouth, a change of the complexion, slight moisture on the face, or a faint action of the heart, or a warmth in that region, or feeble thoracic movements--all of which might escape observation until the allotted time had expired, and no contrivance, however delicately adjusted, could announce their presence. Time alone will test the existence of life or death in such cases. The extensive literature on this subject shows that the struggle to bring about the existing mortuary system in Germany was kept up for many years before it obtained its measure of success. It was legalised about the year 1795, after the physicians of Germany, France, and Austria had shown the absolute necessity for it.