of persons being buried alive is a very important one, and should arouse the interest of every intelligent person. Some method ought certainly to be devised that will prevent anyone being subjected to so horrible a fate.” IRELAND. The following extracts are from the report by Dr. J. E. Kenny, M.P., Coroner for the City of Dublin, received in January, 1894:-- [BURIAL CUSTOMS IN IRELAND.] “There are no local laws in Dublin or in Ireland relative to the mode of disposal of the dead, but the Sanitary Acts, which refer to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, can be availed of when necessary to compel the burial of the dead within a reasonable period, on the ground that an unburied body is a nuisance dangerous to public health. There is, however, no fixed period. Among Roman Catholics it is customary to bury the dead on the third or fourth day after death, but there is no hard-and-fast rule.... The local burial authorities usually require a medical certificate of death before opening the grave, but there is no legal sanction for this, and it is merely the custom. The coroner’s order for burial where an inquest is held does away with the necessity of such certificates as those above referred to, but _post-mortem_ examinations in these cases are the exception, not the rule. A good many, however, are held on those who die in local hospitals when the consent of the relatives or friends can be obtained. I have not heard of any case of cremation in Ireland, and earth-burial is the universal practice. Occasionally, when so ordered by the will of the deceased, a body is removed to England for cremation. I am myself rather in favour of cremation as a more scientific and safer method of disposing of the dead. “There are no chambers (mortuaries) of the kind referred to in this question in Dublin, nor, so far as I know, in Ireland. I know of no law as to the signs of death which must be recognised to exist before burial is permitted, nor is there any officer on whom is thrown the duty of ascertaining or deciding whether such exist or not. [REFORMS URGENTLY NEEDED.]