Dr. Josat, in his treatise “De la mort et de ses caractères,” shows by numerous arguments and examples that, as there is an interval or condition provided by nature between disease and health known as _convalescence_, and the transition between the one and the other is preceded by a variety of phenomena known as a _crisis_, so there is an interval between the termination of a fatal malady and real death (erroneously described as the agony), the symptoms which denote intermediate or apparent death. But while the result of an error may be of little moment in the first case, it may in the other become disastrous, by abandoning the dying before absolute death. It is during this interval, between (so called) death agony and absolute death, which sometimes has been known to last a week, that the transfer to a suitable mortuary should be made. The following may be cited as typical illustrations of the utility of mortuaries in discovering the existence of life after apparent death. [AND CASES OF RESUSCITATION.] H. L. Kerthomas in “Dernières Considérations sur les Inhumations Précipitées,” Lille, 1852, p. 17, relates that-- “At a hospital in Liege two house-surgeons were at the ‘Salles des décades’ in pursuance of their anatomical studies, when hearing at one side of them a noise like stifled breathing great was their fear! Still they coolly finished their examination, and then discovered the supposed corpse moving convulsively amongst his dead companions; but, thanks to efficient help, he was completely restored to health.” (The above occurred in 1847.) M.B. Gaubert, in “Les Chambres Mortuaires d’Attente,” records the six following cases:--“On the 25th of January, 1849, the _Journal des Débats_ recorded a fact somewhat similar to that which lately disturbed the town of Perigueux:-- “‘MUNICH. “‘A young man who was asphyxiated by charcoal had been declared dead by the doctor. After they had been watching the body twenty-four hours at the mortuary chamber, the family caused it to be carried to the church, where it passed the night without the customary caretaker. The next morning “the corpse” was found bathed in its own blood, and the floor of the church was stained. Restored to consciousness during the night and not having any help, the poor young man had succumbed to hæmorrhage, brought on by the incisions which they blindly practised on the body of the supposed dead one to make sure of his death.’