“A young daughter of a Bania was sick for a long time, and was found apparently dead by her relatives, and carried to the _Samashân_. These grounds are generally situated at a river side. When the bier was prepared for certain ceremonies, the girl showed signs of revival, and, one by one, the relatives would go near the bier, bend down, stare at the face, and retire aghast. Information had reached the town that the girl had survived; but the body, nevertheless, was cremated, and never brought back to the house. It is believed that in this case, although the girl had revived for a little time, she had died soon afterwards, as she had been ill for a long time previously. Granting that it was a case in which the dying became actively conscious a few minutes before real death, it is certain that great and indecent haste was practised by the relatives in pressing on the cremation, as is the usual mode in India.” The _Bombay Guardian_, January 11, 1896, under the head of “The Week’s News,” announced that-- “A Brahmin went to Poona to attend the National Congress. He was laid up with fever, became dangerously ill, and fell into a trance. His friends, thinking him dead, made the necessary arrangements for the funeral. They took the supposed dead man to the river to be burned, but, just as the funeral procession arrived near the Shane temple, his head and hands were seen moving. The cloth having been removed from his face, he opened his eyes and tried to speak. He was taken home.” This case was reported also in the _Times of India_. The subject of hasty and premature burials in India might with much profit be introduced at the National Congress. The author believes that thousands of people are annually buried and burned in a state of suspended animation--particularly in places where cholera, small-pox, and other devastating plagues prevail. It is usual, both amongst the Parsees and the Hindus, to begin preparations for the religious ceremonies when the case is considered hopeless. Dr. Roger S. Chew, of Calcutta, who for some years occupied the position of army surgeon in India, writes to me:--“Though there is every risk of live interment with those classes who bury their dead, this is a risk (save in cases of epidemic or battlefield) the British soldier never runs in India, where the military law requires that a _post-mortem_ examination, not earlier than twelve hours after decease, must be held on every soldier who dies from any cause except a highly contagious or infectious disease.” In the present unsatisfactory state of the law might not this safeguard be generally adopted? THE TOWERS OF SILENCE, BOMBAY.