He says it might be assumed in a period during which a whole generation dies that the whole mass of putrefaction would cause infection. But in a half-dozen German cities very carefully investigated along this line it was found that those who lived in or near cemeteries were as long-lived as others and even those who drink water that is fed by drainage from well appointed graveyards are not infected; on the contrary, in several places this water is purer than elsewhere. There is only one exhumation in Germany for criminal purposes out of 600,000 corpses, but poison that might be detected by exhumation cannot, of course, be traced after cremation. Instead of the remorse, anxiety for friends, dread and pain, the author, who says he has seen “many, many hundreds of deaths,” never saw one that was not unconscious. There are often, perhaps even for days, physical signs of great suffering but this is never felt; and the author advocates special death rooms in hospitals because it is so hard for onlookers that it is inhuman to allow patients to die in a ward with only a screen in front of the bed. The review of life by drowning people is a myth. It is the duty of the doctor to mitigate closing pains by morphia and other means, provided these do not shorten but rather tend, as they should, to somewhat prolong life. Even in death by fire and torture the last stages are painless. The Kamerlengo strikes the Pope on the forehead three times with a silver hammer and calls his name and, if he does not answer, says, “The Pope is really dead.” This is because hearing is supposed to be the last sense to die. But often after death the muscles contract spontaneously, even enough to move the body and this has made survivors believe their friends were alive. The muscles respond to electrical stimuli for hours. The pupil of beheaded people contracts to light. In Charlotte Corday’s head the eyes opened. Dr. Rousseau saw a case in which the heart occasionally beat twenty-nine hours after decapitation. Generally death proceeds from the heart and its last beat marks the entrance of death. Respiration, too, or the last breath is often the mark of death because the carbon dioxide is not removed; hence we say life is in the blood. Everyone at times wonders not only when he will die but how. And it is hard to live so as to avoid pathological death.