In the last issue of the Chinese imperial maritime customs medical reports, Dr. A. Henry contributes some remarks upon cremation in that country. In only one of the many Buddhist temples at the town where Dr. Henry is stationed, are the bodies of the inmates burned after death. The method of incineration is commendable as efficient, æsthetic, and inexpensive; but it is too slow except for Buddhist priests in China. In the grounds of the temple is a small dome-like edifice, the interior of which communicates with the open air by a small door only—a charcoal kiln, in fact. The dead priest is placed in a sitting posture inside the dome, and charcoal and firewood are piled around him; fire is applied, and the door is shut until combustion is complete. Children are sometimes burned, but for superstitious reasons only. When several young children of a family have died in succession, the body of one of them is burned, under the belief that the ceremony will insure the survival of the next child born to the family. In these cases the body is simply brought to an open field in a box, and placed upon firewood, which is ignited. Although incineration is known in Corea, the most usual way of disposing of the dead is by inhumation. Mr. Carles, in an official report of a journey into the central provinces of Corea, says:— “At one village the remains of the body of an old woman who had been eaten by a tiger, were being burnt in a fire of brushwood lighted on the spot.” Cremation in America is not a novelty. When I began to investigate the subject of cremation among North American Indians, I was at first quite disappointed; and well I might have been, for Schoolcraft (History of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Vol. I, p. 38) asserts:— “The incineration of the bodies of the dead was not practiced on this continent, even in the tropics; and is a rite unknown to the tribes of the United States.” Although slightly disheartened, I continued my search for information, and was in consequence speedily rewarded. John McIntosh (The Origin of the North American Indians. New York, 1853. p. 164) states:— “The bodies of those who die in war are burned, and their ashes brought back to be laid in the burying-place of their fathers.” My studies in this direction, however, received the greatest impetus through Dr. H. C. Yarrow’s excellent “Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs among the North American Indians” (Washington Government Printing Office, 1880, pp. 49 to 59), which was kindly sent to me by the author, and from which I obtained much valuable information. Dr. H. C. Yarrow affirms that cremation was performed to a considerable extent among North American Indians, especially those living on the northern slope of the Rocky Mountains; but also (as indisputable evidence proves) among the more eastern ones. The Nishinams of California, the Tolkotins of Oregon, the Se-nél of California, and the Cocopa tribe on the Colorado River, practice cremation.