“The effect of constantly breathing an atmosphere containing an excess of carbonic acid is not perfectly known. Dr. Angus Smith has attempted to determine the effect of carbonic acid _per se_—the influence of organic matter of respiration being eliminated. He found that three volumes per thousand caused great feebleness of the circulation, with diminished rapidity of the heart’s action; the respirations were, on the contrary, quickened, and were sometimes gasping. These effects were lessened when the amount of carbonic acid was smaller; but were perceptible when the amount was as low as one volume per thousand.” According to Haberman, sensitive and nervous persons have been taken ill when walking by a cemetery. P. Frazer, Jr., says: “A sexton and the son of a lady who died seven days before went down into the vault. Both were affected with sickness and nausea; one was affected for some years; the son had ulceration of the throat for two years.” Mr. William Eassie affirms that, “according to a report of the French Academy of Medicine, the putrid emanations of Père la Chaise, Montmartre, and Montparnasse have caused frightful diseases of the throat and lungs, to which numbers of both sexes fall victims every year. Thus a dreadful throat disease which baffles the skill of our most experienced medical men, and which carries off its victims in a few hours, is traced to the absorption of vitiated air into the windpipe, and has been observed to rage with the greatest violence in those quarters situated nearest to cemeteries.” The most common diseases produced by graveyard gases are diphtheria, throat and pulmonary affections, severe diarrhœa, and dysentery. The number of cases reported is enormous. Many cases have been made public by Drs. Parkes and Tardieu. Ramazzini (Maladies des Artisans, p. 71) asserts that sextons, whose business often compels them to enter places where there are putrefying bodies, are subject to malignant fevers, asphyxia, and suffocating catarrhs. Fourcroy affirms that there are innumerable examples of the pernicious effects of cadaveric exhalations. It has been stated that the carbonic acid generated by the decaying bodies is taken up by the plants, shrubbery, and trees abounding in cemeteries and their neighborhood. That excellent and well-edited newspaper _Iron_ declares: “The consumption of vegetables whose roots had been nourished by the defunct members of a family would hardly be enjoyed by the survivors, unless, indeed, they possessed the philosophic mind and robust appetite of the French gentleman who declared that, with a certain sauce, ‘_on mangerait bien son père_.’” I do not believe that very much carbonic acid is absorbed by the botanical burial-ground decorations; certainly not enough to prevent its toxic action and the vitiation of the air. Many a time was premature exhumation followed by fatal consequences.