In the church of a village near Nantes, France, the remains of an aristocrat were buried in 1774. By accident some of the other graves were opened, among them one which contained the corpse of a man who had been buried three months before. An unbearable odor immediately filled the church. Many persons who had attended at this burial were taken sick; fifteen died in a short time, the first to depart being the grave-digger who had opened the graves. Vicq d’Azyr states that an epidemic was produced in Auvergne, by the opening of an old graveyard. Norman Chevers (European Soldiers in India, p. 404) refers to the unhealthiness of the continent at Sukkur, India. Fevers of the most malignant type were abounding, owing to an ancient Mussulman burial-ground on which the station was placed. Tardieu, the eminent French physician and scientist, relates (Dict. d’Hygiene, p. 517) that the excavation of an old cemetery of a convent in Paris caused illness in the occupants of the adjacent dwellings. Tardieu (Ibid., p. 463) compiled a very considerable number of cases, not only of asphyxia, but of several febrile affections produced by exhumation and disturbance of bodies. Bascom relates that when the parish church in Minchinhampton, England, was rebuilding in 1843, the black earth of the cemetery surrounding it, or what was superfluous, was disposed of for manure, being spread upon adjoining fields. The earth was removed to change the grade of the churchyard. The result was that an epidemic broke out in the neighborhood. Children on their way to school took it. Seventeen deaths occurred, and more than 200 children had measles, scarlet fever, and various eruptions. It seems, however, as though the above figures are not quite correct, for Mr. Eassie, who has lately made personal inquiries upon the spot, insists that the mischief which resulted has been even understated, and that the population was nearly decimated.