You will now naturally conclude every instruction that can be possibly necessary, has been submitted to your consideration, for the promotion of your prosperous and profitable career through the medical journey of life; it is not so; for although we have gone through the usual forms of sickness, to either recovery or death, there is still one remark necessary, to the completion of consistency, in your professional character. It is a few observations, in derision of that truly contemptible burlesque upon propriety, in following the corps of your patient to the grave; a folly originating in _ignorance_, and established by _custom_; a circumstance so truly ridiculous and farcical, that it did not escape the penetration and sarcastic wit of our Aristophanes of the present century, who attacked it with the full force of his satire, in the description given by a taylor, in one of his celebrated comedies, who says, “as he was going home to a customer with a pair of breeches under his arm, he perceived his neighbour _Gargle_, the apothecary, following a _corps_ to the grave,—so says he, Master Gargle, I see you are going home with your _work too_.” The justice of this remark renders the circumstance so truly ridiculous, that it is a matter of admiration, how any man of the most common understanding can ever submit to an indignity so truly laughable. It certainly bears the appearance of your not being content with preying upon the property of the deceased, during their last hours of sublunary affliction, but you meanly pursue their very remains to the grave, and obtain a paltry hatband and gloves, at the expence of decency and discretion. Exclusive of this very striking obstacle, there is one of equal weight in the scale of your professional reputation—it certainly can add none to the eminence of your character, that the contents of the coffin was publickly known to be a subject of your skill and experimental practice. You will certainly experience some difficulty in evading a compliance with many requests, made to you for this purpose; but I would recommend it to you to encounter displeasure, rather than become the dupe of so great an absurdity. To inculcate by example, what I have strongly recommended in precept, you may be assured, that I have, during my long practice, retained so great an aversion to this inconsistency of character, that I rendered myself totally incapable of compliance, by never having in possession _a suit of mourning_; this resource has always proved my never failing friend, when no other apology would be accepted; and by never seeming to recollect _the want_ till a few hours before the _funeral_, a written apology has always proved a respectable substitute, to which there was no alternative.