Granted that our profession is one fraught with dangers, it becomes incumbent upon professionals to protect themselves against them by all the means that knowledge, experience and science may suggest. One great mistake, and one which has been repeated too often, is the false security some may place in the use of strong liquors to combat and render void the deadly effects of contagion. This has been a stumbling block to many; and without incurring the accusation of being a fanatic in regard to temperance, we may safely assert that a great many of our professionals have fallen victims to the effects of alcohol, which, being used at first as a sort of medical preventive, soon assumes full sway over the mind, and baffles their best efforts to resist it. If we are to look anywhere for a preventive of contagion and infection, we must look to the directions and remedies which medical science holds in store; and also to the undisputable fact, that in the caution used and the care exercised in handling bodies, assisted by a discriminate judgment, lies our best pledge of safety. As it has been remarked before, the different modes of preserving and embalming bodies given in this book are not mere speculations as to probabilities, nor are they simply mere recipes picked up at random; but they are the results of long practice and successful experiments, which have demonstrated, in a most satisfactory manner, that the advantages claimed for these same processes are well founded and worthy of credit. The long chapter on chemistry and physiology is, therefore, not only essential to the full understanding of the methods given, but it is also intended as a proof of the judicious selection of the chemicals that are employed in the operation of embalming, as also of the system upon which this operation is based. It must not be supposed that all the known modes of embalming and preserving bodies are to be found in this book, nor was it ever intended to have it so; only those that are known to be reliable, and which have been found to give entire satisfaction, have been elucidated. There are other methods, which are also said to be good; but, until they are found by actual and practical experiment to be worthy the merits claimed for them, they shall not be made public. However, should they prove to be equal, if not superior, in one way or another, to the methods herein illustrated, we will bring them out in the course of time to the notice of the profession. UNDERTAKERS AND THEIR ASSISTANTS. Among the many things important to undertakers to bear in mind is the discretion that must necessarily be employed in the choice of their help and assistants. To a great number this caution will seem trivial and perhaps superfluous; but we hope those who may think so will change their opinion after reading attentively the following.