A good assistant should know all that pertains to his business, not in superficial and light manner, but in thorough, complete fashion. He must be able to not only line a casket, but manufacture his own lining if necessary; to take charge of all the details of a funeral; assist physicians in a post mortem examination, if required so to do; or properly embalm a corpse. On the other hand, it must be conceded that such a man as I have described is a valuable one for an assistant, and ought to receive a generous remuneration, and also be made to feel that he is appreciated. CONCLUSION. My effort in this little volume has been to offer to my professional brethren the means employed by the most eminent chemists, both in this country and Europe, to preserve bodies, and the methods given are the best known to modern science. I have also tried to make them feel aware of the necessity of knowledge, and shall feel happy if by so doing I have helped to raise our profession to the standard it really deserves. UNDERTAKING. It may not be amiss at the commencement of this work, to say a few words about the profession of an undertaker, and undertakers as a class. Among the many who have chosen UNDERTAKING AS A PROFESSION, and carried on the business for years, there exists a certain class who, although pecuniarily successful, do not have a very clear idea of the requisite qualities indispensable to the general make up of a first-class professional. Others seem to ignore the multitudinous duties, the performance of which will bring either credit, or blame, to themselves, according to the degree of tact or skill exhibited in the discharge thereof. A great many have gone into the business simply because it is represented to them as a _money making_ profession; others, because their fathers being undertakers have thought proper to train them to it, although their mercantile ideas may run in another direction. And again, some without capital will try and battle against competition, merely to make a living; but above all, there is that class of men who, entirely ignorant of the rudimentary knowledge of the business, having means, and regardless of the qualifications necessary to insure success, plunge right into it with the idea that it is a safe investment for surplus funds, a genteel employment, and one which, according to their notions, does not require any extraordinary amount of brains or labor. Is it then a matter of astonishment if so many of our undertakers fail, or find themselves unable to cope with some more favored rival? To them it is a source of wonder, but to a discriminating public the cause is soon apparent.