A distressing experience in the writer’s family many years ago brought home to his mind the danger of premature burial, and led ultimately to the careful study of a gruesome subject to which he has a strong natural repugnance. His collaborator in the volume has himself passed through a state of profound suspended animation from drowning, having been laid out for dead—an experience which has induced him in like manner to investigate the various death-counterfeits. The results of the independent inquiries carried on by both of us in various parts of Europe and America, and by one of us during a sojourn in India in the early part of this year, are now laid before the reader, with such practical suggestions as it is hoped may prepare the way for bringing about certain needed reforms in our burial customs.

The danger, as I have attempted to show, is very real—to ourselves, to those most dear to us, and to the community in general; and it should be a subject of very anxious concern how this danger may be minimised or altogether prevented. The duty of taking the most effective precautions to this end is one that naturally falls to the Legislature, especially under a Government professing to regard social questions as of paramount importance. Fortunately, this is a non-party and a non-contentious question, it imperils no interest, so that no formal obstruction or unnecessary delay need be apprehended; and it should be urged upon the Government to introduce and carry an effective measure at the earliest opportunity, not only as a security against the possibility of so terrible an evil, but to quiet the widespread and not altogether unreasonable apprehension on this subject which is now so prevalent.

It has been found convenient to retain throughout the body of the work the use of the singular pronoun, but every part of the book receives the cordial approval of both authors, and with this explanation we accept its responsibility jointly.

We have to acknowledge our great indebtedness in preparing this volume to many previous writers, including such as have investigated the phenomena of suspended animation and the signs of death, and such as, with a more practical intention, have dwelt upon the danger of death-counterfeits being mistaken for the absolute extinction of life, illustrating their counsels or warnings by numerous instances. Grouping both classes of writers together, we may mention specially the names of Winslow and Bruhier, Hufeland, Struve, Marcus Herz and KÖppen, Kite, Curry, and Anthony Fothergill; and, of more recent date, the names of Bouchut, Londe, LÉnormand, and Gaubert (on mortuaries), Russell Fletcher, Franz Hartmann, and Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson.

A work to which we are particularly indebted for the literature of the subject is that of the late Dr. FÉlix Gannal, “Mort Apparente et Mort RÉelle: moyens de les distinguer.” Paris, 1890. Dr. Gannal, having qualified in medicine and pharmacy, occupied himself with the business of embalming, which he inherited from his father. He employed the considerable leisure which the practice of that art left to him in compiling the above laborious work. He examined many books, pamphlets, theses, and articles, from which he cited expressions of opinion on the several points—in a lengthy form in his original edition (1868), in a condensed form in the second edition. His Bibliography is by far the most comprehensive that has been hitherto compiled. Our own Bibliography had been put together from various sources before we made use of Dr. Gannal’s. It includes several titles which he does not give; while, on the other hand, it has been considerably extended beyond its original limits by transcribing titles which we have found nowhere but in his list. The Bibliography, it need hardly be said, is much more extensive than our own reading; but it seemed useful to make it as complete as possible, whether the books had been seen by us or not, so as to show in chronological order how much interest had been aroused in the subject from time to time—in one country more than another, or in various countries together. The titles of articles in journals, which belong for the most part to the more recent period, have been taken from the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon-General’s Library, Washington, a few references being added to articles which have otherwise come under our notice.

W. T.