3 
sulting upon inhumation. The third method is that of petrifaction, 
but this has never reached an extended trial. Another mode was 
that of covering the entire body with cement, and then entombing 
it in a coffin of a similar material. But this scheme has found but 
few adherents. Cave burial is very ancient. Caverns were hewn 
either in rocks or earth. The early Arabians adopted this method 
to protect the bodies from wild beasts. We now come to the 
common method of the present day, ‘‘ burial in the earth.” The 
earliest and most persistent practisers of inhumation are the 
Chinese. They have rarely, if ever, adopted any other form. 
Having no churchyards or cemeteries, the bodies have been buried 
at places, according to the wishes of the relatives, and on account 
of the inconvenient positions constantly chosen, have prevented 
tramroads and roadways being laid down. The treatment of 
embalming the dead has been carried out by the Egyptians from 
the earliest times. The origin arose from the belief in the “ trans- 
migration of souls ’’; if the body could be kept for 3,000 years, the 
soul, they believed, would return to it. Embalming has never quite 
died out, even in the present day; the advantages of the system 
seem very small. Lastly, there remains the system of burial 
known as ‘‘ Cremation,” or burning of the dead. All ancient 
nations, with the exception of the Jews and Chinese burnt their 
dead. Still there are instances in the Bible of cremation. In the 
last verse of the 1st Samuel, we read that after the Philistines had 
defeated the Israelites and slain Saul and his three sons, their 
heads were cut off, and their bodies fastened to the walls of Beth- 
shan. ‘ And when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard of that 
which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose 
and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of 
his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and 
_ -burnt them there. And they took their bones and buried them 
under a tree at Jabesh.” In the last verse of the 16th Chap. of 
II. Chronicles, we read concerning Asa: ‘‘ And they buried him in 
- his own sepulchre, which he had made for himself in the city of 
David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours, 
and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art; and 
they made a great burning for him.” In the same book we find 
that Josiah burnt the bones of the Priests of Baal. The Jews, 
we know, burnt their dead in the Valley of Hinnom. In our own 
country the practice seems to have been common, urns being 
occasionally found at the present time. Having thus most briefly 
given you the modes of burial adopted in past and present times, 
_ I will now touch upon some of the causes that led to our present 
_ system, and the origin of our burial laws. In 1839, Mr. Walker, 
a London surgeon, brought to the notice of the Government of that 
