suiting 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 8,000 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 



