Physicians are as yet only beginning to estimate the importance of the putrefactive germ. They know full well the dangers of the putrefactive changes which begin in the body almost before life becomes extinct. Many an anatomist, many a surgeon, many a physician, has died from a mere scratch made accidentally in the performance of his duty. But the nature of these deadly poisons has only been revealed of late. Diseases, the cause of which were formerly utterly unknown, are now believed to depend on the existence of specially endowed and living atoms. Plague, cholera, malignant pustule, smallpox, scarlet fever, malaria, and even consumption, owe their propagation to a living germ. We cannot see these germs with the naked eye. We cannot always recognize their form even by the strongest microscope. Their history is now only under the observation of the learned, but we are able to test their powers and watch their effects. We know that the soil taken from many feet above the carcass of a cow which died of cattle plague remains still deadly after an interval of two years, and that the worms which fed upon that carcass are still capable of propagating the disease. Who dares, then, to state that the germs of disease do not rise from the graves of men in impalpable mists to fatten on new victims? Science and common sense combine to denounce the burial of the dead amongst the living. And it must be obvious to every unprejudiced person that one of two things is imminent. Either the cemeteries must be removed to a greater distance from the city or the system of disposing of our dead must be radically changed. The subject cannot be left in doubt, and we shall do our best to advocate the truth.