I never feel very much disposed to accept the invitation
to talk of graves. Man's mortality ought not to be a gloomy topic, yet death and its appurtenances generally are. What inspires this jejune observation is the forma- tion, under the auspices of Lord Horder and others,, of a National Council for the Disposition (not Disposal) of the Dead. It will deal, apparently, with questions of cremation and burial, the status of undertakers and other such matters. I note that undertakers here are beginning to call themselves, as they invariably do in America, morticians. I once studied with interest the prospectus of a summer school for morticians con- ducted by the University of Minnesota, with special lectures on soils, woods (for coffins) and the psychology of condolence and sympathetic demeanour. Diplomas were awarded.
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