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 interesting, in spite of its manifold absurdities, as being the recognised handbook for official use at the present day. No magistrate ever thinks of proceeding to dis- charge the duties of coroner without taking a copy of these instructions along with him. The present work was compiled by a judge named Sung Tz'u, from pre- existing works of a similar kind, and we are told in the preface of a fine edition, dated 1842, that " being sub- jected for many generations to practical tests by the officers of the Board of Punishments, it became daily more and more exact." A few extracts will be sufficient to determine its real value :

(i.) " Man has three hundred and sixty-five bones, cor- responding to the number of days it takes the heavens to revolve.

" The skull of a male, from the nape of the neck to the top of the head, consists of eight pieces of a Ts'ai-chou man, nine. There is a horizontal suture across the back of the skull, and a perpendicular one down the middle. Female skulls are of six pieces, and have the horizontal but not the perpendicular suture.

"Teeth are twenty-four, twenty-eight, thirty-two, or thirty-six in number. There are three long-shaped breast- bones.

"There is one bone belonging to the heart of the shape and size of a cash.

" There is one ' shoulder- well ' bone and one ' rice- spoon ' bone on each side.

" Males have twelve ribs on each side, eight long and four short. Females have fourteen on each side."

(2.) "Wounds inflicted on the bone leave a red mark and a slight appearance of saturation, and where the bone is broken there will be at each end a halo-like trace of

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