Cremation of the Dead: Its History and Bearings Upon Public Health — A Reader’s Guide

The probable sanitary origin of Cremation--Not necessarily opposed to Religion--General reasons--Wisdom of adopting it in cases of epidemics--Sundry objections treated--The decorousness of the practice--Cremation desirable in the battlefield--In cases of murrain--In the destruction of condemned food, &c. 1-23

METHODS OF TREATING THE DEAD.

Exposure, or the absence of all burial--Consignment to the deep--Petrifaction--Envelopment in some solid material--Burial in the earth--Embalming preparations--Desiccation of the body--Cremation a widely-spread practice--Examples of quasi-cremation 24-40

State of things thirty years ago--The new cemeteries--Space allowed for, and the depths of interments--Vault burial--A well-chosen cemetery--An improperly-chosen one--The closing and regulation of old burial-grounds, &c.--Materials for coffins 41-52

DANGERS OF OUR SYSTEM OF BURIAL.

Churchyards and the evils resulting from some of them--How the living are affected by them--Disorders caused by putrid emanations--Dangers of inhaling the atmosphere of some burial-grounds--Vaults--Poisoning of wells and water-courses--Laxity of many interments 53-67

PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION.

Promoters of the practice of Cremation and prospects of its adoption in Italy--In Switzerland--In France--In Belgium--In Austria--In Germany--In America--In England--Sir Henry Thompson's work--The Cremation Society of London, its objects, &c. 68-88

CREMATION, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Ancient modes of cremation as illustrated by recent burnings in Italy, India, Siam, and North America--Modern experiments in Italy, Germany, and England--The Siemens' apparatus, its construction, perfect working, and economy--Proposed procedure--Disposal of the ashes--Description of cinerary vessels, old and new--Conclusion--Bibliography of the subject 89-130

(_All at end of book._)

I. VIEW OF A SIEMENS' APPARATUS (GERMAN PATTERN).

II. SIEMENS' APPARATUS (ENGLISH PATTERN).

III. SKETCH OF MORTUARY CHAPEL.

V. SKETCH OF FAMILY COLUMBARIUM, OR NICHE IN PRIVATE CHAPEL.

VI. URNS IN THE CRYPT AND CHURCH.

CREMATION OF THE DEAD.

Cremation of the dead is neither new in theory nor in practice. In the England of modern times, however, the question has only recently assumed recognised importance. And the more one considers cremation, the more one finds himself wondering how it has come to pass that we practise burial, with its many faults, and do not burn our dead. Thousands amongst us are now beginning to feel thankful that the dead are soon to 'rule our spirits from their urns' in a realistic and not alone in a poetical sense. They think there is something majestic and even pleasurable in the idea that it will ere long be possible, on all civilised shores, to leave their mother earth, not with a partial, but with a fully consummated sacrifice upon her altar, bidding her adieu none the worse, but rather the better, for their sojourn with her. They groan and labour under the burden of enforced burial, and 'hail with satisfaction and joy the prospect that a chariot of fire may receive them instead of the cold and darksome grave.'

The scheme has met with some enemies, and injudicious promoters of the system have not proved the least of them. The idea that it was sought to make it compulsory, was an unfortunate utterance. The notion of producing illuminating gas for general purposes from the combustion of the bodies was another mischievous idea.[1] Equally so was the proposal for the erection of a tall shaft in the cemetery grounds, where the gases could be seen consuming--something after the fashion, I suppose, of the twelfth century's _lanternes des morts_. The publication of crude and undigested fancies does more harm than good to the subject they are meant to benefit.

[1] The original proposer of this scheme was M. Rudler, who proposed it to Dr. Caffe, of Paris, in 1857.

It has been urged that the practice of burning the dead had its origin in a heathen religion, but it is not wise to accept the imputation. Let us take Greece for an example. All historians inform us that the people of ancient Greece practised inhumation. But when they did practise cremation, they nowhere associated the burning of the dead with the worship of the gods. And we are at liberty to argue from this fact that neither did the aboriginal peoples from whom they derived it, regard it as an act with which religion had aught to do, the story of Odin notwithstanding. And the reason why the Greeks did not practise it earlier, was doubtless simply because the bulk of the colonists came from countries where another system prevailed. Cecrops and Danaus, who were instrumental in colonising Athens and Argos, were Egyptians, and Cadmus, the founder of Thebes in Bœotia, was a Phœnician.[2] Neither of these nations burnt their dead, but practised another system of burial.