The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-04-20
The Burning Of the Body Of a Wealthy Nj
lanesa 'EFGerehant.

The first practical experiment. in Italy Of
cremation. and one sanctioned by the city all
| thorites. has recently taken place in the pub
| lie cemetery of Milan. 1t is true there have
! been isolated instances Of the burning OF dead
| bodies, us for example that OF the young lH-
| dian Prince. who died some years ago in Flor
ence. and whose tomb, sllrmounted by his brst,
stands in the Cascine gardens, just outside the
| city But this was in the open air, and by
| means of wood. Il fuel too costly to become
| general. and besides the occurrence of one Or
two rare instances of this kind is very different
! from having a building for the purpose in the
| public cemetery. and according to cremation
| all the rights of The OLD mode Of burial. This
event created Il great sensation III Milan. and
! the following account shows how important
event it was considered:
| Albert Keller, originally from Zurich, BIT
| for many years q resident OF Milan, died two
years ago. leaving q considerable fortune, ac-
| qured as a merchant of silk in that city. AL
| Wavs warm advocate of cremation, he left .
| clause in his will expressing the desire that
| his body ;houd be burned, itrusting Prof.
| P0lli, an ardent promoter Of the new system,
! with the carrying out of his wishes, and for
| the necessary expenses he left TO-, 90 francs.
! First Of al it was necessary TO obtain the
consent of tie city, and this, with the building
| OF little temple in the cemetery, and other
| preparations caused Il considerable delay. and
| it was only two years from the time Of his
death that the body, provisorily embalmed and
| placed in Il vault, was taken from It's resting
| place and reduced, according to the wish Of
| the deceased. 60 q handful OF ashes. The heirs
| had spared 10 expense or lalhS in the pfepa-
! rations and instead of 10000, spent 10000
francs for the temple, not counting the monu-
| ment for the ashes. which cost 100000 more.
| This event had been looked forward to with
| the greatest interest by medical men and ny
| cienists. More than ], 800 invitations had been
given, and Notwithstanding the stormy wealth
en- large concourse was present.
| The apparatus for cremation is Invented bY
Professors Polli and Clericetti. and is disposed
in such q manner that nothing calls to mind
an industrial process or tends to disturb the
religious solelnnty Of the occasion. Not u
tube, not !; valve is seen. The urn is in the
form of an ancient Roman sarcophaglls. The
BODY is introduced through a side aperture, at
ter which the urn is closed and process OF conl-
btlstion begins. tflie urn externally Is kept IS
| q very low temperature. but small glass WIZ
dow in the side allows the body within to BE-
seen. surrounded by the deTonriiig flames.
The method Of combustion is b. ordinary gas,
made in y special gasometer, and introduced
into the urn by sbteraNean tubes. The body
resting upon :; veritab'e bed of flames. there
being q grating formed by tubes from which
! issue shout 500 Jets Of gas mixed with air.
Other Jets are found in the upper part, ana
are directed upon those pats ofthe body, snch
as the head, which present the greatest 10 the
fire. 1t is scarcely necessary to add that llieFs
is no disagrepabe odof whatever. and the
whole spectacle, though new and striking, MAD
nothing in it repulsiye Or undisnified. This
apparatus has been presented to tie city, so
tIat those hereafter wishing to make lsc OF it,
can do so at a comparatively small expense.
First of all. the Protestant pastor tthe de
ceased having been an EvangelicaD pronounc-
ed a discourse to show that cremation was not
at all opposed to the. teachings OF Christianity.
After him Clericetti, one OF the inventors OF
the nnDarattlS and others spoke warmly iii ia
vor Of tfe new method. The process lasted
an hour and half, and consumed forty-sWn
cubic metres OF gas.
At present great efforts being made in
Milan to form society having cremation for
its OBJECTS, in imitation Of those in London aiid
Enrich. and already over 400 have become
members. among whom u large number OF la
dies Que lady who has lately lied expressed
the desire in her will to have her body burnt,
and considering the favorable result OF the first
experiment. there is no reason to think thaS
the permission will be denied. This lady hav-
ing been Roman Catholic, the event IS look
| ed forward to With II certain kind ofceticslty
\ to see what attitude the Catholic clergy viii
assume in regard 10 it, Cincinnati Ga@effs,