The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-11-27
ANOTHER ARGUMENT FOR THE
CREMATIONISTS.

The Baltimore papers have been re-
porting for several days past the revolt
ing details of the dissertation and rob-
berry of two graves in well known
cemetery in that city. For many years
past" says leading daily, nothing has
come home more closely. more terribly,
and with greater shock to thousands
of families in the city. than the discov-
cry last week that two graves in one of
the cemeteries had been robbed and the
bodies carried off by scoundrels for use
in a dissecting room" Grave robbing is
indeed an unpleasant subject. and one
full of disagreeable suggestions. The
suspicion that affectionate mourners of
the dead may be kneeling by the side of
empty graves, is at once the terrible yet
inevitable result of these revelations.
Another palpable result Of these un=
welcome discoveries is the starting
afresh the inquiry, whether Or not
there be better method to get back to
dust these earthly tenements. after tine
life of the body is extinct, than the slow
and offensive process Of natural decom-
position. Custom. the canOns of chris
tianity, the usage and prejudice of civil
lied nations recognize the grace as the
proper receptacle for the dead. But not
withstanding the preiudices Of refined
people generally in favor of the interment
of the bodies of deceased persons, the
advocates of the burning of the dead,
popularity known as rremationistS, seem
to increase in numbers in some sections
of this country.
The natural Discrimination OF the aver
age mortal to have his corpse serve the
purposes of science in the dissecting
room, or to have his skull figure as Il
curiosity on the shelf Of an anatomical
museum, may dispose some to regard the
burning of the body as Il less Pagan
treatment of it than we have by educa-
ton and prejudice been taught to regard
it. Then, again, what guarantee have
we that the remains OF those to-day de-
posted in some convenient cemetery may
not. fifty years hence, be ruthlessly dis
turbed by The invading march of improve
ment? In our larger towns and cities it
is not an usual case that in eXcavating
for new buildings, and in opening new
streets, the tombs of earlier generations
have been destroyed, and their contents
become the subject Of museum collectors.
Who likes to think of his Uranium shar-
ing such fate as did poor Yorick's at
the hands of the grave-diggcr in Hamlet?
Besides. your modern grave-robber is
enterprisng enough to make it an uncer-
tainty whether ones body is to lie in the
grave where ones friends deposit it, or
be dragged away and sold TO some medi-
cal college, as doubtless was the case in
the recent discovery in Baltimore. We
are not to be thought as in any sense
advocating cremation; but it is only reas-
enable to state the case as cremationiSts
see it. They advocate the immediate and
cleasing action of fire as the best method
of restoring the body to its original ele-
ment-dust. Custom says by the slow
and offensive process of natural decom-
position-taking all risks of dissecting
rooms and anatomical museums. Can
didly, we think the cremationists have
some ground on which to base their
claims; certainly enough to prevent the
problem from passing altogether from
public discussion and attention.