Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-17
Crenafi0n.

Jews it was an honor reserved for royalty alone whereas with the Greeks and Romans
 it was general Later in northern and central
 Europe the custom of burning universal.
 The ancient Hungarians burnt their dead. At
 tila, self-styled scourge of God, was burnt mounted and in full armor. Ancient Arabian , manuscripts prove that cremation was prac-
 ticed in Russia in the 10th century. In Ger
 many the custom was universal but was put an end to by Christian order of knights in } the 18th century. It was regarded heath
 enish ''No cremation" was then the cry of
 the clergy, as it will be now with many for a
 time.
 Lately, cremation has become subject of
 great interest. Various societies for this ob
 ject have been formed in different parts of
 Europe. At Milan attended the meeting of
 a fourishing societa di cremazione under the
 direction of Prof. Polli, and other celebrated
 Italian medical men, vigorous opponents of
 the new ideas in favor of chemical burning.
 The meeting had for it's object to induce the
 Italian national parliament to admit crema- tion. at least as optional.
 Progress and humanity demand the de-
 struction of corpses by fire; hygiene demands it. Why should the dead become objects of
 disgust to the living The cemetery of Pere
 la Chaise, at Paris, is most delightful spot.
 and one may spend many an agreeable hour | rambling there. On one occasion approach
 ed small burial house belonging to the Car
 melite order, and, pushed by curiosity, appli- ed my face to the open iron-work gate; the
 effect was electric leap backwards. To | express the matter delicately, I will say that | the benevolent sisters did not exhale an odor
 of-say sanctity Now these good ladies did so
 much good while living, that am sure they
 would not wish to become detrimental after
 death.
 At Schlier-See, 8 small village in Upper Bavaria where passed three months, the
 cemetery was directly beneath my windows. l Ca1 IY,ES sp1o ,at
 the emanations from the graves were far from
 agreeable or hygienic. because the earth had
 become saturated with the products of de-
 composition. In the little mortuary chapel
 at the side were dozens of skulls, neatly piled
 op shelves beside tho altar. On each skull
 was printed the usual n2ortuary biography. | tsgeboren, verheirathet, und gestorben !"
 These individuals had been dug up years ago
 to make room for fresh arrivals. In large
 cities, on account of the great number buried,
 the earth of the grave-yards inevitably be- l comes saturated with decomposition matter, and after long use changes from a light DOT
 ous earth into dark, oily, hmehke mass | then the escaping emanations become detri- | mental to the health of those who live in the | vicinity, because the air becomes poisoned. Alas the products of decomposition, slowly 1 Altering through the ground, must often find | their way into our drinking water, thus both air aud water are ruined thereby causing ty- 1 phoid fever, smallpox, and probably many other contagious diseases, and epidemics. Now we have often no choice in the location | of our dwellings, and are obliged to conten1 l ourselves with the air and water which at | hand therefore every precaution should be | taken in order that they may remain pure It is now the opinion of the most eminent European naturalists and medical men, that | all contagious diseases are the products of ex | cessive decomposition. According to the lat | est discoveries, decomposition is produced by | ;oe,, md y,ofa- 10lo Tpfn | are probably the origin of all contagious dis eases. This theory of the origin of epidemcs | is the only one meritlng the name of scientific. | The discovery of these tiny, microscopic or ganic atoms of fermentation inside of and around persons sick with contagious diseases, | is sufficient proof of their complicity. In carbuncles, in typhoid, in small pox, in scar latina in puerperal fever, in blennorrhea, in | syphilitic ulcers, and in hospital gangrene the microscope shows us the secretions of the 1 sick, their saliva, their blood, etc, infested | with these einfusoria-bacterii and vibrioni, or vibria lineola the last is the strongest organ l ic agent of one of the most important phe- nomena of nature, viz. putrefactlon.
 Eiselt, Britann, Budd, Vogel, Thompson I and Rainey discovered fungi, germs of vibri- l oni and adult vibrioni in the rooms of hospi- | tals where lay persons sick with contagious | ophttlsimia and cholera. Swayne, Budd, Britann. Reinhardt, Leubuscher, Lindsay, Boehn and Chavannes discovered in the in l multiplied under the eyes of the observers Dujardin, Hassall and Duvsine found in their | excrements the cercomonas intestinals.
 Attention, reader! These murderous infu-
 soria arise in organic substances in a state of | decomposition. Now, the germs of disease | are often not destroyed in the earth, but lie | dormant for years. Who can assert that these | tiny infusoria which infest corpses in state of putrefaction harmless when the sting | of blue bottle fly, which has dined pu- 1 tridity, often proves deadly Definition then of | 8 graveyard, the paradise of 1nfusorla.
 In the name of hygiene sepuichre in
 churches was abandoned. In the past cen
 tury, in a little city of Germany, of 180 per
 sons who had partaken of the communion in 1 the parish church more than 60 quarter of l an hour after fell sick and soon died The | sacristan arrested and tortured, being
 suspected of having used poison. The following Sunday 8 chalice of wine posed on the altar an hour afterward 1t was I covered with myrisds of tiny insects. Their | trackswas followed, and it ended in a tomb
 where 14 days before 8 corpulent woman had i been inferred. The tomb was opened of I the four men who performed the operation | two died and two were violently ill. The corpse | was putrid nlass covered with these little | insects.
 In1752, at Ehslwood, London, 8 corpse l was disinterred which had lain in the grave l 30 years. The person had died of smallpox. | Fourteen invalids who were present at the disinterment were attacked by the same dis
 ease, and in a few days the entire village. In l Saulieu-Bourgonne, France, in 17T3, ITO
 persons assisted at the disinterment of | corpse 149 were taken with putrid fever. A
 similar care took place near Dijon. France.
 After the terrible battles of the late Franco
 Prussian war, in the neighborhood of Metz, | the dead were burned wholesale by the Ger
 mans. By this energetic proceeding levers | I1I Tho ht1rni | every ones satisfaction, with the exception of l the soldiers who were detailed for the service, who complained of want of appetite-natural perhaps under the circumstances.
 An additional argument in favor of crema- tion is, that it prevents all future dissertation
 of the grave I remember as boy in a west l ern city, that certain congregation finding | their ancient graveyard too small, sold it for
 building purposes. buying another site for | their new cemetery to which the remains of | the dead were transferred. Many of the cof- 1 fins, however, had fallen to pieces, and their , contents were dispersed. l observed at that | time that my dog regularly disappeared, reap | bearing with unusual looking bones, which l he prudently buried in spot in the garden, | which he considered as his larder. acciden l tally discovered that he patronized the above | mentioned graveyard. Not wishing to have the entire congregation buried piece-meal in | the garden, I took the necessary measures to
 prevent Ponto's indiscriminate selection of | bones.
 Scientific men in Italy have during the last twenty years been earnestly engaged with the technical difficulties of cremation. One may
 mention in this respect the celebrated Bru-
 netti, professor of pathological anatomy, at Padua; also Professor Gorlni of Lodi. The former invented an oven for burning corpses,
 requiring but little combustible material, and has proved the practicability of his system on
 six corpses. The latter, who petrified short time ago the remains of the celebrated 1tai- ian patriot and writer Mazzini, writes in | 1873: ts know Q substance which when
 brought to an extremely high temperature l creates a Iinuid which in a wonder