The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-04-07

while In France ihe councils are considering
tho advissbility Of II instead Of ground and OF
vault burial. Interfering 10 past times we
find that tho three methods most In vogue
were by burying or the simple clothing OF
the body up in earth; or the embalmipg or
nummiacation of the body; or incintoraton,
or the burning of the body and urnipg
the ashes. Tho Egyptians mainly
practice the embalming process, and
with them IL was an art SO
highly cultivated as we'll as greatly prsc-
ticed, that mummy was as inoflensive az
piece Of stone; and these mummiee are to day
to DO found in public museums and private
families. So far rs we know, buryiDg in the
earth antedates as it has been the most
favored of all other methods of disposing OF
Humanity turned to clay" In Judes, hui
man corpses we're buried it seems, in sepul-
chres, while in China they were consigned to
the earth. How long ago and by whom
| incarceration or cremation WAS first prac-
ticed, or whether at first from sanitary or
Religious consideration, we hbNr but small
means of ascertaining. Cert it is that
ia Greece, and in Etruria before
and after it came under
the Romans, incremstion was extensively IN
vogue, although the body being burned the
ashes were inferred beneath the soil, in urns
of baked clay, terra Gotta, etc. In the earlier
times, the Jews had recourse to this process
as when the plague came in the vale OF
Tophet, A practice among the Digger In
dams in the Rocky mountains, obtains OF
smearing the ashes Of the burned dead on
the heads of the mourners. Other. tribes
scatter the ashes to the winds, while the
general custom amongst civilized people is
to urn them. Among the early Romans,
the corpse was placed upon the funeral
pvre made in the form of an altar
the nearest relative, with averted face, kindled
the pyre and then throwing purfumes, oils
ornaments, etc., upon the fire. The embe r
were e1tinguished with wine, and the ashes,
collected by near kinsmen, we're placed in
urns for interment or for house worship,
these vessels being of various forms and
materials The Mexicans long practiced
cremation, and to such an extent that when
men killed in battle we're missing. they made
figures of them, and after hOnoring these,
burnt chem and buried the ashes, or when
persons were drowned their figures were
burned on the affairs Of the idols, together
With a large offering of wine AMI bread. 80,
too. with many African and Asiatic nation
alitles and tribes, as with the Tucanos, who
drink the powdered bones and ashes OF their
relatives, mixed with water, believing tina.
the virtues of the deceased will be trans
mitted to the drinkers, and that 1t Is the
highest honor they can pay to the dead; as
Nth the whale. fishing Koniagss, who when
great whaler dies, cut up his body
into small pieces for distribution to his fellow
craftsmen for cremation and inhibition, OF
IS an amulet for talismanic purposes
But this thing OF cremation was no doubt
arrested by the Christian doctrine OF the
body. Yet the argument rapidly meits away
by the now known fact which science dis
closes that putrefaction accomplshes identi-
caly the same thing with the human names
as does burning, although one is slow snd
the other rapid conclusive process of de-
composition. On the fourth of July some
seven years ago, the bishop of Lincoln, in
England, preached against cremation, as
tending to undermine the faith of mankind
In a bodily resurrection. This view of the
resurrection proceeds upon the hypothesis
that death is merely long suspended snima-
ton, a doctrine that so many peoples have
firmly believed as shown by their customs OF
leaving food and drink with the corpse, the
supplying of fire to the cook, by the CO.
interment Of weapons for defense or hunting
when it should arise, as DO the Fantees who
supply meats, the Karens who furnish wines,
tue Uahitans who leave fruits, and Tho Nc@
Zealanders and the Peruvians who set regu
lar funeral feas,s at the grave, and who aver
thst at night the spirit oftbe deceased comes
and feeds upon the sacred cslabsshes until
re animation shall ensble the body to
take care Of and provide for ITSELF
At the Vienna exhibition in 1873, there
was exhibited cremsting apparatus whereby
complete incarceration Of a dog was effected
one day, Dy the use Of coal gas, within two
hours time. The body weighed some sixty
pounds, and the ashes weighed about three
pounds, or, say per cent. under the
plan now proposed. We believe It takes
some four hours for perfect cremation,
though year ago, body weighing 100
pounds in Paris, we think II was, was
reduced in just less than one hour into
four pounds Of lime dust The ST Louis
cremation society proposes to turn an hon
ess penny by reduciuga person 70 ashes tor
the price Of $40 although The incinierAtion
costs lcEs than $40.
The question Is one now being pressed up
on the people and il has rrAds progress in
the way Of securing attention. How The
living shall best care for The dear departed,
what disposition is best 10 be n.sds Of al that
- 49, r.N.