Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1882-06-01
Cremation.
BY DIR SAMUEL KNEELAND.

the dead have been: First, mummilioatiop:
second, burning; third, interuent; fourth,
aerial exposure. Of the first, practiced
chiefly by the ancient Egyptians and of the
fourth, by many savage nations, I need so =
nothing at this time.
In most nations, savage aud civilized,
from time immemorial, it has been tho
custom to inter the bodies of tho dead ip
the ground, or to seal them up more or loss
tightly in tombs Though these may
answer oil sanitary purposes and fulfill ali
the sacred obligations Of the living to the
departed, 10 scattered populations, they arc
attended with danger, always increasing in
popu'ous communities.
This dnngor has practically been rccog-
nized by the fact that cemeteries have g,no :
rally been paced without the limits of
thickly inhabited districts. Whom persons,
dead lrom infectious diseases arc buried in
graves, they leave behind them to the pub
lie, as rcsiduury legaleos, fearful amount
of danger, and faithfully and imp .riaIly is
the deadly legacy divided among oil dwell.
ing within circle Of one thousand to thrco
thousand feet of such graves. Earth will,
to certain extent, dcdorize, but caunot
destroy or impede tho cscupo of minute
poisonous germs.
The danger from this source has mover
been fully appreciated by the public,
entirely ignorant of the process of dccom-
position aud the products thereof. Of
course, the decay of the body com mittcd to
the grave depends US to rapidity entirely on
the soil and temperature. In the Arctic
regions decomposition is imperccptibly
slow; in dry, torrid sands dcsiccatiou takes
the plaoo of putrcfaction aud kind of
natural mummfication takes place. In
low, damp or wet soils, in temperate zones,
decay may be complete in onc to one and
one>half years, giving of dclctcrious gases
Tor that length of time, with perhaps the
seeds of contagious disease. In dry, high
and airy soils the process is much slower
and less dangerous.
What is decomposition Of tho human
body? What are its products? What it's
dangers?
An English writer has defined Tho human
body, chemically, as 45 pounds of carbon
and nitrogen dissolved in 81 pailfuls of
water. Oxygen, though the principle of
life, is also the great destroyer; tho moment
life ceases, our curbon by its agency is con-
vcrtcd into .carbonio acid, which escapes
luto the air or is taken up by the roots of
plants, according to the mode of sepulturc;
our nitrogen combines with some of the
hydrogen OF decomposition, forming am :
nonia, which cscnpes in similar way; the
water which forms about two thirds Of our
weight is los, ty evaporation. We arc
resolved therefore, into gases, and the only
n IT 10 /, hal ,,,,I -, Al,
five pounds of lime salts which constitute
our bones and hard parts. Nature provides
sufficient animate and inanimatc agents for
the removal OF dccaying unimal su distances
in tho air, on the ground, or just beneath
its surface, ard the more speedy iu the hot
and damp climates where the results of de.
composition urc the most del, terous, pro
yided man in his folly do not interfere with
her processes. Man, by his mode of inter-
ring human bodies, contrives to prolong as
much as possible the dcc,y Of his deceased
brethren, thereby Increasing to the utmost
the possibility of poisoning the air, infe,t-
ing the earth nnd concentrating tho water
in the neishborhood Of living beings. Air
and surface burial permit free access TO the
myriyds OF minute living creatures whose
office it is to convert into their own harmless
substance the bodies of dead anilna's and
man.
In the grave Of six feet or more in depth
light ard mir arc in great meusurc excluded
and there il no access to the insects from
whose eggs emerge the grubs or worms,
from whose jaws popular belief expects the
rapid aud total destruction Of the BODY.
The truth is that tho devouring worm is o
myth, as much without foundation as the
'dust" into which we are supposed to bo
resolved, aud tho results Of dccom position
are horrible enough in reality without add.
lug any Imaginary sensational accessories.
The modern process Of cremation is per-
formed as follows: The crematoryat Wash.
ington, Pa, is o brick structure one story
high, thirty feet long, twenty feet wide,
divided in;o two rooms, reception room
twenty feet square, including walls, and q
furnace room twonty feet by tcn including
walls. Cremation is performed in a fire
clay retort, such as is used in tho manufac-
ture of Illuminating gas, but of somewhat
different shape, heated to red heat before
the body is introduced, which work requires
about twenty four hours. Tho body is
placed in un iron crib made in tho shape
of a oollin, with small round rods, with
feet threo or four inches long to keep it
up off the bottom Of tho retort These
feet are inserted into q fat strip of iron
Two inches wide and q quarter iuoh thick,
turned up at tho ends so that tho crib
with the body will sldo into :he rctort
caeily. In addition to the ordinary burial
garments tho body is covered with cloth
wet with saturated solution Of suphatc
Of aluminium Common alum), which, even
when burned, retains its form and prevents