Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-04-18
CREMATION.

The following graphic account Of burning
the dead was written by an eye witness OF
the process who mad before regarded it with
repugnance, but who was converted, by wit
Messing ii. into an earnest advocate:
"a furnace fire is built and KEEP. burning
for % Cr 80 hours before the cremation is 10
take place Immeditely above the fire is
placed in u horizontal position Il cylinder OF
clay called the inciuerator, ) feet IN diameter
BY Z feet long. This iire-clay inCinerator,
the walls Of which are from l TO . inches
thick, receives to itself the intense heat Of
the fire below but does d0t admit the flames.
the consequence is that the body, when
placed in the incinerator is not, in Il proper
sense Of the word, burned. 1t is reduced to
ashes BY the chemical application OF intense
heat. Gases are driven Off or absorbed,
and being carried down into the fire from
the incinerator ana led back and forth
twenty-five feet through its flames: are ut.
terly consumed. Even the smoke OF the
fire is consumed, aud nothing can ha seen
issuing from the chimney but the CULVER Of
tho heat The process might be called, Is
we have said, the spirituaization Of the
body, the GENERALIZATION or sublimation Of
its material parts.
a white heat it is ready for the reception Of
the remains AS the cover is removed from
its mouth the Iurushng air cools it from u
white 10 red heat, and the whole inner sur
face is filled with a beautiful rosy light,
which IS fascinating 10 tho eye. Il looks
like the blush of dawn upon the sky, or like
the exquisite tirts which sometimes flicker
along Tie aurora borealis. There is nothing
repusivo about il, and nothing, as has been
said, TO suggest tho idea of fire except the
intense heat
The body, being deceutly clad for burial
auCi tenderiy laid in the crib for the pur-
pose. is wholly covered with II clean white
sheet which has been dipped Ia Il solution
oc alum The cilect OF this is entirely TO
prevent smoke or fumes 0: flame, which
would otherwise arise from putting any
thing inllammal,lc into the midst Of such
heat, bat, under its protection, even the ex-
traordinary hca5 Of the incinerator does not
produce upon the body the appearance Of
scorching Or smoking or anything ol the
sort. There is no such impression as that
Of burning made upon the eye. The sheet,
saturated with alum, retains III original po-
sition over the crib, and conceais the entire
form until nothing but the bones are left F;
and when the eye first rests upon ihc re-
mains after they are lett in the rosy light oi
the cylinder, it sees nothing but those bones
gently crumbln% away into dust under
the mystic touch Of an invisible agent,
whose only appearance 70 the eye IS like
tho trem0r of the northern lights in the
.i,. or the radiation cf heat from the earth
beneath the summers sun. You have laid
p white. rohcd form within the rosy cylinder
auG have turnet! away 10 think with gratl-
tude that all is well. You have let your
imagination dwell lovingly upon the pleas
iu1 sentiment that whatever may be iclt-
beside the calcined hanes, most pure and
clean--has gone to minge with the upper
air and dwell with sunshine, birds and
flowers. The darkness and the dampness
Of the earth have been escaped, and so have
the peliIs Of gravc-snatching. the indecen-
cics OF possible dissecting-room and the
namcless horrors Of putrefaction. You have
pleasant memories TO cherish of the last
sad hour which, instead of 'breathless
darkness and the narrow house and the
dreadful thud Of falling earth upon the
coffin. presents 10 mind lovely bed of rosy
| light. and :; peaceful form, clad III virgin
| purity, resting within its soft embrace. ii
a Ills had been laid upon a bed Of pinks or
roses in the summer, and you had seen us
| fragrance aul its beauty all eXhalc amid
the shimmerin2 beams OF radiated heat be-
meath tic touch OF some invisible and gentle
agency you would have had not disslmllar
experience And this is neither painful to
the eye nor distressing to the sensibilitleE,
nor uugrateful to the memory