Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-12-02

= TursDAY rvnNrN0. DEC- :. 1854.
CIVILIZATION 0orsaDEsED.

TUESDAY xVUNIN0. DnOS r
OnnaArION OONBaDEnED.
ns- As. : :':s,H :ss!.;s: s::s:'' Safeguard
,yonn D. Beugless in n, Y. sun.
The tsuscity Of life Of bacteria that pro.
Snns usstiIepce 10 such that burial In tho
ssrxh "a hundrsds Of years seems but to
MA % their potency for evil, - witness
~ cholera In London in 1854, the viru-
leuoe Of which was greatly aggravated oy
oassing viaduct through an old purisi
ground, and the plague In Modena IN Ioso;
which resulted from disturbing the GROUND
where victims Of tho plague mao ooon
n alI thss has been said II 10 assn med
xhse sarth burial has been as thorough
~ satisfactory ~ possible. 1n times OF
Sridemics. however, how seldom Ii this
- oase. How frequently II 1t SUP ,rticial
II and imperfectly performed, thus Offering
TIE disease germs tho most favorable
conditions for spe.dy developement and
propagation, - converting the cemetery
into . very hotbed Of oontagion -,
There 10 one condition, however, readily
producible at almost any roint where man
has his abode, which no living organism
has been found to withstand and that
condition Is temperature Of from 300 to
1900 degrees centigrade, the range OF
temperature at which, In the various
kinds Of apparatus now in use, cremation
Ia effected.
No disease germ, It Is safe to say, has
ever been known to pass through the
crematory fires and survive to propagate
its species OF to serve as the carrier Of
disease The crematory is, 80 far as known
the only never failing germiode:: How
we'll this truth was understood by the wise
fuauoant vi io ahn~n hv Nha 10 -
that during the reign Of the Black
Death" at Avignon, then the papal resi-
denss, and which swept away 90, 600 Of the
Inhabitants of that fair city, his holiness
caused his palace to be surrounded by q
wall Of fire, which was kept burning high
both night and day. Clement the Wise
believed in the germ theory Of disease,
and in destroying the germs.
II We still hold to the old theory thai
these various forms Of zymotic contagion
whether epidemic OF endemic, are pro-
duced and propagated by chemico. mole.
cular action, then it Is equally true tha
the all purifying fire is the only know
means by which that chemical action ca
effectually and unfailingly arrested, an
the poisonous compound reduced to II
simple constituents and rendered IL
nocu0us.
And, IL there were no epidemics Of oor
tagion coming to Us from without lot
be remembered that about SO per cent, Q
all the deaths reported in our vital stats
tics are oocasioned by acute symoti
oontagion, from which the crematory is th
only reliable safeguard.
Instead, therefore, OF thrustfng on
beloved dead into damp, dark hole in tn
ground, there in the companionship o
loathsome microbian organisms to putrefy
aud thence to send forth the poisonou
and deadly exhalations and emanatious O
the grave to seize upon the tenderl,
ministering survivors, and drag them int
the gloomy caverns where disease an,
death hold carnival, let us purify tn
material of their bodies from every def
ing and corrupting agency, and translat
them, deoorously and reverentially, bu
expeditiously, into the elements Of all ney
and beauteous life.
tion of our own kindred dead. Let us Dol
form the like gracious office for the bodie
OF all victims of disease brought on ship
board into our ports, especially for q
victims Of ship fever, yellow fever, small
pox, and cholera, and every other form O
acute zymotie contagion. And let us CON
sign to the same all purifying fro what
ever of dead matter has become the nidu
or carrier of like disease.
Let our municipal authorities establish
crematory at every quarantine station
and in connection with every publ
hospital and every potter's field.
The potter's field of almost every cit
Of the land is a disgrace to civilization snt
pest bed in the community, and man
Of the more reputable churchyards an,
cemeteries are little better. Beautiful an,
park-like as they are without, within the,
are "full of rottenHesss and dead men,