The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-07-07
THE CREMATORIUM AT MILAN.


A Description Of the Method Of Inclnera-
ton Employed There.
The crematorfum stands at the Ear
end of the grounds q building not
large or high. but with its crescent
shaped open atrt,in of white marble
sufficiently handsome and imposing.
On the frieze is this inscription: Tenn
pto Crendtorio per rOLOnta del alberto
Keller erette donate ALA eittG di Nilano.
On the wall facing the entrance is .
handsome medallion of Albert Keller,
who was duly cremated in the temple
of his own providing. Many portions
of the wall are marked off In small
tablets inscribed with the names of the
persons whose bodies have undergone
cremation. and whose ashes, in MANY
cases. repose liz an urn or small vessel
in q niche behind the tablet. Ashes
they are not, properly speaking. l
was shown about a couple of handfuls
of white bleached bone, in bits not larger
than ones finger-all that remained, Is
l learned, after the cremation of the
body OF a man some ten stones in
weight. Other spaces have been ap-
propriated by intending cremators, and
have the word "Assegnato" inscribed
on them. Through a small door you
pass from the GtTluD, into what / may
describe as the operating room, 10 the
middle of which stands the enclosed
furnace, looking like an enlarged
edition of the family laundry copper.
The fire is kindled at the back of the
furnace, and when at the proper mo-
ment released by the uplifting Of iron
shutters, comes roaring through two
large oriices, and quickly fills the
whole of the space where lies its prey.
The body-l cddauero. as the attend
ant called il, seeming to take
great delight in repeating the
words-dressed in a light linen
or wooden shroud or rather costume,
is taken from the shell in which it has
been brought, and laid on a marble
slab, thence transferred TO a large iron
tray, which is borne TO the mouth Of
which. by the action of a winch, is
wound into the interior with its burden.
The iron door is then closed, the shut
tiers, as described above, are raised,
and the furnace. to Use an American
expression, is literally in full blast. At
the end of two hours the operation is
complete, and all that there remains of
what was once a man, full of ''blood,
bones, marrow, passion, feeling" are
Two handfuls of white dust shut in an urr
of brass"
The system at present in use is thai
of Paola Gorini; it takes, as | have
said, two hours and the consumption of
three hundred kilogrammes of wood
and twenty-five kilogrammes of char
coal. The cost of everything, includ-
ing the mural tablet, is ninety-four
francs. A new method, known as the
systemic Venini, under which the incin-
Grafton will be effected by gas. was
then Immediately about to be tried.-I
saw the furnace just completed, land is
no doubt now in operation. Under
this system the whole affair will be
in fifty minutes.
In this place, which was perfectly
sweet, clean and wholesome, without
the faintest trace of anything calcu-
lated to offend the sense of sight or
smell, there are about eighteen or
twenty cases of cremation every month.
They are, the attendant told me. de-
cidedly on the increase, and were the
cholera scare again to appear, he had
no doubt, from what he had heard,
that the practice would have large num-
bers of adherents. Already bodies for
cremation are sent from distant parts
of Italy, and on the next dag one was
from Paris. And, indeed,
when / thought of ell the horrors OF
our ordinary '.Luryings." i could not
wonder at the desire TO be quit OF
them. no matter at what amount of