Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-03-15
al)e Ear,faster Jntelli9t,,fer.
LArcAsrrR. MARCH Is. 1855.
The bishop Rides a High Horse

It ID to be regretted on MS own accouus,
fAr moro than for the cause he attacks, that
Bishop A. Cleveland Coke, an ecclesiastic
Of some note, should discuss the subject OF
cremation in the flippant, unscientific and
inveracious style of his article in the Forum
on this theme. 1t is not enough for his
treatment Of the topic to say that what is
new in it is not true, and what is true in it
Il not new. He INDUCES in the broad and
sweeping statement that "those who are
the first to be ignited by q craze are known
as scranks'; and, with few exceptions,
where science has been partially consulted
and assumed, on slender grounds, to be de-
cisively in its favor, the movement has re-
ceived its sudden impulse from this class of
the community" Here is complete and
pitiful begging Of the question. There
Is no craze whatever over crema-
tion. On the contrary whatever of
unreasoning, prejudice or fanaticism is
manifested upon the subject is marshalled
entirely in opposition to the movement.
It is unquestionable true that anybody
who advocates social or sanitary reform,
at variance with long established custom,
is rated as a I" crank" and the pioneers of
every onward movement take this risk
until their reform is vindicated but an
Episcopal bishop, discussing what he an
nounces as ga grave question:" might be
expected to rise to higher plane than that
Of calling names, seeing that this mode of
warfare SO often practiced has never yet
proved effective to balk or defeat a meri-
tOrious cause.
But the polemical bishop finds an argu-
ment in the baleful effects of the crematory
chimney. AS sweet morsel under his
tongue he rolls the charge that the "pesti-
lent gases" from "the temples of Pluto
will pollute the houses of the living. The
investigation of earnest scientific men to
discover just exactly what is the nature of
these gases is thus treated by the contro-
versial divine
Sir Thomas Browne praises the old
heather, because, when they klndled the
pyre, they did 10 aversely, turning their
faces from it-a handsome symbol of I'M
willing ministration." Not so your retro
grade Christian He delights In the per-
formance he climbs to the top Of 3 chimney
and smells the roasting carcass. This was
actually the feat performed OF late In the in
augurstion OF crematory. The proboscis
detected "no smell !" matter is odorless, IL
not wholly imperishable, then.
It would have been much more to the
purpose Of an earnest argument and more
after the fashion of a sincere searcher and
reporter Of truth to have ascertained the
results Of a scientific analysis to ascertain
the nature of the products of combustion
Of the human body during incineration.
Such an investigation has been made by
Prof. T. r. Baker, PHI. D., of the Millers-
vile State Normal school, to throw light
upon the contention whether poisonous
gases are given off polluting the air. The
conclusion Of science was " that not any
Of the many and various tests, either at the
crematorium or in my laboratory, of the
products under consideration, indicated
the presence of anything that would pollute
the air. The burning of the body produces
no material difference in the gases escaping
from the chimney. The volume of the
chimney products did not seem to he in.
creased by the burning of the body, and
the products had precisely the same odor
during cremation that they had before the
body was put in the retort.n
It's true the analysis of gases, either from
graveyard or crematory, from a sewer
or earth closet, Is not so peculiarly "nice'
business as that of Bishop Coke, but
when undertaken in scientific and reveren,
spirit, for public purpose, it is quite as
much entitled to respectful consideration
~ the labor of learned divine who ridi.
cules science and ignores facts.
This man, who processes horror of the
subjects son which decent minds restrain
their fancies, 7" and turns with affected dis
gust from the " instinct of hyenas, digging
up the dead and feasting on the efiiuvia >
indulges in such choice rhetoric as this
"Who can enjoy an Imagination enlisted
! chiefly on the side of all that should be KEEP
out Of mind - well as out OF viewf In thu
crematory all this u forced upon the mind
We 90 violence to the dead and attend thu
peueesa Think OF the horrors of the crisping
csaokting, roasting, steaminR, shriveling
blazing features and hands that yesterday
ysre your soal's delight Think Of the over
1ying open. The antechamber o.
Y rinsonisn KY n,i ians "a. filled with an insup
Girth needed hoops like beer barrel had ex
Plodsd from an overchsrge Of gases."
II needs no imagination, senlisted
chiefly on the side of all that should be
kept out of mind as well as out Of view. y
4 70 depict the horrors Of the graveyard afte,
the body is laid away to mould; and be
tween the ''roesting carcass and the ''rot
ting corpse" the fastidious nose or othe
nice sense has little to discriminate
This super-nice bishop goes on, however
- feast his imagination upon tn
mangling of every body that is cremated
With the thought Of "a gentle wife c
alarming child thrust remorselessly int
! ~ oven TO shriyel and crackle and roas'
i within reach Of eye and ear" and with !"
ut of blue and red and lsmon-colors
onGnss Of fire,' shooting forth from mout
enA eys-hoks, and exploding from th
ouela, etc., etc., etc." The thought q
I11l1tous rites committing q body to fr
5 G10nd Of 70 the earth, Of casting ashes
c1hog instssd Of dust to dust, tlls his scu