, 1888-10-27
GROWTH OF CREMATION.
EFFORTS MADE TO RENDER THE
PROCESS EASY AND PRACTICAL.

The overcrowded Cemeteries of Partisan
Observation-Disclosures Solution of an
Unexpected ProbIem-where the Cues
ton Rests.
Cremation in France is attended with
difficulties. Technical questions nave
arisen and the laws regulating freedom of
burial ave caused unpleasant delays.
Still, the crowded condition of the Paris
cemeteries, where the dead are crammed
into narrow mausolea and piled in an in
discriminate way on top of one another,
renders a solution of some kind impera-
tive. When the cemeteries of Pere la
Chaise and Montmartre were established
they were on hillsides that were at some
distance in the country. Now, though
they are not in the heart of the city, they
are far within the city, limits and have 3
dense popuAtion on all sides of them.
No city in the world feels more impera
lively the need of regulating the import
ant question of burials in q manner that,
while it shall respect the preiudices in
favor of the dead, shall at the same time
sufficiently protect the interests of the
living. The establishment of new ceme-
terry on a grander scale at Merry sur Disc,
a few miles from Paris, has been in con-
temptation since 1879, and as the project
dDplOdCllCo O1uI1 bhO IuCoblOi "a L
nation is again being earnestly discussed.
In 1879 and again 1880 cremation was
by city ordinance made optional for the
friends of the deceased, but the keeper of
the seals found legal objections in the civil
and penal code. Pending the settlement
of the doubtful points involved a society
to promote the cremation was formed, Of
which Gambetta was a profoundly con.
WINGED and exceedingly active member.
A new law regulating freedom of burial
was passed, and a crematory, or crematory
chapel, was erected in the least used part
of Pere la Chaise, which is a conspicuous
object in the sceneryif nothing else. The
law has not accomplished all that its pro-
~jectors desired, and various unexpected
difficulties have arisen, which have
strengthened the hands of the enemies of
cremation.
At Milan, Lodi, Cremona and other
cities in the north of Italy, at Zurich and
in Germany, cremation is effected in two
hours. This is of itself considered a suf-
icient objection in Paris, since the long
waiting, even in a room set apart for the
purpose, would be too painful for rela-
tives and their friends. To make it prac-
teal in a populous city, where, if crema-
ton became fashionable, time would be
precious, the process should be accom-
plished in half an hour. 1t is this short
ening of the time that the experts are
studying at present. After having made
a personal examination of the crematories
at Zurich and Milan they concluded that
the desired result could only be obtained
by raising the temperatures, and that
wood should be replaced by Illuminating
gas mingled with a current of air. Wood
only gives q temperature ranging from
300 to 1000 dogs. c~entigrade, while gas
gives from 1900 to 1000 dogs.
Experiments have been made on the
carcasses of sheep at one of the gas man
ufactories of Paris which, though they
ave not been entirely satisfactory, nave
shown that they were tending in the
right direction. For instance, it was re-
marked that when the high temperatures
effected incarceration in the desired time,
it rendered the pu1verization of bones
more difficult. A curious chemical pro-
cess takes place. The bones, composed
principally of carbonate of lime, acquire
almost the hardness of porcelain when
brought to q temperature of 1900 to 1000
dogs. centigrade.
What was to be done in O case like this2
The cremator could not evidently give to
the weeping relatives a p~etrified skeleton
maintaining approximately the original
proportions of the d~efunct, and incapable
of being put into any cinerary urn. in
stead of the handful of ashes which they
wished to be put into a china vase on the
parlor mantelpiece. So he set himself to
solve this unexpected problem and dis
covered that If at a given moment, that is
after the tissues were perfectly reduced
to ashes, the remains were suddenly
plunged into water, by a mechanical de-
vice easy of fabrication, the petriied
bones would at once resolve themselves
into fragments of the desired minuteness.
The process can be taken with glass
which, when heated to a high tempera-
ture and plunged suddenly into water, is
reduced to a condition of impalpable
powder.
This is where the question rests. The
experiments have been made under the
direction of the Paris municipal authori-
ties, who expect in any arrangements for
cremation they may hereafter effect to re-
spect implicitly religious prejudices. They
desire that the time of the ceremonial
shall be us brief as possible. The body
brought to them for incarceration will not
be removed from the coffin, but reduced
to dust with the wood, clothing, orna-
ments and jewels, all of which will be re-
turned in a condition of fine powder. This
Will be done when, as expected, the Gre
matory at Pere la Chaise is in working
order. There are four "~ovens," as they
are technically called by the French, and,
as the demands for cremation are numer-
GUS, it is expected that they will all be
kept busy when physical and legal diff
cultles are removed, which it is hoped
will be soon. 1t is not only the good
French who will be cremated, but foreign
ers who may wish to give their burial
ceremonial a sort of eclat. A Belgian some
time ago sent money to pay for his Gre
nation at Pere Ia Chaise. In due time
he died, and the crematory not being in
working order, he was buried at Brussels
with the understanding that his remains
will be taken to Paris for cremation as
soon as everything is ready.
The efforts of the French to render
cremation easy and practical naturally in
terest those Americans who have sought
to introduce this method of burial. Where
not a dozen persons are cremated in a
wear in q nnn11latinn cf co nna ono -