Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-11-25
Statistics Showing Its Progress in
the United States, and in
Other Lands.
Claim That the Astral Body Clings
to the Physical Until
Disintegrated.
Crematory at Fresh Pond - TIE
Average Man Makes Four
Pounds of Ashes.

cremation is now regarded as a SEN
sibie way of disposing of dead human
lty, says an exchange. Statistics prove
this. The number of bodies burned by
the United States Cremation Society
the modest beginning in December,
1885, UP TO the end of last week was
ISL.
The Detroit Cremation Society viii
hold convention this month in con-
junction with the American Medical
association. The points to be discussed
are principally the most effective means
OF ncinerating human remains, the lat
est thing in furnaces for this purpose
and other strictly practical matters
Cremation has not been publicly dis
+, cussed to any great extent recently
The steadily increasing number of in
cinerations, however, at Fresh Pond,
where the New York society has its
rrelnatory, proves that there is IL larger
! interest taken i'll the process than ever.
! III 1881 the society issued its prosDec-
tus and was organized us !; limited com
! pany with a capital of $4,000. The
president was l. D. RurglnsS: secretary.
Edward A. Caswell; treasurer, Edward
, G. Cocley; directors, Felix Adler, Alex
iander BerghauS. John D. BURGESS, JAS
B. Brown. Edward \. Creswcll. Angus
tus G. Cobb. Edward g. Cockey, A. H.
Edinger, Louis Lange, Charles Putzel,
August Schwarzschild. A. c.. G. Pamsen
and Henry Puck
The New York Cremation society is an
I <ls1o.,
converts to the evangel of cremation.
| The annual number of crematIons
which the New York society has had for
it's term Of existence will slow by the
| force of figures that 1t is not only well
on it's feet but walking refty We'll
| They are as follows: 1856, II; 1887,
81; 1888, So; 1889, 1O6: 1890, 100: 1891
have been 81.
| This shows that there. is Il steady in
| crease in the number Of persons who
| are practical cremationists-
OF tire bodies cremated at Fresh Pom!
by the New York society 1873 were those
Of men, 21S of wcmen, 40 of boys and
26 of girls. Women have greater hor-
ror of being buried alive than men. and
this has rauch to do with making them
favorably disposed to the idea of Gre
nation, which would otherwise be re-
Voting to them.
There are now cremation societies IN
the following places in the United
States: Baltimore, Md; Boston, Mass. ::
Buffalo. n. Y; Chicago. ILL.,: Cincinnati
o.; Davenport, Ia; Denver. Col; Des
Moines. Ia; Detroit, Mich; Jersey City
N. j.; Lancaster, Pa; La Crosse, Wis. ::
Los Angeles, Cal; Louisville. Ky; Mil
waukee,. Wis; Newark, N. j.; New Or
leans, La; Off City, Pa; Omaha. Neb. {:
Philadelphia, Pa: Pfttsburg, Pa; Sac
ramento; Cal: San Antonio, Tex; San
Francisco; Cal; Savannah, Ga; Spring
field, H.; st. Louis, Mo; Troy, n. Y;
Washington. Pa, Washington, d. c.,
and Worcester. Mass.
The United States government has a
; crematory on Swinborne Island for
burning tie bodies of those who have
died of infectious diseases
/ Cremation has taken even stronger
Bhold in Europe than it has here. The
/ argument in favor of it as against burial
/ in the earth has more force in localities
which are densely populated. There is
I a natural prejudice against water COM
/ ing from the neighborhhod of burial
ground, with it's hundreds of bodies
slowly decaying.
Pasteur showed that the bacillus of
| tuberculosis could be propagated' by
earth worms, which can preserve this
germ of disease within themselves for
several months.
| Nine Blavatsky was cremate1 at the
! celebrated Working establishment. t,has
| Bradlaugh, the Duke of Bedford and
the late Lord Bramweli, the distin-
| guished juriSt who died q few weeks
ago, were among the prominent patrons
of crema ton in England.
| Iheosop}lists have special leaning
! towards incarceration for two reasons
One is that it is the common Hindoo
method OF dealing with the dead, and
! the other is that it is q convenience to
! the astral body. Nine. BlavatSlzy said
! that the astral body chung to the physi-
| cal one even after the latter was only
a corpse until there was a perfect disin-
tegration of the remains. The astral
! body gets out when there is nothing left
| but the skeleton. But this means a
long imprisonment for it, since the or
binary process of combustion of the
remains through the forces to which the
| bodies buried in the earth are exposed
! is exceedingly slow and decidedly I'M
pleasant.
While bill is now pending in the
; New York legislature relating to burial
and cremation, the transactions of the
Cremation Society" in England have
been published. Crematio secured the
almost unanimous vote of the Interna-
honal Congress on Hygiene, which was
! held in London last August
| Only a few weeks ago Home Secre-
tary Matthews received deputation
from the council of the association of
the Municipal Corporations of the
United Kingdom, whose power was to
ask the government to empower local
authorities to use public funds for the
provision of cremation When Mr.
Matthews asked the chairman if the
whole body of municipal corporations
was represented by the deputation, the
reply was that they We're and the reso-
luton had been unanimous. whereupon
the home secretary promised that the
matter should receive his most careful
consideration
of having the astral bodies let loose in