Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1894-10-23
AGAINST CREMATION.
New and Interesting Argument Pre-
scented by Sir Francis Haden.


sented by Sir Francis Haden.
1t cannot be said that cremation has
gained many converts during the last
few years In spite of the one great ar
gument addueed in its favor-namely,
that earth burial is insanitary-people
have gone on burying their dead in the
old way. The hygienic objection to
earth burial has been ignored rather
than combated-in fact, many intelli-
gent people who would still insist on
the old mode of burial in the case of
their own relatives would nevertheless
admit that the contention of the crema-
tionists rests on basis of fact
But i'll an address the other day at a
meeting of the British Institute of Pub
lie Health Sir Francis Seymour Haden
took issue with tho cremationists on
that very point He declared in the
strongest language that earth burial, if
properly conducted, can never endanger
the health of the living, and carried the
war into Africa by asserting that crema-
ton is itself insanitary, and therefore
so serious menace to the public health
that it ought to be prohibited by law
The earth, he maintained, is the one
great purifier and renoyator There re-
sides in the soil the chemical power of
forming new and innocuous eombina-
lions out of the poisonous and miasmatie
substances buried in it. Not only that,
but the earth needs to be enriched by
the restoration to it of dead matter,
whose substance was drawn from it by
the protoplasmic energy of life. So
that, if all the effete residuum of the
world were to be burned, the earth
would soon be deprived, according to
Sir Francis, of the chemical clements
that support life, and all life would
cease.
1t would perhaps be the wisest course
for outsiders to let the distinguished
English scientist and the cremationists
fight this question out, as indeed in all
likelihood they will, 1t is pertinent to
observe, however, that it is not tho
purely speculative question that it may
seem to be at first 1t has practical
application as well. If the contention Of
Sir Seymour Haden is true, then the
system of burning garbage, so frequent
~ advocated and in many cities adopt
ed, Is unwise, for it is destroying valu-
able nutrient clements that ought to be
returned to the soil. On the same theory
the practice of throwing the garbage
into the sea, in vogue in this city, is
even moro vicious, so far as its effect on
the soil is concerned As will be seen.
therefore, the question here raised is one
of the greatest practical interest and i'm
portanee ana should be carefully con-
sidered By all cities that contemplate
the burning of their garbage Now
York Tribune
The Eskimo and the Walrus.
To the L skimo the walrus is the same
all in all that the buffalo was to the In
dian, that the camel is to the Arab
and the reindeer to the korak Its flesh
feeds him Its tough hide covers his
boots, his shell-like kayak and his big.
clumsy bidarrah, aud cut into strips it
makes his harpoon lines and dog har-
ness. Its oil furnishes him light and fire.
Its ivory tusks are legal tender for all
sorts of civilized luxuries, such as iron
and steel for spearheads, knives and
even guns. Certain tissues make good
nsackintosbes for Mr.. and Mrs. Innuit.
and the Upper bottoms of the walrus
make good sole leather for the hunter
also. st. Nicholas