The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-18
Ashes to Ashes. [From the Uru.1

bodies, the Mississippi Valley Medical association recently declared that the method for dlsposing of the dead should
 be founded on reason and not on cus-
 tom or sentiment; that the interment
 of the dead in the earth was never en-
 forced by statute, Jewish or Christian,
 being merely incidental to both dis
 pensatlons; that no law, human or di-
 vine, requires any such disposal of the
 dead as is prejudicial to the health and
 comfort of the living, and, while it may
 be an open question as to the right of
 the state to decide on the manner of
 disposing of the dead, unless In eXcep-
 tional cases, 1t is clearly the province
 and the duty of the state to prevent
 such practice as will in any wise Jeop-
 ardize the interest of the living. As a
 final declaration, in view of all the facts
 attainable the opinion Is expressed that
 the graveyard, as a constant menace to
 public health, should become thing of
 the past, and that 1ncineration is the
 method most in accordance with sci
 
 Dr. Frances s. Hillyer, in a. paper
 read before the Ladies' Literary club at
 Grand Rapids, Mich, urges the adop-
 tIon of cremation as follows:
 A number of years ago a commission
 of medical men was sent from the Unit
 ed States to investigate yellow fever in l Central America and report on some
 method of lessening it's spread. Among
 other investigations they examined the
 earth from cemetery in which eighty
 years before many dead from yellow fever had been buried. They found the
 surface of the earth filled with yellow
 fever microbes, and unanimously rec
 commended that all who died from vel
 low fever be cremated as the only sure method for stamping out the danger of recurring epidemics. In Charles Darwin's work on the formation of veg etable mold through the action of earth
 worms, he teaches that these worms bring up mold from every depth to thir- teen or fourteen feet below the surface. | Pasteur has recently demonstrated that earth worms may become infected with tuberculosis, or the bacilli which are found in consumption. They digest the soil, bringing it to the light, and, after passing it through their bodies, deposit it on the surface of the earth, where it is ground into to powder by the action of the atmosphere. Should these worms have come to the surface from the grave of one dead from consumption they de- posit the tubercle bacilli, and these, when blown through the air and inhal- ed, as dust Is constantly being inhaled, bear their legitimate fruit when depos- tied on suitable soil.
 But it is not only through contagious diseases that earth burial does It's dead ly work Air, earth, and water are contaminated, as witness the fact that in all settlements in close vicinity to a cemetary, diptheria, typhoid, and kin dred diseases pointing to a depraved condition of the system are almost per ennial. During the months of June, July and August, when other parts of the city seem exempt, diptheria and typhoid are to be found in the neighbor- hood of the cemeteries. Washington Square, New York. is a delight to the eye with it's lovely lawns and shady walks and beautiful flower beds. AL most ninety years ago 1t was the pot | ters' field, and to-day New York physi- ! clans say that no child can thrive who | lives on the first floor of any dwelling in it's vicinity and may succumb to its | fatal beauty. Down to this day thick | blue haze every tranquil morning rests | pillar of death several feet thick over l the green sward. Trinity churchyard, | crowded with graves, is a distillery of | death in the midst of the mighty throng | a1o QrAa T aHl down Wall street.
 In times of war the question of the | disposal of the dead becomes a vital | one Among the Athenians the dead | were collected in tents and were kept | several days to insure recognition. Each | tribe then conveyed its own dead in cy- press shells to it's ceramices or place of | public burning. The first epidemic of | spotted fever on record was caused by | the emanations due to unburled bodies | On a battlefield in Spain. After the bat tie of Waterloo 4,O00 bodies were incin- erated on piles of resinous wood. Dur ing the Crimean war typhus ravaged | the French and English armies, leaving a record which is still engraved in the memories of men. It would fill two col umns of a newspaper to record the evils to the living wrought by the hastily buried dead of the Franco-Prussian war alone.
 After the battle of Sedan more than 10000 human beings and animals were hastily and superfcialy buried. All the Belgian villages in the neighborhood suffered frightfully from infectious dis eases and epidemics. So serious was the evil, the government sent Colonel Creteur to remedy it as far as possible. The report of the conditions he found Is too revolting for repetition. Suffice it to say, that the heavy rains, bears, foxes, dogs and crows had uncovered many of the trenches, the latter feed ing on human flesh to satiety. He found it difficult to get workmen to help him, as the effluvia produced a se- were eruption on all those who remained near the place. Finally, by promising large pay he secured twenty-seven men whom he endeavored to protect by. sat urating their clothes with carbolic acid. By this means he succeeded in remov- ing the first layer of bodies. He then had large quantities of coal tar poured into the pits, which, trickling down, covered the bodies, Then ba baoy1ad on mora ohIorida of Iiy,oa O,, l