The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-30
iSfIES TO 4isHIGS.
Oremntion or lanrth l.nrinl. Mhlehq

NNAh VI iht lOWd GitNt iAlNtlNA Oi IlGUlIls IreGutable testimony as to the dire results upon the health of the living of contamination of the water of numerous American commit mites, urban and rural, has long been before the public in official documents. Witness the revelations some years ago about the contamination of the Croton river by the seepage of the eighty-three cemeteries and the innumerable farm yards and cesspools along it's banks.
 The reformation of the water supply of the city of New York, it will be re- menabered, cost the city a colossal sum of money, no inconsiderable part of which was expended in the wholesale abrogation of ascertained sources of pollution% s
 Another common phase of the ques- ton is the dissertation of burial grounds in obedience to the demands of city extension. It is no unfamiliar sight, during such events, to see rotting collins and partly decomposed bodies ly ing exposed for hours while awaiting removal; emitting noxious gases, which are reinforced by the deadly exhalation from the upturned soil. where for many years, under the auspices of those in- scrutable chemists, the worms, the products of animal decomposition have unremittingly undergone the dual pro- cess of generation and dissemination.
 These poison fumes are often so ob- trusively pungent as to asphyxiate the worknnen engaged in the exhumation. Easse mentions well authenticated cases, cCllated from various sources of gravedigAyers, who in plying their call ing, have been, some dangerously and others fatallyy affected by the carbonic acid floating from the graves they were e.xcavating. The deleterious eXhalations referred to above are not confined to the point of origin, but pollute the air at large, and has repeatedly been prov en- develop deadly epidemics of germ disease. Nor on such occasions is it un- usual to observe the bones from charity lots tossed hither and yon, later on to be collected, perfunctorily for the pur- pose of reinter1nent in pits elsewhere.
 Have we any reason to criticise the 1oathsome conditions prevailing at the burial places of the Chinese, when such things as those Just described can be done with inrpunity in our vaunted civil lization without our special wonder?"
 
 The statutes of the various common Wealths of this country do not prescribe methods of intel.ment, therefore crema- tion is not an unlawful method of dis posing of the dead as some 'pelting, petty cavillers'' have proclaimed Hence no appeals to state legislatures on this behalf are necessary. But organized and persistent petition endeavors should be brought to bear upon these bodies with reference to influencing the enactment of laws making it obligatory upon boards of health to incinerate the bodies of those dead from infectious dis eases. It seems to me, that it is also our duty as sanitarians to foster 1T, every way the policy of the building of crematories, so that in time the means to the benign end may be brought di- rectly to the people of each considerable municipality.
 Since 1886 this reform has spread rapidly among the clergy, very many of whom 'have the courage of their convictions" and speak out. A notable instance of this fact recently appeared of record in the symposium on crema- ton published in the Chicago Tribune. The reporter interviewed such represen- / tative clergymen as Bishop Fallows, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Dr. H. w. Thomas, John Rusk, IT. A. Delano and Thomas c. Hall The result was a very positive and unanimous expression adverse to the proposition that earth burial is a test of Christianity; and an equally pos itive expression favorable to cremation as the most beautiful, the most speedy and the only sanitary method of fulfill ing the law: 'Dust thou are, and unto dust shalt thou return"
 In marked contrast to the opinions expressed by those Chicago clergymen who in learning, piety and good work are the peers of the heirarchy of Rome, one of the latter faith, Archbishop Ryan of Pennsylvania, recently, as l learn from The Urn, refused to permit funeral services to be held in his ca thedral over the body of a parishioner about to be cremated because it is not a Christian burial under the Catholic ritual" So it seems that there are Christian burials and Christian burials, and of these latter those performed un- der the Catholic ritual are alone canoni- cal. believe 1t is one of the dog1mas of that church that only he who dies in that faith can be inferred in consecrat- ed ground Why, then, could not this astute archbishop, for whom American popularity is claimed because of his sup. posed tolerance this scholar and man o1 affairs, who ought not to be ignorant ot the sanitary aspects of this serious ques
 tion; why should he not rise to the oc' 'casion and erect and consecrate crema
 tories in his cemeteries whose use should be optional. and thus solve the
 problem in favor of humanity, as it be
 ccnleth one to solve it which is a prince
 and ruler of vast influence in his
 church? History ayers that the church
 Of the Middle ages favored cremation
 for opinions sake. For a humane, 2
 more Christian purpose-that of the
 health and wealth of the peoples--wh3
 should it not do so now? It seems very
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