Daily camera., 1900-12-06
METHODS OF BURIAL.
BOTH FURNACE AND COFFIN
ARE CONDEMNED.
Dtsussd Burial Grounds In I.ondon Used
- Recreation Parks-Kech and Klein
en- Baoili - Cremation Prevents the
DsteOtioa Of Murders.

A writer IN the Quarterly Review
makes q powerful attack on the eth
ics Of cremation" He regards it as
IN improper corrective to the mis-
chisvous practice OF interment in
vaults and collins He says: Little
or no difficulty appears to have at
tended the ready and enicient disposal
Of the dead till towards the close OF
Charles the Seconds reign. Not only
was the strong coffin-the fons ct origo
mali-till then unknown, but the
palmer sort of men were content to
be carried to their graves in the open
chests or Golfers which were kept in
every parish church for the occasion
and only employed to convey the body
from the house of death to that other
house which hath been appointed for
all living" after which the chests were
returned to their accustomed place,
which was usually a niche in the
church wall. Arrived at the grave tho
body, enveloped at one time in coarse
linen kept together by bone pins. and
from its temporary case and buried"
Resolution Of the body by the agency
OF the earth to which We commit il,
is affirmed by the writer to be the nat
ural and innocuous method. Earth
is the most potent disinfectant
known" The common impression
that graveyards pollute the air is
emphatically contradicted. Nothing
worse than carbonic acid carbon diox-
!del and water are ever given of from
the surface Of burial grounds, and
these only in quantities so small rs
20 be even less than are naturally
present in the superintendent atmos-
phere; and, further, that even this lit
tie is at once taken up by vegetation
and returned to the air, not as a source
of peril to the health, but as a neces-
sary increment of atmospheric re-
aewal." The two hundred disused
burial grounds In London now used AZ
recreation grounds and health resorts
Jpen cemetery is absolutely inodor-
us" Sir Seymour Haden reports
.fCm experiments carried on for II
ears in the burial OF animals that
cdies buried four feet deep require
nore than four years for their COM
olete dissolution; three feet deep, three
ears; two feet deep. two years: one
cot, one year; while bodies not buried.
lut simply covered with foot OF earth
disappeared, all save their bones, in
ess than a year: but in all cases with
put injuring the purity Of earth or
air. The Prussian government has
also made q notable contribution TO
our knowledge on this important part
Of the subject In ls727S a secret
commission was issued by 1t to ascer-
tain the condition Of the dead in the
6attlefields Of the Vosges Two years,
or thereabouts. having elapsed since
those battles were fought, it was fear
ed. as many dead bodies were known
to have been only specifically buried.
that epidemic disease might result
What the commissioners found, how
ever, entirely dissipated any such
fears. In cases in which as many as
eight hundred bodies, in the hurry in
cident to rapid military movements.
had been thrust into one shallow exca-
walton, these bodies. it was found. had
already disappeared. their bones and
accouterments alone being left. But
to this disappearance there was a re-
markable exception; the bodies Of Of
6cers, having been buried in mackin-
toshes (ths action Of which resembled
that Of cofflns) had not so disappear
Cd" Against the testimony of Sir
Henry Thompson, the writer quotes
the authority OF Koch and Klein to
show that the bacilli Of anthrax being
aerobic, or dependent on air, are, when
buried four and a half feet, incapable
Of reproduction. The rest Of the pa
per Is occupied with the argument that
cremation, by making exhumation i'm
possible prevents the detection Of mur.
darn