The Washington times., 1901-10-13
CREMATION IN ENGLAND.
PcriIs and Scandals of Burial Pro-
mote Municipal Crematories.

PcriIs and Scandals of Burial Pro.
mote Municipal Crematories.
At Golders Green, among the open
fields to the north of Hampstead Heath
the London Cremation Company has ac-
quired twelve acres of land, which will
be set apart for the cremation of the
dead. A beautiful chapel is being built,
the design of which. by Ernest Yeats,
was exhibited at the Royal Academy this
year, and the grounds, instead of being
a wilderness of gravestones, will be laid
out as a pleasantly wooded garden, sur
rounded by arched cloisters containing
inches for the urIls and caskets of the de-
parted.
Up to the present all London crema-
tions have had to be performed at Wok-
ing, the distance from London making
the expense generally greater than that
of funeral The actual charge for Gre
nation itself is only e5, and as no grave
Is required and the coffin should be a
mere light shell, the cost is not much
greater than that of burial At present,
! however only one cremation day is the
average. If there We're half a dozen or
more the cost might be greatly reduced.
The fuel for heating the furnace alone
cost lis, and the cost of labor and
materials would not be more than twice
as much for five or six cremations in one
day. In Hull, where cremation is per-
formed by the municipality, a charge of
/ a guinea is made.
] In all cases the remains are reduced to
a pure white ash, the heat being so in
| tense that no smoke or noXious gas is
! given off. The 1shes of fulI-sized adult
/ person weigh about five pounds, and in
| bulk would just about fill an ordinary
. silk hat After the cremation the ashes
| are placed In cinerary urns, caskets, or
/ vases, many of which are of most grace
/ ful and artistic design. They are in
| earthenware, white and colOred marble,
! bronze, or copper. Sometimes they are
/ placed in tombs or sarcophagi, OF In clois-
] tered recesses with suitable inscriptions;
! sometimes the relatives prefer to take
/ them home, or to have them buried at
! Woking or elsewhere, or even, for sentl-
! mental reasons, taken to sea ana scat
| tered to the waves. A husband and wife
/ will occasionally leave directions that
/ both are to be cremated after death and
their ashes mingled in the same urn.
II was only in 1885, after the Cremation
Society had existed for some years, that
the use of the crematUrium at Wohng
was first permitted, after strong official
opposition. In that year three cremations
took place, the body IN one case DeinB
that Of Brahmin. But since then public
prejudice against this form of disposal Of
the dead has greatly diminished, and last
year 800 cremations took place. Probably
the new crematorium close to London
will bring about a further increase.
The Roman Catholic Church still pro-
hibits funeral rites over persons who are
u :
grounds insist on this form OF disposal Of
their remains. In the case Of Jews the
ashes are Iaken to the synagogue after
cremation for the religious rites, while
Church of England and NOn-cOnfOrmiSt
clergymen and ministers generally hold
funeral service at the crematorium chapel.
one of the commonest popular obJec-
tions to cremation is that II destroys the
evidence of poison, and so facilitates
crime. The reply to this is twofold. First,
only very limited number of cases or
poisoning. those in which one or two me
tallic poisons have been used, could be
detected for more than a short time after
burial. Secondly, in every case of crema-
tion rigid system of certification. both
of the fact Of death and Of its cause. is
required. Thus any doubt is settled once
for all, while under the present slipshod
system of registration there is no guar
antee that the cause of death has been
accurately stated in the first instance
The Doctors certificate being given TO the
family of the patient often CLOSES
over unfortunate facts, such, for in
stance, as ill-usage or death from alcohol.
Proper certificauon such as is required
for cremation would also prevent the
dread possibility of the burial of the liv-
ing.
On sanitary grounds the old system of
burial has few defenders. The advocates
Of earth to earth burial point out that
inteTTing the body In a light wicker or
other shell will cause il to be resolved
into its elements much more quickly than
If it were encased in a heavy coffin. But |
a QulCHenlnE OF the process OF putIGfac- !
tion does not diminish the total amount |
of contamination OF earth and air and
water.
To make burial a healthy and sanitary
process is impossible where any large |
number Of inte-ments have TO be pro- |
vided for. Whether a body Is TO be con |
sumed by fire or by slow underground |
decay the er,i is the same. BY the agency |
of oxygen II has to be converted into its |
elements of mineral ash. gases and wa |
ter In an IDEAL burial a body should be |
placed In light, porous soil, sufficiently /
deep below thoroughly to filter all cscap- |
ing water before 1t reaches any under |
ground channel. Then every shower OF |
rain which saturates the soil will sink |
gen and drawing after it, as It drains |
away, new air from above. oxidation will |
go on steadily and no harm Will be done. |
How different the conditions in the
great cemeteries which eucircle ODdon
and around which populous suburbs are
springing up In the first place most of |
ing more utterly unsanitary than a clay
grave could well be devised. II is a wa
tertight pit. dug In an impermeable soil,
filled with broken and permeable mate
rial, and with corpse at the bottom,
Sometimes these pits are fourteen or ff-
teen feet deep, frd contain as many as
half a dozen suprr-impOsed collins. The
first fall Of rain fills the bottom Of the |
pit. the liquid has no escape, and as all
oxygen is at once used up. an
aerobic putrefaction Of the most often
/
liquid No fresh atmospheric oxygen can |
reach the collins. When there Is heavy !
rain the grave fills up, and the offensive |
liquid flows Off on the surface to do un-
known injury; while n hot dry period
gradually dries out the grave and causes |
a continual ascent Of cOntamnaung va
pors into the air. If the grave is drained
either at or near the bottom things are |
little better. for there is no porous soil
to render harmless the escaping water, |
which flows into some channel from |
which II may do enormous harm
This is true Of a single clay grave. but |
what of the thousands Of nameless dead
hcrded together in the common graves |
OF our London cemeteries. often with only |
"A few inches Of soil for deccnCy's s sake be
tween collin and coffil? Not a protencc
Of any protection by the soil can exist in
such cases; the who'll. ground is saturated
with corruption. London has now 10000
burials per annum. enough to cover
twelve acres of ground with graves with
out footpath between. Practically all
these interments take place in suburbs
where the population Is growing by leaps
and bounds Just as the old churchyards |
Of the city have had to be cleared Of their
dead, so in "A generation or so. unless ere
nation is soon adopted, we shall be faced |
with the tremendous problem Of clearing
and HIghgate, Norwood, Toot-
Ing, and Naturalization Times.