Year: 1874

DR.. P. II. Holland, British Medical
Inspector, writes in opposition to cre-
nation, to a London Journal He
says:


"If the advocates of cremation con-
fined their efforts to trying to persuade
those who prefer it to adopt the prac-
think it worth while to oppose them,
being well assured that SO very few
would follow that advice that little
practical Inconvenience would result;
though if, contrary to all reasonable
expectation, the practice should become
common or even frequent, some very
troublesome precaution would have to
be taken to guard against the destruc-
tion of evidence OF guilt or, what is as
important, of innocence, in cases of
suspected murder. especially by poison.
Some of the advocates for cremation,
however, not content with asserting
that the dead might be burned without
creating any nuisance, which 1 do not
doubt is possible provided great care
be taken and no cost spared, also assert
what is quite untrue, that by no amount
of reasonable care can the practice of
burial be continued without great risk
of injury and the certainty of danger;
and one of them has even ventured TO
adduce, as proof, that well situated and
well managed cemeteries are or must
become public nuisances, because, for
sooth, overcrowded burial grounds
were so when closely surrounded by
dwellings, and in which the remains of
the dead were constantly being dis
turbed before decay was completed.
As well might it be contended that be-
cause dung heap in close court is a
dangerous and disgusting nuisance,
therefore cultivated garden. rendered
fertile by the same sort of manure,
must necessarily be a source of danger
to all near it. Many of the recently
established cemeteries are in effect or
namental gardens, much used as favor
ite resorts for air and exercise by large
numbers of persons who have no easy
access to other such places, and it is
simply incredible that they would be
so used if they were, as has been rashly
asserted, offensive and disagreeable.
1t is, of course, essential to safety that
the situation for cemeteries should be
well chosen. and that they should be
very carefully managed; but to assert,
as has been asserted, that when SO
situated and so managed they are
causes of reasonable apprehension to
all residing near them, is too absurd to
be believed by any one but an enthu-
siastic advocate of cremation obliged
to use bad arguments, being short of
good ones.


Gas the alleged economy of the pro-
posed change, the answer is very sim
pie. The cost of raising to white
heat chamber seven feet long and five |
feet in diameter, in which it is stated
corpse may be reduced to ashes in an
hour, must be much more than for dig |
ging q grave, and as in most places |
have been already provided
which must b. paid for whether used or
not, the cost of the grave itself can but
rarely be saved; but even if all cost of
burial itself could be avoided, the ex-
pense of funerals would be but little
reduced, unless, indeed, the people at
large could be persuaded to forego all |
costly ceremony in the disposal of the |
dead. They are, indeed, gradually |
that undertakers' display is |
vulgar and tasteless, as well as waste
full, but its diminution would not ne
cessarily be effected by the substitution
of burning for burying, while it might
be much diminished if provision were
made, as it easily might be, for avoid
ing funeral professions from the dwell
ings to the cemetery and confining the
ceremony within the precinct of the
itself. If the coffin were con-
veyed previously to place of reception
at the cemetery, the funeral party might |
assemble there with as little trouble or |
cost as If they were going to church; by |
which plan the temptation to make
funeral display would be removed with |
the opportunity of doing so. OF course.
such a change in established custom |
can only be effected gradually; but, if |
once tried, its great convenience would |
insure its rapid adoption. One of its
would be that those living
near the roads leading to cemeteries
would not be annoyed by the sight of
funerals now sometimes so frequent as