NECROPSY BEFORE CREMATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 529, 9 January 1882, Page 3

NECROPSY BEFORE CREMATION

A gentleman of Milan, Signor Lorm, deserves high credit not merely for the public spirit of philantrophy, but for the rare good sense he has shown in offering 20,000 francs to the municipal authorities to maintain a mortuary and post mortem room wherein the bodies of all persons dying of unexplained causes shall be rigidly examined before they are cremated- This is indispensable if special facilities for poisoners and other murderers by secret processes are not to be created by the recourse of cremation. Nothing will be easier than to compass the death of an enemy by poison if his body is sure of being promptly cremated. The fire will purge the guilt of the wrongdoer by leaving no evidence against him outside his own evil conscience, which can scarcely become his public accuser. When and where cremation becomes the custom of the community, unless a rigid post mortem examination, with instant and complete chemical analysis, is enforced before cremation, ■ the crimc of murder by poisoning anc other secret methods must be expectec to-,flourish. This is why we oppose •' wm.ation although we fully recog- %' hise the advantage of destroying organic Hjfcraaths by burning.. The risk to life incurred is too great to compensate for to health likely to be gained.