CREMATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1730, 8 December 1887, Page 3

CREMATION

" How shall we dispoße of oar dead ;" is the question that is now execoielng the mlnda of the authorities m the moie donooly populated cltlcß of the world. A movoment In favor of oromatlon was Initiated thirteen years a^o, and this method baa been largely followed since \ thon by France, Austria, Italy, Spain, S^liis rland, Holland, Denmark, and the butted States. European graves of tho early porioda — the brcrzo ago— have been found to oontain merely j*rs with ashes. It is cuppoaod that sentimontalisvu and a greater reepect for the dead, brought iv by tho er» of Christianity, cauaad creruatlor. to be fboliohtd, apd burial In the ground adopted m substitution. But India has continued, without Cfßsallon, to follow Its ancient pvact'.co of Incineration. Medical authortioa maintain that, were it not for this fact, there would be no such thing as adeqiutoly coping with cholera outbnak,a d these iufeotiouefuvera which are indigenous to that country. The mivln reasons that are advanced against oromation aro that somo consider the system uneorlptural ; bat it has often been poin'od out that tho question Is puroly a Banltarv one, In which the Hying have every right to be etudied. There can bo no ground for the suppoaUlon that reducing the dead to aches is diarofipoctful to tho memory of tho departed, and the issue is narc'owed down ta one of pnro seutimontaliem. Tho i establishment of crematories would involve tho breaking op of an old method which wo have become a^uatomed to follow, and like most bad habits there will be a difficulty m casting it off. But as time [ rolls on, and tho world'a population becomes more dense, It will bo a d!fiicult matter to find lying room fo? thp u«n.J, and atom nooeWity, aa wolll an an la paired sanitary state, will force on a change In our method of sepulture. It may seem a horrible Idea to burn ones deceased relatives, but Is It not equally horrible that they should bo consigned to the ground and devoured by worm* ? Any Ohristain would be simply horrified on hoaring that. a relative of his had been devoured by wild beaste, yot how complacently does he allow his forefathers to be food for the worms ! How ranch better it would be by the calcining prooeas to speedily reduce the body to its constituents elements, and then Inter the ashes as suitably bb may bo. The Introduction of cremation would avert thousands of dieoases and epldemio outbreaks that aro nevor 'traced to their legitimate source.— •' Tatlara MaM/'Pouth Au&tialia.,