CREMATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3533, 19 June 1874, Page 3

CREMATION.

From New York papers to hand by the mail we find that the propoual to adopt cremation instead of burying the dead is being actively discussed in that city, a. meeting of those in favor of the practice was held there on the 3rd April, whi-h, although not largely, was influentially attended. It was resolved to form a society to promote the practice, and a number of members were enrolled. The ‘N ew York Tribune ’of the Bth April gives some particulars of the progress .which the movement is making in Eulope. At Zurich, where burial ground is growing contracted, 2,000 persons have subscribed towards an association founded in favor of burning the dead. At Basle the movement had received the public approval of orthodox clergymen—also on the ground of promotion of health in the community. In Germany the newspapers are talking about the subject a great deal, while one firm in Berlin has advertised the invention of a new furnace in which to perform the operation. And, last, a churchwarden of a Jewish synagogue in the same city has proposed to establish on a new burial ground, lately acquired, one of these furnaces. Professor Bruneth, in the ‘Revue Scientific,’ describes an apparatus for cremation, which, however, is merely an invention of his own, and may not be the moat convenient m ans of effecting the ohmet. The professor states that “ having made several experiments on the human subject, in which the bodies were burned in the retorts of gas manufactories in closed receptacles, and with free access of air, he first satisfied himself that the complete and perfect performances of the process would be impossible under ordinary circumstances, in the first place, there is rtqured an oblong furnace] of fire-proof bricks, having ten holes below by which the intensity of the fire can be regulated. The upper part of this should be hollowed to receive the coffin, and over this a domed cover is to be placed, by which the flames, as in a reverberatory furnace, may be directed upon the body. Within the coffin is a metal support or table on which the body rests, fixed by thick iron wire The operation embraces three pen«ds-the heating of the body the spontaneous combustion, and finally’ the incineration of the soft parts, and the calcination of the bones. During the first period, and about half an hour after the pile of wood in fhe furnace has been lighted the combustion of the body commences. It gives off a large quantity of gas, and the management of the reverberatory part of the furnace is of great importance. If the wood has been well arranged, two hours suffice to proauce complete carbonisation. During the third period, the air holes being opened the carbonized mass is collected and placed upon a fresh plate, and the heat is now ‘Urged to the utmost, a fresh supply of wood being inserted. By means of this arrangement, at the expense of about 150 pounds of wood, complete incremation- -that is to say incineration of the soft parts, and calcination of the bones—may be effected in two hours. When the furnace has cooled the cinders and bones are collected and deposited in a funeral urn.”