CREMATION, DOCTRINE AND UTILITY

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 409, 9 October 1889, Page 4

CREMATION, DOCTRINE AND UTILITY

How to dispose of the remains of the dead is not only a sanitary problem, requiring to be considered on a scientific basis, but is also a social question, touching closely some of tho most cherished usages and most sacred feelings of humanity. The question is ateo, to some minds, beset with doctrinal difficulties in certain people contending that the Scriptual words, " Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," could not well be pronounced over the process of incineration by powerful heat. To those who belong to the latter class it may be some relief to know that Dr. Moorhoufte, Bishop of Manchester, in Hie course of his last visitation address to the clergy ot his diocese, pointed out that cremation created for Christians no doctrinal trouble whatever, and that they ought to do what they could to brighten with Christian comfort the Borrowful days of bereavement of any brother who preferred cremation to burial. This means that the rites of the Church are not to be denied in cases of cremation, and that the relatives who carry out the new method of mortuary disposal are not to be deprived of such consolation as religion oflers. We do not remember whether the Church of Rome has made any authoritative utterance on the subject of cremation. It is clear that if the practice is not forbidden by the leading sections of the Christian Church, its widespread adoption will very soon be accomplished, No doubt, the sanitary aspect of the matter provides a powerful argument in favour of a change from the proaent method of burial. Already many cities of Europe and America have their crematory ; and although in new lands the sanitary necessity does not press so strongly, yet, with the rapid increase of population in Australasia, we shall soon have reached the point when the question of burial will have to be considered in its relation to the public health. Perhaps the strongest point in favour of the cremationists is the care which is taken by them to avoid the honors of premature burial. The sentiment alone in favour of these precautions, quite apart from the probable savins: of many valuable lives, ought to be sufficient to counterbalance tho sentimental prejudice in favour of burial. Evidences of premature burial could bo multiplied, but the case of a Scotch lady is doubtless familiar to many. She vas actually buried, but the cupidity of the sexton, who wished to possess himself of a valuable ring which she wore, was the means of restoring her to her husband, and she li\ ed afterwards to become the mother of Ralph Erskine, a name enshrined in the list of notable Scotchmen. If anyone had his choice of being tlowly suffocated in a coffin or rapidly incinerated in a crematory furnace, we fancy 1 c would choose the latter ; but cremationists propose to provide an absolute guarantee against premature death. A chamber is provided for the reception of those supposed to be dead, and thero is a rule that no body shall be cremated until it has shown unmistakable symptoms of decomposition — in other words, until there is absolute certainty of death. Skilled attendants would, ot course, have to keep conetant watch over bodies which did not show full evidence of death, and prompt steps would be taken by them to resuscitate the patient on the slightest sign of returning animation. There is no reason why elcctiicity and other sciences should not" also be invoked to aid in the xestoration of lift. The subject of "suspended animation resulting from cataleptic or other trances, has lately been investigated by Dr. Tanner, of forty days' fasting fame. He pays that he has kept account of the cases of suspended animation discovered and reported in the papers, and they averaged one a week in the United States. These death-like trances sometimes last for weeks, and yet the person recovers to enjoy life and vigour as before. Dr. Tanner relates the following instance :— A lady of lndianopolis, who had come to life after fourteen days of suspended animation, was interviewed by the doctor himself. Six physicians had pronounced her dead, but a little brother of hers, who passionately loved her, clung to her against the will of her parents, and said they must not put her in the ground— that she was not dead. The child cried, "No, no, Ludie is not dead," and throwing himself upon her he accidentally pushed aside the bandage that held her jaw in place. It fell, as they who were present all saw, but the boy noticed that his sister'i tongue moved. " What do you want, Ludie V" cried the bo3 r . " Water — water," came a low answer from the girl thought dead. She was given water — she revived — she has since m.irried, and is now living. Many people are convinced that the late Irving Bishop, the thought-reader, was vivisected while in a cataleptic trance, yet such an end as that was perhaps less horrible than that of people condemned to be buried alivo. The most harrowing fact in connection with these trances is that some of the patients have told after recovery, that they heard and saw all the preparations being made for interment, but were utterly unable to make a sign or sound of life. No torture ever devised by fiendish ingenuity could equal that suffered by people in such a position, who are conscious that they are being consigned alive to the place of darkness and corruption. Premature interment is not, of course, a necessary outcome of existing burial practices, though it has undoubtedly grown out of the usage which demands the interment of the bodies within a few days after apparent death. The only safe course is to delay the final disposal of the body until the eigns of death are indubitable. Cremation, in this matter, appeals to humane sentiment, no lees than to ideas of utility, and if no ecclesiastical ban is interposed, the Caucasian race may, in tho course of a century or less, be found to have entirely revolutionised its method of treating the remains of the dead. —'•Auckland Star " October 4.

Do not marry a woman whoso mouth droops at the corners. Even were the mouth a cherry, you would find the fruit bitter. It is a 'queer coincidence that red is made from madder, and bulls are made madder by red. 14 The only way to privint what's past," says Mrs Muldoon, ♦• is to put a stop to it before it happens." A conversation overheard on the piazza "Don't!" "Why, dori't you like It? " Yes, bub don't !"