Science CREMATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1613, 4 November 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science CREMATION.

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ly in tombs. Though th^omaytanswesall janitary purpose&vandsjEuJfil all-' .thehsSored obligations of t||esiving;to the departed, in ■Scattered p'opulatiojfis/tliey'are attended with 4 dang|if/ always increasing in populous donimumties. "" This 'danger has practically been recognized by the^faoVthat,' cemeteries have generally 'been^JacedA|vith6ut the limits of thickly' inhabrred districts^ Whem persons, dead from infectious diseases, areh,uriedin,graves, they leave behind them to the public, as residuary legatees, a fearful amount of danger; and faithfully and impartially is the deadly legacy divided among'all dwelling within a circle of one thousand to, three thousand feet of such graves. Earth will, to a certain extent, ■ deodorize, but cannot destroy or impede the escape of minute poisonous germs. The danger from this source has never been fully , appreciated by , the public, entirely ignorant of the process of decomposition, and the products thereof. Of course, the decay of the body committed, to the grave depends, as to rapidity, entirely on the soil and tempera;ure. In the Arctic regions decomposition is imperceptibly slow ; in dry, torrid sands desiccation takes the place of putrefaction, and a kind of natural mummification takes place. , In low, damp, or wet soils, in temperate zones, decay may be complete in one to one and one-half years, giving off deleterious gases for 1 that length of time, with perhaps the seeds of contagious uisease. In dry, high, and airy soils the process is much slower and less dangerous. What is decomposition of the human body ? What are its products ? What its danger ? An English writer has defined the human body, chemically, as 45 pounds of carbon and nitrogen 'dissolved in 5J pailfuls of water. Oxygen, though the principle of life, is also the great destroyer : the moment life ceases, our carbon by its agency is converted into carbonic acid, which escapes into the air, or is taken up by the roots of plants, according to the mode of sepulture; our nitrogen combines with some of the hydrogen of decomposition, forming ammonia, which escapes in a similar way ; the water which forms about two-thirds of weight is lost by evaporation. We are resolved, therefore, into gases, and the only dust which remains behind is the four or five pounds of lime salts which constitute our bones and hard parts, Nature provides sufficient animate and inanimate agents for the removal of decaying animal substances in the air, on the ground or just beneath its surface, and the more speedy in the hot and damp climates where the results of decomposition are the most deleterious, provided man in his folly do notinterfere withherprocesses. Man,by his mode of interring human bodies, contrives to prolong as much as possible the decay of his deceased brethren, thereby increasing to the utmost the possibility of poisoning the air, infecting the earth, and contaminating the water in the in the neighbourhood of living beings. Air and surface burial permit free access to the myriads of minute living creatures whose office it is to convert into their own harmless substance the bodies of dead animals and man. In the grave of six feet or more in depth light and air are in great measure excluded, and there is no access to the insects from whose eggs emerge the grubs or worms, from whose jaws popular belief expeots the rapid and total destruction of the body. The truth is, that the devouring worm is a myth — as much, without foundation as the " dust" into which we are supposed to be resolved, and the results of decomposition are horrible enough in reality without adding any imaginary sensational accessories. The modern process of cremation is performed as follows : — The crematory is a brick structure one storey high, thirty feet long, twenty feet wide, divided into two rooms, a reception room twenty feet square, including walls, and a furnace room twenty feet by ten feet, including walls. Cremation is performed in a fire-clay retort, such as is used in the manufacture of illuminating gas, but of a somewhat different shape, heated to a red heat before the body is introduced, which work requires about twenty-four hours. The body is placed in an iron crib made in the shape of a coffin, with small round rods, with feet three or four inches long to keep it up off the bottom of the retort. These feet are inserted into a flat strip of iron two inches wide and a quarter inch thick, turned up at the ends. so that the crib with the body will slide into the retort , easily. In addition to the ordinary burial garments, the body is covered with a cloth wet with a saturated solution of sulphate of aluminum (common alum), which, even when burned, retains its form, and prevents any parts of the corpse from being seen until the bony skeleton begins to crumble down, , During the cremation there is no odor or smoke from the consuming body, as the furnace is a self-consumer of smoke and other vaporable matter. The time required to complete the operation is about two hours, but improvements in the process will doubtless shorten the time. A very small portion of the remains is ashes, but the mass is in the form of calcined bones in small fragments, very white, odorless, deprived of animal matter, and may be preserved any length of time without change. There are four, to seven pounds of these remains from various sized adult bodies ; they can be placed, for preservation, in> onegallon druggist's bottle, with large ground stopper, into which a photograph of the deceased, with appropriate record, can be placed before introducing the remains. This bottle can be placed hi the columbarium ofjthe matory, kept' among the cherished memorials of the family of the deceased, or placed beside other remains previously buried in cemeteries or graveyards. Cremation certainly is not barbarous, for it never entered, nor could it enter, into the heads of barbarous people. It is not burning, there is no pile of wood or other combustibles, no visible flame, no smoke, no sickening odor ; it is a process of great scientific skill, the reduction of the body to ashes by the application of intense heat, 1,000 deg. to 2,000,. deg: Fahr., by which it is resolved into its chemical elements at once, and without the flame coming into contact with the body. • We are all, more or less, carried away by our emotions and sensibilities, especially in the matter of the treatment of the bodies of our dear ones. As rational beings we must not allow our instincts and emotions , to run away with our reason, especially in a matter as important as this. The expense of cremation is less than that of an ordinary burial case. ,' , Leaving out of the question, then, all but sanitary, reasons, cremation is far preferable to, earth burial ; and we cannot but think that by degrees this reform .will supplant prejudiced superstition, the pomp and profits of undertakers, and give to .the living that immunity from many, diseases, arising from foul air ( impure water, and poisoned earth, •which they are entitled, to receive from the progress of sanitary science. — Froc. Soc. Arts, Boston,