ELECTRO-PLATING THE DEAD.

The disposition of the body after death has been a subject of intereat from the earliest recorded era. The classic writings aro filled with references to this matter ; and the various kinds of burial or its equivalent, and theceromonies attendant upon the last rites, form no inconsiderable portion of Greek and Latin literature. Tho ancient kinds of burial were chiefly four — burying, burning, embalming, and storing, the latter having reference to catacombs, vaults and similar receptacles. All are too familiar to need moro than a passing reference. The custom of the Jews seems to have been to bury the bodies of the dead ; the Egyptians were the great masters of the art of embalming ; the Romans excavated great catacombs, which aro one of the wonders of the Eternal City to-day ; while the practice of burning bodies seems to have obtained generally among most ancient nations m certain circumstances. Modern science, on sanitary grounds, has determined positively against the common practice of inhumation. Wherever the population is dense — as it is m all great cities — it is seen at once that the custom of burying the bodies of deceased persons is a certain and fruitful source of disease. Water and air are alike polluted and rendered dangerous to life by the placing m the earth of the lifeless lumps of clay which wilj m time be resolved into their original element, but which, m the meantime, give forth noxious exhalations. For this reason the practice of intra-mural burial has been done away with, and modern cemeteries are placed as far as possible from municipal centres. In lieu of inhumation, the scientists of the present day have devised four methods — namely, cremation, cementation, coking, and electro-plating. Cremation is only the classic funeral pyre, without any of its unpleasant and revolting attendants. The body is reduced to a handful of ashes by intense heat m a furnace so arranged that nothing disagreeable passes off during the procesß. The process of coking ia similar ; but instead of being burned, the body is exposed to a flameless heat and reduced to a hard, brittle substance instead of to ashes. Cementation does not deal directly with the body, but with its environment. It consists m hermetically sealing the coffin by placing a coat of the finest cement all around it. The advantages of a sarcophagus are m this way secured without much expense. But tho latent method, and one which is growing into popular favour, is electro-plating. It is the application of a perfectly even metallic coating to tho surface of the body itself by the same process as that which produces an electrotype. The method is briefly this : — The body is washed with alcohol and sprinkled over with fine graphite powder, to ensure the perfect conduction of electricity. It is then placed m a bath of metallic solution containing a piece of the metal to be used. To this is attached the positive pole of a strong battery ; the negative pole is applied to tho corpse, and a fine film of the metal at once begins to cover the body perfectly and evenly. This may be kept up until the coating attains any desired thickness. To tln3 process there would seem to be no valid objection. In effect it transforms the corpse into a beautiful statuo — form, features, and even expression being perfectly preserved. The body being hermetically sealed within its metal incloaure, merely dries up and assumes the aspect of a mummy. This method obviates many objections which have been urged against cremation, and at the same time meets the wishes of those whom sentiment, if nothing else, inclines to favour the ordinary way of burial. The feeling of desecration of the human form divine, which its reduction to a handful of ashes causes to many people, is entirely done away with, as no rude hand is laid upon the once loved forir. No change is brought about m appearance except that face and figure are covered with a shining veil, through which the familiar lineaments appear with all their well-remem-bered characteristics and expression. — Cassell's Saturday Journal.