CREMATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 858, 10 August 1888, Page 12

CREMATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —Mr Ferguson’s suggestion that a crematory furnace, for the disposal of dead bodies, should be attached to the Destructor is one which commands favourable consideration from the ( City Council. Cremation is now in general Hse in all the large European centres, and especially in Germany and Ttaly is the process extensively adopted. Thus, in Milan alone, during tho last six years no fewer than 463 bodies have _ been burned. From a sanitary point it. is far superior to the burial system, aa by combustion all trace is destroyed of organic matter which might, and does, become detrimental to the health of tho living. This cannot be said of the “ burial-in-tlie-soil ” method. There is no disguising the fact that we have in our midst, in the Sydney-street Cemetery, a mass of putridity which is a

source of great danger to the population of AVellington. As Sir Lyon Playfair, K.C.8., M.P., says in a paper on the “ Disposal of the Dead “In most of our churchyards the dead are harming the living by destroying the soil, fouling tho air, contaminating water-springs, and spreading the seeds of disease. And God’s acre in the Empire City is a similar plague spot. If cremation is to put things on a better footing, so that pestilential germs, may not bo treasured and protected to propagate and multiply, then by all means let us adopt it. Sir Henry Thompson, in an able paper on “The Progress of Cremation,” which appears in the Nineteenth Century for January last, strongly supports cremation, and give 3 some interesting particulars as to the progress of tho system at Home, and of the work done by the Cremation Society of England. It commenced operations in March, 1885, and during 1886 10 bodies were burned, five male and five female, one of them that of a Brahmin. During 1887, up to the 30th November, 10 more bodies were burned, one only being that of a female. The complete incineration is accomplished without escape of smoke or other offensive product, aud with extreme eaao and rapidity. Tho ashes, which weigh about three pounds, are placed at tho disposal of the friends, and are removed ; or, if desired, they may at once bo restored to the soil, being now perfectly innocuous, if that mode of dealing with them is preferred. One friend of the deceased has always been invited to be present, and in almost every- instance has expressed satisfaction with the way in which the proceeding has been carried out by the Society. In the second part of his paper Sir Henry says : “ Arriving now at the second part of my subject, I venture to think that few persons can. doubt that cremation, as a mode of safely decomposing the body after death, is at all events the most rapid aud efficient agent known. Instead of the old process of putrefaction, occupying a term of several years, and inevitably disseminating innumerable germs of fatal disease, which propagate it wherever they find ail appropriate nidus—a process, moreover, evolving physical changes of a nature too repulsive for the mind to dwell upon—rthe effect of combustion is to resolve the mass rapidly into harmless dust. It destroys all corrupting matters, rendering inert all that is infectious, and restores valuable elements in the form of gases to the atmosphere, where they at once enter into new combinations with healthy living organisms, in obedience to the order of nature.” And again he says, “Every year records new facts identifying _ the cause of certain, of the. most familiar types of contagious disease with the presence of minute organisms, bacteria, the absorption of which into tho blood, or even in._ some cases into the alimentary canal, suffices to reproduce tho dangerous malady. One of the most deadly scourges to our race, viz., tubercular disease, is now known to be thus propagated. Then, beside anthrax, or splenix fever, spores from which are notoriously' brought to the surface from buried animals below, and become fatal to the herds feeding there, it ia - now almost certain that malarious diseases, notably, Roman fever, and even tetanus, are due to bacteria, which flourish in the soil itself. The poisons of scarlet fever, typhoid, small-pox, diphtheria, and malignant cholera are undoubtedly trausmissible through earth from the buried body by more than one mode. And thus by the act of interment we literally sow broadcast through tho land innumerable seeds of pestilence ; germs which long retain their vitality, many of them destined at some future time to fructify in premature death and ruined health for thousands.” In the event of the City Council not entertaining Mr Ferguson’s suggestion, it is to bo hoped that that gentleman, with the energy which characterises him, will take steps to bring the matter prominently before tho AVellington public. There are plenty of people here who believe in cremation, and who would only be too glad to see the system adopted in Now Zealand. Apologising for trespassing on your valuable space.— I am &c., Geo. Robertson. •AVellington, August 3.