BURNING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 646, 10 March 1879, Page 2

BURNING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.

. Colonel Colomb, says a Home paper, has raised a question m connection with cremation which deserves immediate attention. If bodies are allowed to be burned on the production of the certificates which are accepted as sufficient' m the case of burial, a very wide door will be open to murder. At present the interment of a body is not an absolute bar to further investigation into the cause of death. Exhumation can be resorted to if reasonable ground for suspicion presents itself , and the presence of pbisbn can be detected long after it has done its work. But cremation would constitute an absolute bar to further investigation. A murder who could avoid exciting suspicion for a week after death had taken place would be perfectly safe. The body would have disappeared, and the ashes of the victim would tell no tales. It is imperatively necessary that before cremation is allowed proper pro* vision should be made either for the official examination of all the organs m which it its possible to detect traces of poison, or their removal from the body before burning and their preservation until such time as they cease to serve as possible witnesses to the cause of death. A "sanitary improvement" which made murder any easier than it is «nmld be a very decided change for the worse.