THALIATAPHY.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1829, 12 November 1874, Page 3

THALIATAPHY.

We extract the following from an American scientific journal:—" Ihe disposition of our dead is a problem so important tiat any contribution towards its solution should be welcomed. Ordinary inhumation is manifestly objectionable- on sanitary grounds. The pollution of the air we breathe and the water we drink is •nough to condemn the practice in densely populated countries. ■ ■» The Italian suggestion of casting the bodies into one common charnel house, hastening decomposition by caustic alkalies, is repulsive; the mingling of the good and the bud, the richiand the poor, offends our moral and social tastes ; and then, too f we fear some •ne in this utilitarian age would propose, and some agricultural legislature carry out, the idea of- using the compest as a fertiliser. The best modification of seperato burials in the earth is the use of hydrated oxide of iron to assist the destruction of the body ; but even this is pot entirely free from the hygienist's objections. In spite of the utmost precautions (which in practice would be seldom carried out), tikeair end water would be more or less elJfTlatninated. The pagan plan of cremation has something in ifa" favor, but much against it. The establishment of furnaces for the conversion of our depar.ed friends into gases and ashes is too infernal to be popular ; and we are not sure that the atmosphere would be any the better for breathing or smelling, should the 'practice become general. To those who object to earth burial for the sake of the living, and to the roasting process on other grounds, we now propose a third method,: which certainly has the merit of escaping the disadvantages of the other two. 'We mean burial in the deep sea, which, for the want of a better word, we will call thallataphy. • Let a steamer for the purpose—a floating hearse —transport thedead at least a hundred miles from land, and commit them to'the depths. The coffin, whether of metal or wood, should be perforated with small holes and freighted. Is any one shocked ? We doubt if he can tell why. Banish the idea of sharks ; they belong to the coast. The deep sea fauna is made up of low and harmless forms ot life —sponges, rhisopods, diminutive molluaces, and the like. The dead would never pollute anything of which the living partake. Do you prefer to commit the relics of your departed friends to their " kindred elements ? " It is far more appropriate to lay them in the ! bosom of the ocean than to inter them in the land—dust with dust; for the average man consists of 881bs. of water to 66 of ■olid matter. Nor need any one be troubled about the resurrection; for we are assured that' the sea shall give up its dead.' We say then, especially to the great maritime cities like JN'ew York and Boston, London and Liverpool, away with patent furnaces and crowded cemeteries, and find, rest in the unlimited burial place , which nature has provided."