CREMATION OF THE DEAD
ITS HISTORY
AND
BEARINGS UPON PUBLIC HEALTH

BY
WILLIAM EASSIE, C.E.

FELLOW OF THE LINNEAN AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES
MEMBER OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1875

[All rights reserved]

Dedicated

TO

SIR H. THOMPSON, F.R.C.S.

ETC. ETC.

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS ENLIGHTENED ADVOCACY OF
A PRACTICE PREVALENT IN ANCIENT TIMES,
BUT LONG ABANDONED, TO THE GREAT
DETRIMENT OF MANKIND

PREFACE.

Shortly after having accepted, from the members of the Council of the Cremation Society of London, the office of Secretary, a wish was expressed to me by the President of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association, that I should prepare a paper upon the Bearings of Cremation upon Public Health. A short paper, with this title, was therefore read, and was afterwards published in the Journal of the Association by the Editor, Mr. Ernest Hart. It was so favourably received by all, that I have been induced to extend my enquiries and so render the work, if possible, more acceptable as an exposition of the subject. I am sensible of its many defects, but I trust that it will be found to furnish some useful information which cannot well be obtained elsewhere, besides proving an assistance to those who are desirous of studying the question more fully.

William Eassie.

Child's Hill, London, N.W.
December, 1874.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

The probable sanitary origin of Cremation—Not necessarily opposed to Religion—General reasons—Wisdom of adopting it in cases of epidemics—Sundry objections treated—The decorousness of the practice—Cremation desirable in the battlefield—In cases of murrain—In the destruction of condemned food, &c.

1-23

CHAPTER II.
METHODS OF TREATING THE DEAD.

Exposure, or the absence of all burial—Consignment to the deep—Petrifaction—Envelopment in some solid material—Burial in the earth—Embalming preparations—Desiccation of the body—Cremation a widely-spread practice—Examples of quasi-cremation

24-40

CHAPTER III.
OUR BURIAL LAWS.

State of things thirty years ago—The new cemeteries—Space allowed for, and the depths of interments—Vault burial—A well-chosen cemetery—An improperly-chosen one—The closing and regulation of old burial-grounds, &c.—Materials for coffins

41-52

CHAPTER IV.
DANGERS OF OUR SYSTEM OF BURIAL.

Churchyards and the evils resulting from some of them—How the living are affected by them—Disorders caused by putrid emanations—Dangers of inhaling the atmosphere of some burial-grounds—Vaults—Poisoning of wells and water-courses—Laxity of many interments 53-67

CHAPTER V.
PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION.

Promoters of the practice of Cremation and prospects of its adoption in Italy—In Switzerland—In France—In Belgium—In Austria—In Germany—In America—In England—Sir Henry Thompson's work—The Cremation Society of London, its objects, &c. 68-88

CHAPTER VI.
CREMATION, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

Ancient modes of cremation as illustrated by recent burnings in Italy, India, Siam, and North America—Modern experiments in Italy, Germany, and England—The Siemens' apparatus, its construction, perfect working, and economy—Proposed procedure—Disposal of the ashes—Description of cinerary vessels, old and new—Conclusion—Bibliography of the subject 89-130

ILLUSTRATIONS.

(All at end of book.)

PLATE

I. View of a Siemens' Apparatus (German Pattern).

II. Siemens' Apparatus (English Pattern).

III. Sketch of Mortuary Chapel.

IV. Urns.

V. Sketch of Family Columbarium, or Niche in Private Chapel.

VI. Urns in the Crypt and Church.

CREMATION OF THE DEAD.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Cremation of the dead is neither new in theory nor in practice. In the England of modern times, however, the question has only recently assumed recognised importance. And the more one considers cremation, the more one finds himself wondering how it has come to pass that we practise burial, with its many faults, and do not burn our dead. Thousands amongst us are now beginning to feel thankful that the dead are soon to 'rule our spirits from their urns' in a realistic and not alone in a poetical sense. They think there is something majestic and even pleasurable in the idea that it will ere long be possible, on all civilised shores, to leave their mother earth, not with a partial, but with a fully consummated sacrifice upon her altar, bidding her adieu none the worse, but rather the better, for their sojourn with her. They groan and labour under the burden