CREMATION AND ITS ALTERNATIVES. 227 



magnesium, one product would be analogous (of course, not quite the 

 same) to our magnesia alba of commerce. The formation of a mass 

 of carbonate of calcium, not, however, possessing any degree of chem- 

 ical purity worthy of mention, but sufficient for a specific mineralogi- 

 cal identification, and for the purpose of easy reduction to atoms by 

 pulverization, deliquescence, or solution, would not be a difficult, ex- 

 l^ensive, or very tedious operation for the practical chemist. The re- 

 duction of the mass of carbonate of calcium into lime, and carbonic 

 anhydride, would be a matter of the very easiest execution. It re- 

 quires only heat to full redness in open vessels. In a current of air, 

 or any gas, and esj^ecially of steam, the decomposition, or retrograde 

 transition, takes place at a lower temperature. It requires no altera- 

 tion of the principle in confining the process to the magnesium car- 

 bonates, or any other compound of carbon that may be mentioned. 

 The hydrated carbonate, or ortho-carbonate, would difi*er from the 

 carbonate less in principle than in the stage or point of extension of 

 the process, and would be even more serviceable for one specific pur- 

 pose, inasmuch as the product, at the ordinary temperature of the air, 

 would crumble to a white powder, or, if quickly heated, would be con- 

 verted into a pasty mass, which dries up to a powder. To effect this 

 conversion of the body, which, at the outset of the operation, possesses 

 the carbon element in sufficient abundance to be capable of almost any 

 definite union under favorable circumstances, would require immersion 

 in solutions which it would be easy to formulate and prepare, for 

 any one under the inspiration of chemical experience and practical 

 genius. 



In a body weighing 154 pounds, not less than 110 pounds are 

 water. Water, in any appreciable quantity, not becoming a constitu- 

 ent of our imagined necro-lithos, we see, at once, what an enormous 

 reduction of bulk and actual weight the proj)osed process expe- 

 riences. Therefore, no cognizance need be taken of the water of the 

 body as a factor requiring special attention, its elimination being in- 

 evitable, and all the better, for it would have to be driven off by heat 

 and evaporation, if it did not withdraw itself spontaneously. One 

 of the peculiar features of the method is necessarily the spontaneous 

 exclusion of the water — 44 pounds of solid matter, then (in a body 

 weighing 154 pounds), is exchanged for 44 pounds of calcareous stone 

 of so non-compact a nature that it is peculiarly friable, peculiarly sol- 

 uble, and wonderfuliy easy to dispose of. Carbon and water (or the 

 elements of water), together with nitrogen, constitute about 98 per 

 cent, of the whole weight of the human bedy. The nitrogen present 

 weighs about 3^ pounds in 154, and to this is largely due the usual 

 rapid decomposition. The suggested process of calcification would 

 drive off nitrogen, together with about ten other very common chem- 

 ical elements, existing in small quantities. The elements thus ex- 

 pelled rearrange themselves into ammonia, nitric acid, and other solu- 



