Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 119 



Dr. Neild also announced the receipt of a notice served 

 upon the Society through the Caretaker, by the Inspector 

 of Streets, to the effect that the trees growing round the 

 grounds were encroaching too much upon the footpath. He 

 stated he had ascertained that in no instance were the 

 branches of the trees less than ten feet above the ground, 

 and were not likel}^ therefore to be a source of inconvenience 

 to passers by. The complaint that they obstructed the light 

 was nonsensical. Even if they did, nobody would suffer but 

 the Society. He thought this was an unwarranted inter- 

 ference with the beauty of their grounds, and he would 

 therefore call a Meeting of the House Committee who would 

 investigate and report upon the matter. 



Cremation. 



Mr. H. K. KuSDEN, in accordance with notice given at the 

 previous Meeting, moved the appointment of a Committee 

 of experts to enquire into this subject. He said : — It may 

 perhaps be too much to expect you to remember that I had 

 the honour of reading a short paper before the Hygienic 

 Section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, on the subject of " Cremation, a Sanitary 

 Necessity." I had collected a few papers and books on the 

 subject, and thought it a pity that the occasion should pass 

 without a paper on it. Shortly before the Meeting of the 

 Association I ascertained that none had been offered on 

 Cremation, so I undertook to produce one. In examining 

 my materials, I was even more struck by the important 

 evidence of the imminent danger to the public health 

 involved in the present system of burial, and of the shocking 

 and general desecration of the sepulchres of our dead nearly 

 everywhere, than by the rapid progress now being made by 

 Cremation. My paper was, in fact, devoted to the condens- 

 ing of that evidence, to tlie neglect of equally interesting 

 information as to the various methods in use in different 

 parts of the world for effecting Cremation. I had long been 

 aware of the superiority of Cremation as a means of dis- 

 posing of the dead ; in fact, I read a ]->aper to the Health 

 Society 14 years ago, advocating that among other measures 

 of funeral reform. I have for some time also intended to 

 take advantage of the first favourable opportunity of 

 bringing it prominently under public notice. I think that 

 time has come, and that the adoption of Cremation in 



