Report of the Crem<Ulo)i Committee. 223 



As regards Economy. — The disposal of the dead by l)aiiai 

 is already an oj)])ressive charge to the large majority of the 

 population wherever it is numerous. Cemeteries are made 

 further and further away, and the longer conveyance )nateri- 

 ally eniiances the expense, and must continue to do so more 

 and more. The unavoidable crowding of cemeteries has also 

 had the efiect of destroying, or outraging, the reverential 

 sentiment which fondly regarded burial as finally providing 

 foi- the permanent and undisturbed repose of the departed. 



After being first filled with corpses to the extent of from 

 twelve to twenty-two (seventy according to the Duke of 

 Westminster^ — Times, December 9, 1889) in each grave, in 

 nearly all old cemeteries, the ground is similarly used over 

 and over again at intervals of a very few years ; and the 

 purchase of space for a grave or vault, supposed at the time 

 to secure ownership in perpetuity, is a delusion and a snare ; 

 as a mattei- of fact, headstones are broken up for road metal 

 .&c. ; the coliins are bui-ned, and the bones used for manure 

 or shot down as rubbish. No respect is shown for tiie 

 remains of the dead, or for the feelings of their living represen- 

 tatives. All ideas of sanctity and reverence are violated. 

 The \ise of vaults scarcely delays the process. Persons who 

 have wealth and influence may, if watchful, be able to delay 

 the sacrilege during their lives, but the next generation loses 

 both inclination to resist, and power to postpone it. 



The method pursued by the Parsees is nmch less objection- 

 able hygienically considered. It consists in simple exposure 

 on the top of a tower for vultures to dismember and devour 

 the corpse. This does not engross an increasing quantity of 

 land, or involve the desecration of being dug up again in a 

 few years to make loom for some one else, and ]ierha})s oH 

 being shot as rubbish. Still less does it, like burial, [joison 

 the eai-th, air, and water, to the destruction of the living ; 

 but it is practised by but a small section of the populatimi 

 of India, outside of which it has no advocates, and is not 

 likely to extend. 



Desiccation has been leconnnended, and may be adapted 

 to a very dry climate, but apparently not to others. In the 

 Catacombs at Malta, Palermo, and some other places it has 

 been used ; but the results are such as to disgust strangei's, 

 and present such featui-es of irreverence and deseci-ation, as 

 to preclude its wider adoption. It may be possible to secure 

 hygienic I'esuJts by it, but there seems to be much more risk 



