Report of the Cremation Committee. 225 



cremated during the current year, and Crematories are 

 being established at Manchester, Liverpool, Ilford, Darling- 

 ton, and elsewhere. 



The great advantages of Cremation appet^r to be — Firstly, 

 the perfect extinction, with the corpse, of the possibility of 

 communication by it of any disease to the living. Secondly, 

 its economy. The cost at Paris is only two francs, and it is 

 less in Japan and India. There is eveiy reason to believe 

 that it could be done in Melbourne for a guinea each at 

 most, including examinations, memorial urn, &c. Carriage 

 must sometimes form a comparatively important item in the 

 cost. It can, however, be much reduced, as portable iron 

 crematories have been successfully constructed for military 

 purposes, and will no doubt come into general use. Thirdh-, 

 its finality. Cremation will abolish at once all the shocking 

 desecration which is now inseparable from the burial system. 

 Fourthly, the innocuous residual ashes, less than a quart in 

 quantity, can be preserved in an urn of aesthetic n;iaterial 

 and device, and deposited either in a public institution (or 

 Columbarium), or confided to the care of the family ; with 

 Fifthly, the satisfactory certainty to all concerned, that the 

 body itself can never afterwards be subjected to disturbance, 

 insult, or desecration, or cause incalculable harm to others. 



The only apparently plausible objection that has ever been 

 urged against Cremation is, that the body can never after- 

 wards be available as evidence in cases of murder, particuarly 

 by poison. A case, however, occurred at Milan, which goes 

 far to prove that the risk is actually greater in case of burial 

 (see Robinson, "Cremation and Urn Burial," [)p. 177-8). 

 The parents of a deceased child obtained all the certificates 

 necessary for its burial, before resolving to have it cremated. 

 The additional certificates however, which were required at 

 the Crematorium, elicited the fact that the child had been 

 poisoned accidentally by eating sweetmeats containing 

 copper. Your Committee would strongly recommend that 

 no system whatever be tolerated whicli does not provide 

 amply strict examinations to obviate the possibility of such 

 facts passing undetected. 



An Act, legalising Cremation under conditions, has 

 lately been passed by the South Australian Legislature at 

 Adelaide. 



Lastly, the legal aspect of the question remains to be 

 considered. 



Q 



