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THE DISPOSAL OF OUR DEAD BY CEEMATION. 

 By Gregory Sprott, M.D., D.P.H. 



Officer of Health, for the City of Hobart. 

 Hon. Pathologist General Hospital, Hobart. 



Bead July 12, 1897. 



The subject of to-night's paper is perhaps a somewhat sad one, and 

 appeals largely to the sentimental part of our natures, but it is nevertheless 

 of the greatest importance from a sanitary point of view, and that shall be 

 my apology for bringing it under your notice. The disposal of our dead 

 by some other and better method than earth burial is one of the sanitary 

 reforms that must be adopted sooner or later. Cremation is the only 

 practicable mode that we know of at present, which gives the greatest 

 protection to the living, and if decently and reverently carried out cannot 

 insult the dead nor hurt the feelings of those left to mourn their loss. Old 

 time usages and predjudices have led many to believe that earth burial is 

 the only Christian method, and that cremation is of heathenish origin, and 

 all those who advocate the burning of dead bodies are without religious 

 feeling. I trust I will be able to show you that not only need no religious 

 feelings be violated, but that the beautiful service for the dead may be 

 made even more impressive. Still there are some who will have sentimental 

 objections to urge, but as we become better acquainted with the life history of 

 disease germs, and the part they play in the causation of infectious diseases, 

 we will be forced, whether we like it or not, to find a more sanitary way of 

 disposing of our dead than by our present mode of burial. It may be the 

 full benefit of cremation would not be felt in our time, but assuredly our 

 children's children would enjoy the good that would come of it when our 

 colony is more densely populated and our cities more crowded. 



Perhaps before dealing with cremation, it might be well to briefly men- 

 tion some of the more common methods of disposing of the dead in ancient 

 and modern times. 



One of the commonest methods is what is known as exposure — that is 

 without any burial at all. This was practised by the ancient Syrcanians, 

 who abandoned their dead to wild dogs, while Kamschatdales keep special 

 dogs to devour their dead, believing that those who are eaten by fine dogs 

 will have fine clogs in the next world. Many of the Indians of North 

 America, some of the Kaffir, as well as some of the Australian tribes, 

 simply carry their dead into the bush to be eaten by wild animals, in this 

 way following the customs of the ancient Asiatics. In some parts the 

 Hindoos at the present time expose their dead on the banks of the sacred 

 rivers to be carried away by aquatic animals. Nowhere do we find this 

 method carried out more fully than by the Parsees of Bombay. Here we 

 find the " Towers of Silence," at the top of which the body is exposed — 

 to be devoured by vultures the moment the friends and mourners with- 

 draw. The bones which have thus been picked clean, often in less than 

 half-an-hour, are allowed to dry in the sun for some days and then put 

 away in an ossuary to decay. "Sea Burial" is another method of exposure 

 and carried out by the inhabitants of the Chatham Islands and those 

 living around the Persian Gulf. In our naval and mercantile marine 

 service we are familiar with this method in cases of death at sea, and 

 although it must be carried out in such cases in the interest of the survi- 

 vors, there are many objections to its adoption as the principal mode of 

 getting rid of our dead. The late Dr. E. A. Parkes favours this method in 

 his Practical Hygiene, but the expense and the difficulties inland towns 

 would experience would render it wholly impracticable, not to speak of the 

 feelings that might arise amongst a community, whose food, to a large 

 extent is fish. 



