16 



ation I am of opinion that a person who burns instead of burying 

 a dead body does not commit a criminal act unless he does it in such 

 a manner as to amount to a public nuisance at common law." After 

 this decision the Cremation Society decided upon the execution of their 

 project, and issued notices stating that the crematorium would be used 

 under certain regulations, which were strict in every detail, and left 

 very little chance of any concealment of crime. 



Although the burniog of a body is not illegal, the law does not 

 recognise it as a legal way of disposing of the dead. In the year 1884 

 Dr. Cameron, M.P. for Glasgow, brought up a bill in the House of 

 Commons " to provide for the better regulation of cremation and other 

 modes of disposal of the dead." His bill was defeated by 142 to 79 

 on the second reading— not a very great majority, considering the 

 whole facts of the case. 



In 1S86 Dr. Creed, M.L.G, Sydney, got a bill through the N.S.W. 

 Legislative Council, making cremation a legal means of disposing of the 

 dead, but the Assembly threw it out. Since 1885 cremation has gone 

 on steadily in England, and up to the end of 1896 870 bodies have been 

 cremated at Woking, while at Manchester there have been 52, at Glas- 

 gow 11, and at the new crematory, opened in Liverpool in September, 

 1896, there have been 3 cremations. 



While all this trouble was going on in England, cremation was 

 already recognised by law on the continent of Europe, and many cre- 

 matories had been established. 



Italy. — In Italy we find Professor Coletti writing of it in 1857, and 

 in 1869 the Sanitary Congress at Florence passed a resolution recom- 

 mending it. The law sanctioned it in 1873, and a crematorium was 

 erected in 1876 at Milan, through the munificence of Baron Kellar. 

 In 1880, a Gorini furnace was put up at Milan, and since then another 

 at Rome. The practice is becoming very common in Italy, and in 

 this, as Professor Sacchi stated at the above Congress, the Italians are 

 only following up the custom of their forefathers. 



France. —France was not slow to follow the example set by Italy, and 

 Dr. de Pietra Santa was a strong advocate for it. In 1880 a society 

 was formed, and in 1887 a crematorium was erected in the Pere la 

 Chaise on the Gorini principle, and since then four furnaces have been 

 erected. Cremation is indeed common in Paris, and in the first quarter 

 of 1896 over 1,200 bodies were cremated. 



Germany. — In Germany the Government permitted cremations as 

 early as 1879, since then a crematorium has been established at Gotba, 

 where the practice is regularly followed. 



Crematories or societies for the promoting of cremation, have been 

 established in many other European countries, notably Denmark, 

 Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden, while in the Australias we have 

 societies in Melbourne and Sydney. 



America. — In the United States cremation has become very popular. 

 There are at the present time about 26 crematories, and the advance in 

 favour of it is shown by the fact that in 1885 there were only 36 bodies 

 disposed of in this way, while in 1895 there were 876 cremations. 

 From this short history of the movement you will at once see that cre- 

 mation is slowly, it may be, but nevertheless surely, growing in favour 

 with the people of every civilised community. 



It is not to be expected that a reform of this nature will be effected 

 until the people are educated up to it, but I feel convinced that as 

 Boon as the advantages of cremation are appreciated, so soon may we 

 expect those in authority to move in the matter. 



It will now be my duty to place before you the advantages of cre- 

 mation over ail other methods of disposing of our dead, and to explain 

 a way some of the objections which have been urged against it. 



