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in the damp onep. You can readily perceive, then, how disease germs 

 may be brought up to the surface in graveyards, where bodies have been 

 buried that died of infectious diseases. 



Nothing short of destruction by chemicals or fire will destroy these 

 specific germs, and "hence it is vain to dream of wiping out the re- 

 proach to our civilisation, which the presence and power of these 

 diseases in our midst assuredly constitute, by any precaution or treat- 

 ment, while effective machinery (earth burial) for their reproduction is 

 in constant daily action." 



Lately, in Victoria, the health authorities gave permission to burn 

 the bodies of two persons who had died of leprosy, the disease being 

 due to a soil micro organism. 



Economy. — While as a sanitarian I would advocate cremation on that 

 score alone, there is a commercial view of the question. It cannot be 

 overlooked, however, in considering this question, though it may be 

 repugnant to the feelings of some. You may say we have plenty of 

 land, and with our small population we need not trouble for some 

 time ; but that is not the question. Nature has intended that after 

 our life here the material elements of our body must go to form food 

 for plant life; but when we place the bodies of deceased ones under 

 the earth, are we returning to Nature what we ought, and in such a 

 way as we ought ? I say no. Nay, more, we are huddling together 

 bodies at a depth that are absolutely useless and a source of danger. 

 Since every dead body must sooner or later become part of the vege- 

 table kirgdom, is it not better that it should become so in an hour's 

 time rather than after a long series of years, during which time it may 

 be doing a vast amount of mischief to the living ? The amount of land 

 used for cemeteries is enormous. In London the estimate is 2,000 

 acres, worth over a quarter of a million sterling. 



In Hobart district alone there are 10 cemeteries with 104 acres. The 

 using up of the land in this way is simply a question of time and popu- 

 lation. 



The late Bishop Fraser, speaking on this subject at the Social Science 

 Congress in Manchester in 1879, said : — " On Friday last I consecrated 

 a portion of a new cemetery, provided by the Corporation, on the 

 south side of Manchester, fully five miles from the centre of the city, 

 containing 97 acres, at a cost of £100,000. 



"It is very beautiful, but two thoughts occurred to me. First, 

 this is a long distance for the poor to bring their dead ; and, secondly, 

 here is another 100 acres of land withdrawn from the food-producing 

 area of the country for ever. I feel convinced that before long we shall 

 have to face this problem, how to bury our dead out of our sight, 

 more practically and more seriously than we have hitherto done. I 

 hold ihat the earth was made, not for the dead, but for the living. 

 Cemeteries are becoming not only a difficulty, an expense, and an in- 

 convenience, but an actual danger." But besides this indirect expense, 

 if one might use that term, the lavish expense which accompanies the 

 ceremony of burying our remains would be greatly diminished. 



It is estimated that the cost of funerals alone in England and Wales 

 is not less than £5,000,000 per annum, and in London £1,000,000, and 

 one- third of this amount would amply suffice for cremation. What 

 a blessingthat would be to the widow and orphans whose small portion 

 is often enough cheerfully parted with, so that they may testify to 

 their loving memory of a kind husband or affectionate father. I say 

 there are many other ways of paying the last "tribute of respect" 

 more fitting than by mere vulgar display of funerals. 



Premature Burial. — Among other advantages that one might claim 

 for cremation is that of preventing premature burial. I do not think 

 that premature burial ever does actually take place amongst us, who 



