'748 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 



wherein the dead body is placed in a hght shell and exposed 

 in a furnace to a temperature of 1500° Fah., but Avithout 

 contact with the fuel. Cremation as practised in a modified 

 Gorini furnace at Woking, England, is declared to be abso- 

 lutely inoffensive. There is neither smoke nor smell. The 

 body is rapidly decomposed into volatile matter and residual 

 ash. The volatile i^i'oducts, before escaping by a chimney, 

 are passed over a coke fire to ensure complete combustion, 

 which entirely prevents the suspicion of a nuisance. The 

 proximate result of the process is chiefly that carbonic 

 dioxide, ammonia, and water are set free, and a pure white 

 ash remains. The more or less oxidised mineral elements 

 which constitute the ash form the only visible i-esult. The 

 ashes of cremated adults weigh from four and a half to 

 seven pounds, and occupy a space from one-half to three- 

 quarters of a gallon. 



A cremation occupies, according to weight of body, from 

 one to two hours. The ash of each cremated body, which is 

 always innocuous and free from odour, may be placed at the 

 disposal of the friends to be preserved, if desired, in a 

 cinerary urn or casket, or formally buried, and thus restored 

 to its rightful place — the soil. 



Let us for a few minutes consider earth burial. What 

 happens as a consequence of this mode of putting the dead 

 out of our sight? The body, enclosed in a more or less 

 enduring coffin, is placed in the ground and covered with a 

 few feet of soil. For a term varying from about five to 

 fifteen years, according to nature of the soil and weight of the 

 body, a repulsive process of putrefaction goes on until, by the 

 slow resolving action, the ultimate end comes with complete 

 disappearance. 



The body, after interment in the earth, according to Dr. 

 Parkes, is resolved into carbonic acid, ammonia, sulphuretted 

 and carburetted hydrogen, nitric and nitrous acids, and 

 various complex and foetid gases which get oxygenated into 

 simpler compounds. 



The emanations from a putrifying body in a concentrated 

 form are deadly; diluted largely by the atmosphere, they 

 are deleterious. The atmosphere in and around crowded 

 burying grounds, especially should there be many shallow 

 graves, gets tainted with the gaseous exhalations, which 

 impair the health of those who live near and habitually inhale 

 what, but for the proximity of a crowded grave-yard, would 

 be wholesome air. 



