750 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 



in the past strongly held, have supported the procedure. A 

 writer in one of the medical papers has expressed very con- 

 cisely the ]5resent governing sentiment favouring earth inter- 

 ment. " Burial," he says, " invests the grave with a certain 

 inspiration as of the actual presence." It certainly seems to 

 be a powerful factor with friends for deciding in favour of 

 inhumation. 



Having thus briefly dealt with the present mode of disposing 

 of the dead, and indicated some oftlie consequences, let us now 

 see what advantages are claimed for cremation. By this 

 process the dead body is disposed of rapidly, and in a way 

 which cannot be injurious to the living. It effectually 

 destroys all disease germs which may exist in the body, and 

 renders it harmless for any future infection. It obviates all 

 the possible deleterious influences which earth burial may 

 entail on the living during a prolonged term of putrefaction. 

 Essentially it is a rapid progress of decomposition and puri- 

 fication during which the dead body, less a few pounds, is 

 returned into the atmosphere in combinations available for 

 the growth of vegetation. 



Where poison has been criminally administered and the 

 dead body cremated it prevents the chance of discovery. 

 This is true without exception as regards vegetable poisons, 

 such, for instance, as strychnine. Mineral poisons, as arsenic, 

 antimony, &c., should they have been administered in any 

 considerable quantity, would not be dissipated, and would be 

 detectable in the ash. 



The medico-legal objection, though at first sight formidable, 

 is by no means insurmountable. Burial even does not give 

 security for the detection of poisoning. Many of the most 

 active poisons such as prussic acid, chloroform, chloral, &:c., 

 would leave no trace behind should exhumation and a 

 chemical examination be instituted. 



According to Sir H. Thompson, an average of only one 

 judicial exhumation annually takes place in England. The 

 medico-legal objection is readily overcome by a careful system 

 of double certification ; and where, after full investigation, any 

 doubt exists as to the cause of death, the body should not be 

 cremated. 



After carefully looking at the evidence for and against 

 burial and cremation respectively, I think we shall agree 

 that the latter procedure is desirable, at any rate, where death 

 follows infectious diseases. 



In the course of time, as custom alters so will sentiment, 



