256 CREMATION, PROGRESS OF. 



CUBA. 



two at Milan, in close receptacles, with gas, in 

 1876; and two in 1877. The Cremation So- 

 ciety of Milan, established in 1876, and having 

 now two Gorini furnaces, had, on the 31st of 

 December, 1886, cremated 463 bodies. Simi- 

 lar buildings to that of the Milan Society, but 

 on a smaller scale, have been constructed at 

 Lodi, Cremona, Brescia, Padua, Varese, and 

 in the Campo Varano Cemetery at Rome, at 

 the last of which 123 cremations were per- 

 formed between April, 1883, and the 31st of 

 December, 1886. The whole number of cre- 

 mations in Italy till the last date was 787. 

 The only place in Germany where the process 

 is regularly performed is Gotha, where the 

 first human body was reduced in a building 

 constructed, with permission of the Govern- 

 ment, in December, 1878, and 473 reductions 

 had taken place on the 31st of October, 1887. 

 Cremation societies have been formed in Den- 

 mark, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, 

 and Norway, and at several places in the 

 United States. A bill to establish and regulate 

 cremation was approved by the Legislative 

 Council of New South Wales in 1886, but 

 failed to pass the House of Assembly. A 

 spacious crematory at Pere la Chaise, Paris, 

 was first used on the 22d of October, 1887. 

 The English society's crematory went into 

 operation in 1884, after a judgment had been 

 obtained from Mr. Justice Stephen that this 

 mode of disposing of the dead is legal, provid- 

 ed no nuisance is incurred ; and thirteen cre- 

 mations had taken place in it at the end of 

 November, 1887. According to Sir Henry 

 Thompson, " the complete incineration is ac- 

 complished " (in the Gorini furnace) " without 

 escape of smoke or other offensive product, 

 and with extreme ease and rapidity. The 

 ashes, which weigh about three pounds, are 

 placed at the disposal of the friends, and are 

 removed; or, if desired, they may be restored 

 at once to the soil, being now perfectly in- 

 nocuous, if that mode of dealing with them is 

 preferred. One friend of the deceased is al- 

 ways iuvited to be present." To prevent the 

 process being abused by people desiring to 

 conceal evidences of poisoning, it is insisted 

 that, in all cases where the cause of disease is 

 in doubt, an autopsy shall be made. If this is 

 objected to by the family of the deceased, the 

 doubtful case is avoided. The friends of cre- 

 mation profess to desire that, in all legislation 

 that may be sought authorizing the process, 

 the most effective safeguards that can be de- 

 vised shall be provided against an irregular 

 use of it. 



A congress of friends of cremation was held 

 in Vienna, in September, at which reports were 

 made showing that about fifty furnaces had 

 been erected in different countries, of which 

 twenty were in Italy, one in Germany, one in 

 England, one in Switzerland, one in France, 

 and the rest in the United States. According 

 to a paper read by Mr. C. K. Remington in 

 the American Association (Cleveland meeting, 



1888), crematories are in operation near nine 

 cities of the Union, viz. : Washington, Lancaster, 

 Pittsburg, and Philadelphia, Pa. ; Brooklyn, 

 and Buffalo, N. Y. ; Detroit, Mich. ; St. Louis, 

 Mo. ; Los Angeles, Cal. ; and in many other 

 places cremation societies have been established 

 for a considerable time. The crematory at Buf- 

 falo is supplied with a Venini furnace, by which 

 a body can be reduced, without offensive re- 

 sults, in an hour and a half or less. The ap- 

 paratus was inspected with much interest by 

 members of the American Association in 1886 ; 

 and among the results of the visit were the for- 

 mation of several cremation societies and the 

 erection, in one or two instances, of crema- 

 tories. The religious prejudices that at first 

 existed against this method seem to be passing 

 away. The Bishop of Manchester, in a ser- 

 mon delivered in April, 1888, said that if there 

 is anything in Paul's doctrine of the resurrec- 

 tion bearing upon the subject, he thought that 

 " it indicates that of the two modes proposed, 

 cremation is the more Christian." 



CUBA, an island in the West Indies, belong- 

 ing to Spain. (For statistics of area, popula- 

 tion, etc., see " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1883.) 



Army. The Commander -in-Chief and Cap- 

 tain-General of the island is Don Sabas Marin. 

 The strength of the Spanish forces in Cuba in 

 1888 was 20,000. The principal features of 

 the proposed military reforms in Spain and 

 her colonies comprise compulsory service for 

 every born or naturalized Spaniard who hns 

 attained twenty years of age. There is to be 

 no exemption, either in time of peace or in war, 

 except for physical infirmity. The duration of 

 service will be twelve years in the peninsula 

 and eight in the colonies. Three years will be 

 passed in actual service, four in the first re- 

 serve, and five in the second reserve, the last 

 class being only liable to be called out one 

 month in each year in time of peace. No pecu- 

 niary redemption will be permitted, except for 

 an exchange from colonial to home service. 



Finance. The Cuban budget for 1888-'89 

 estimates the outlay at $25,614,494, and the 

 income at $25,622,968. The actual receipts in 

 1886-'87 prove to have been $24,352,489 in- 

 stead of $25,994,725 as had been estimated, 

 while the actual expenses were $26,444,641 

 instead of $25,959,735 as estimated. During 

 the first six months of the fiscal year 1887-'88 

 the actual receipts were $9,959,126 as com- 

 pared with the estimated, $10,389,203 ; on the 

 other hand, the expenses did not exceed $8,- 

 904,751 instead of reaching the estimate, $11,- 

 378,648. 



In October proposals were made to the Colo- 

 nial Minister of Spain for a conversion of the 

 bonded debt of the island and its floating in- 

 debtedness, the whole aggregating the equiva- 

 lent of 25,000,000. These propositions came 

 simultaneously from Spanish and foreign bank- 

 ing institutions, The conversion would chiefly 

 bear on the 620,000,000 francs of the loan of 

 1886, the interest aud sinking-fund charge of 



