320 THE INVISIBLE WOULD 



man burials. Though the burials are six feet deep, 

 the gases are sure to rise to the surface. If death 

 is caused by contagious and infectious diseases, the 

 germs, rising in the gases, are liable to spread the 

 disease. To visit such graves is to walk in danger. 

 Many an epidemic, no doubt, springs from grave- 

 yard and cemetery. 



To cremate the dead is to save the living from all 

 this danger. From the sanitary point of view, 

 therefore, it is infinitely to be preferred. Could we 

 understand it rightly, too, it would be equally pre- 

 ferred from every other point of view. 



The chemical change through which the body 

 passes is precisely the same in the furnace as in 

 the grave. In each case it is the oxygen of the at- 

 mosphere uniting with the carbon of the body, pro- 

 ducing carbon dioxide which, in turn, goes to feed 

 the vegetable world. In the grave the change re- 

 quires years; in the furnace, but a few moments. 

 The one fire is slow, the other quick. 



The furnace, being a million times the better 

 analytical chemist, is a million times to be pre- 

 ferred. Dissolution into the original elements al- 

 most instantly is so much nicer than long years of 

 " moldering in the grave " ! 



A single cremation now costs about $40.00. 

 Were the practice universal, it would cost but $2.50. 



Happily, crematories are multiplying. The 

 tombstone must go, the photo remain. Commit the 

 body to the undertaker; he will do the rest. 



