34 CltEMATION. 



or vegetable life-germs. Hence the necessity for artificial treatment. 

 There are so many methods by which the process could be successfully 

 conducted that I will not enter on that branch of the subject. There 

 would certainly be little difficulty in framing such regulations as 

 should be a distinct improvement upon those which are at present in 

 use for the disposal of the dead. 



The only objection to Cremation which is really of such a 

 character as to call for serious consideration, and to remove which, 

 special precautions must undoubtedly be taken, is the fact that the 

 operation would entirely destroy all trace of foul means as the cause 

 of death. It occasionally happens that after burial circumstances 

 arise which render it desirable to exhume bodies for purposes 

 of examination. Although exhumation seldom results in anything 

 very definite or valuable, public opinion is not likely to be in 

 favour of abandoning it until it is satisfied that a good substitute 

 is ready. 



All regulations are more or less liable to abuse. People have been 

 hung for offences they have had no part in. Society is occasionally 

 shocked to find that an innocent person has undergone imprisonment 

 or penal servitude (which by the bye are now synonymous terms), and 

 endeavours to make such atnends as are suggested by the circumstances. 

 But it would not for a moment be contended that such unfortunate 

 exceptions offer any inducement to abolish such punishments. It 

 m'lst also be admitted that under present conditions there are 

 probably many persons buried whose deaths have been hastened by 

 foul means, never suspected or questioned before or after burial, and 

 with such precautions as are possible, I think it could be made much 

 more difficult to dispose of such bodies than is now the case. 

 Certainly it would not be difficult to improve upon the coroner's 

 inquiry as at present conducted. One cannot repress astonishment 

 that such a cumbersome and unqualified piece of administration has 

 not succumbed to the want of confidence its decisions excite in 

 the minds of those intimately acquainted with such courts. 

 Since the public mind has ceased to be satisfied with verdicts 

 attributing deaths to the "Act of God" it is manifestly unfair to 

 expect juries, as at present constituted, to elucidate mysteries too 

 deep for the coroner or themselves. 



The legal profession never fails to supply the Judicial Bench with 

 occupants who deservedly possess the fullest confidence of the public. 

 Is it too much to say that the medical profession is equally well 

 able to supply any required number of trained experts, in every sense 

 qualified to give the public absolute facts respecting deaths calling 

 for inquiry? 



With such safeguards as medical men are well able to furnish, 

 I will remind my hearers that the difficuJty already referred to as 

 presenting the most serious practical obstacle to cremation, does not 

 apply to cases in which cremation is most necessary, i.e., where deaths 

 have arisen from diseases of an infectious nature, and which are those 



