300 CREMATION AS A SANITARY MEASURE, 



deraic of yellow fever came upon the dreadful fact that 

 the soil of the cemeteries was alive with micro-organisms 

 exactly identical with those found in the vomitings and 

 blood of yellow fever patients. 



In France some years ago spleenic fever or charbon 

 nearly destroyed all the sheep in the country. In order 

 to blot out the disease in one locality the sheep that died 

 were buried at a depth of twenty feet and the pasture 

 was not used for twelve years, when some healthy sheep 

 were pastured there and were at once attacked by the 

 deadly disease. Dr. Pasteur found that the sheep that 

 had been buried twelve years before at a depth of twenty 

 feet were the cause, the germs of the disease having been 

 brought to the surface by earth worms, since the germs 

 were found in great numbers in the intestinal canals of 

 these worms. 



Burying in the earth then presents the evil not only 

 of contaminating the earth, but of producing special con- 

 tagious and infectious diseases from germs which are 

 buried with the human body but not destroyed. Now 

 to destroy every vestige of danger, there seems to be but 

 one remedy, that of cremation. It applies not only to 

 the dead human body, but to animals, garbage and 

 everything which is offensive or dangerous to health. 

 Cremation is the only thing that can completely annihi- 

 late the living germs of contagious and infectious dis- 

 eases, and render the remains of patients who die from 

 plague, small-pox, yellow fever or cholera as innocent as 

 the ashes of the purest wood. Outside of the question 

 of cremating the bodies of the dead the garbage and re- 

 fuse of cities should be by all means cremated. It is by 

 far the cheapest and safest manner of disposing of it. 



In most large cities it has become compulsory to estab- 

 lish cemeteries at certain distances from the city limits; 

 but this only slightly lessens the danger, for it must 

 always be a fact to consider that every large city has in 



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