302 CEEMATION AS A SANITARY MEASURE. 



been^calculated that six millions of urns, each containing 

 the remains of one person, would not, if placed in 

 separate compartments, require twenty acres of land, 

 including flower-beds, walks, etc. Greenwood Cemetery, 

 at this rate, would receive no less than twenty millions 

 of urns. Every church might have an apartment set 

 aside for the reception of four or five thousand urns, 

 from which no inconsiderable income might be derived. 



Cremation would do entirely away with the ghoulish 

 occupation of the body snatcher, and there would be no 

 danger of the graves of celebrated personages being 

 desecrated, as in the cases of A. T. Stewart, and the 

 attempted desecration of Lincoln's and Garfield's graves. 

 How often, too, do we find it difficult — even dangerous 

 and expensive — to transport the remains of a friend or 

 relative from one distant place to another. How simple 

 this could be made with only the pure ashes left after 

 incineration. 



If burials were always conducted properly and ceme- 

 tery associations always used sanitary methods, earth 

 burial might lose a large proportion of its danger, but 

 this is not often the case. A committee appointed by 

 the Newtown, L. I., Board of Health, when they visited 

 the poor section of Calvary Cemetery found a trench 

 fifteen feet deep in which bodies were deposited, one 

 above the other, until near the surface of the ground, 

 when a little earth was thrown over it. As soon as one 

 trench was filled another was started alongside; thus one 

 side was always open. As nearly as the committee could 

 estimate, 1,500 bodies were deposited in a space 10x200 

 feet. This is one of the large cemeteries in the close 

 vicinity to New York and Brooklyn. This committee 

 found also that at Calvary Cemetery the authorities 

 make it a practice to disinter the bodies of children 

 whenever the body of an adult is to be buried in the 

 same grave, and considering how many children die from 



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