304 CREMATIOlSr AS A SANITARY MEASURE. 



the Royal Institute of Science and Letters of Lombardy 

 offered a prize for the best practical method. From this 

 time on interest in the movement steadily increased and 

 cremation found champions among the most learned 

 professors and physicians of Italy. In England it was 

 strongly urged by such men as Sir Henry Thompson, Sir 

 Spencer Wells and Wm. Eassie, and in America by Dr. 

 Samuel D. Gross and Dr. Julius LeMoyne. As a result 

 cremation societies were started all over Europe and 

 America. In 1876 a second crematory was built at Lodi, 

 Italy, and a third at Washington, Pa., by Dr. LeMoyne. 

 The fourth crematory was built by the municipal coun- 

 cil of the city of Gotha, Germany, and opened to the 

 public in 1878, the fifth was at Woking, England, in 

 1879, but it took six years before they could discover 

 that there was no law in England, ancient or modern, for- 

 bidding the practice of cremation. Consequently no in- 

 cineration took place in England till 1885. Cremationists 

 were greatly encouraged at this time to find among their 

 number such men as Bishop Monrad, prime-minister of 

 Denmark, Lord Beaconsfield, Gambetta, General Gara- 

 baldi and even Pince Bismarck. During the first ten 

 years of cremation in Italy 787 incinerations took place 

 in that country alone, and during the first eight years 

 the crematory at Gotha incinerated over 500 bodies. 

 During the year 1885 the friends of cremation laid before 

 the German Eeichstag a petition signed by 23,865 names, 

 earnestly requesting that the practice of incineration be 

 allowed in all the cities of Germany. 



In France the first crematory was built in Paris for the 

 cremation of the remains of the 4,000 persons annually 

 dissected in the hospitals. It is frequently the case that 

 an enterprise will succeed in proportion to the amount of 

 opposition it meets, and it was so with cremation in 

 Portugal, where organized and violent opposition was 

 shown on the part of the clergy. But, as usual, the 



