20 On the Advantages of 



and phosphuretted hydrogen gases are very active poisons, 

 even in a diluted form, it is tolerably easy to conclude that, 

 though they may not kill outright when taken into the 

 system in small doses, yet that their continued influence, 

 when breathed during an extended period, must have an 

 operation the reverse of salutary. Besides these gases, 

 however, given out by putrefying bodies, it is tolerably 

 certain that a vast quantity of volatilised matter must be 

 dispersed through the atmosphere during the process, 

 notwithstanding the weight of superincumbent earth. 

 Mr. Walker, a London surgeon, published some 40 years ago 

 a curious book, entitled " Gatherings from Graveyards," in 

 which he showed very conclusively that from the surface of 

 the ground above dead bodies, there was continually arising 

 a miasma possessing distinctly poisonous qualities. Con- 

 sidering the subtle and mysterious properties of disease- 

 germs, it is far from unlikely that many cases of disease, in 

 which the agencies of causation are obscure, derive their 

 origin from infectious particles thus volatilised. Considering, 

 therefore, how serious a deterioration of the atmosphere is 

 likely to take place by the continual passing into it of 

 volatilised portions of the dead that we bury in the earth, I 

 have for some time concluded that it would only be in 

 accordance with the progress of hygienic improvement, to 

 substitute for the slow, dangerous, and loathsome process of 

 putrefactive fermentation, that of rapid decomposition by 

 fire. Cremation is one of the most ancient of the many 

 modes in which the dead have been disposed of, and I 

 need hardly remark that it is still practised in some 

 countries, notably in India, at the present day. Of all the 

 many methods at various times in use, it commends itself, to 

 my thinking, as the most rational. It substitutes for a pro- 

 cess which takes months to complete, and which is accom- 

 panied by concomitant products of the most disgusting 

 kind, a rapid method whose products do not offend the 

 senses, which do not pollute the air, and which do 

 not therefore endanger the health of the living. By 

 the aid of fire, in the course of an hoar or two, a body 

 can be resolved into carbonic acid, watery vapour, and 

 a few ounces of solid residuum ; for I need hardly say 

 that the earthy residual portion of a body, forms a very 

 small percentage of the whole mass, which consists mostly 

 of water. I am fully aware that the prejudices of modern 

 society are so strong as to prevent the practical adoption of 



