24 On the Advantages of 



render them innocuous. I am by no means clear, however, 

 that any depth would be a complete security against the 

 evolution of the products of putridity, and I think it will 

 be admitted that the very fact of a gas having a foul smell 

 is an indication, our stench-defending friend to the contrary, 

 that there is danger near. The foul smell, in fact, has been 

 well described as "Nature's monitor," a sense-indicator, 

 suggesting danger. Of the risk from contamination of water 

 from buried bodies I apprehend there can be no doubt ; and 

 though the old well-system is not so much in favour as it 

 once was, it is quite impossible to say how far a con- 

 taminated subterranean water-course will extend, or how 

 long the water will retain its poisonous qualities. I have 

 been asked if filling the coffin with anhydrous lime would 

 not effect the same end as burning, I reply that it would 

 only partially do so. The body would be decomposed 

 indeed, and there would be combinations between the gases, 

 the product acids, and the lime ; but a fluid mass would still 

 remain, and it is questionable if, after all, complete disin- 

 tegration would result. It has been suggested as a more 

 utilitarian mode of effecting rapid decomposition, to trans- 

 form the body into artificial guano, by means of sulphuric 

 acid, as is now I believe extensively practised upon the bodies 

 of sheep and other animals which cannot be used for food. I 

 have no especial objection to this mode, but I think crema- 

 tion is cleaner, and is, moreover, a less dangerous process. It is 

 certainly more poetical. One other objection is to the effect 

 that, whereas by the ordinary practice of inhumation, the 

 products of decomposition are all kept below the ground, in 

 cremation they are distributed through the atmosphere. I 

 would remind those who take this exception to the practice, 

 that the products of combustion are principally water and 

 carbonic acid ; that the water certainly does no harm, and 

 that carbonic acid is being continually disposed of by 

 vegetation. 



To such objections to the proposal, as consist in the 

 reproach that cremation does away with " Christian " burial, 

 and is the adoption of a Pagan practice, I have nothing to 

 say. To decry an improvement because it is the revival 

 of an old custom, takes the objector beyond the range of 

 argument. It was once considered an eminently Christian 

 virtue, entitling him who practised it to the honours of 

 canonisation, to discard the use of soap and water; and this 

 kind of media? val piety prevails a good deal yet, notwith- 



