DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 599 



mineral constituents will remain in a crucible. The gases will, ere 

 night, be consumed by plants and trees. The ashes or any portion of 

 them may be preserved in a funeral-urn, or may be scattered on the 

 fields, which latter is their righteous destination. No scents or bal- 

 sams are needed, as on Greek and Roman piles, to overcome the nox- 

 ious effluvia of a corpse burned in open air. Modern science is equal to 

 the task of thus removing the dead of a great city without instituting 

 any form of nuisance; none such as those we tolerate everywhere 

 from many factories, both to air and streams. Plans for the accom- 

 plishment of this have been considered ; but discussion of the subject 

 alone is aimed at here. To treat our dead after this fashion would 

 return millions of capital without delay to the bosom of Mother Earth, 

 who would give us back large returns at compound interest for the 

 deposit. 



Who can doubt now that the question is one of vital economy to 

 the people of this country ? This is still no reason why it should not 

 be considered from the point of view of sentiment. And what has 

 sentiment to urge on behalf of the present process ? Let us see what 

 the process is. 



So far as I dare ! for, could I paint, in its true colors, the ghastly 

 picture of that 'which happens to the mortal remains of the dearest we 

 have losfy the page would be too deeply stained for publication. I 

 forbear, therefore, to trace the steps of the process which begins so 

 soon and so painfully to manifest itself after that brief hour has passed, 

 when " she lay beautiful in death." Such loveliness as that, I agree, 

 it might be treason to destroy, could its existence be perpetuated, and 

 did not Nature so ruthlessly and so rapidly blight her own handy- 

 work, in furtherance of her own grand purpose. The sentiment of 

 the survivor on behalf of preserving the beauty of form and expression, 

 were it possible to do so, would, I confess, go far to neutralize the ar- 

 gument based on utility, powerful as it is. But a glimpse of the reality 

 which we achieve by burial would annihilate, in an instant, every sen- 

 timent for continuing that process. Nay, more, it would arouse a 

 powerful repugnance to the horrible notion that we too must some day 

 become so vile and offensive, and, it may be, so dangerous ; a repug- 

 nance surmountable only through the firm belief that after death the 

 condition of the body is a matter of utter indifference to its dead life- 

 tenant. Surely if we, the living, are to have sentiments, or to exercise 

 any choice about the condition of our bodies after death, those senti- 

 ments and that choice must be in favor of a physical condition which 

 cannot be thought of either as repulsive in itself or as injurious to others. 

 There is a source of very painful dread, as I have reason to know, 

 little talked of, it is true, but keenly felt by many persons, at some 

 time or another, the horror of which to some is inexpressible. It is 

 the dread of premature burial ; the fear lest some deep trance should 

 be mistaken for death, and that the awakening should take place too 



