Ji6 The Cremation Question . [December, 
is being forced upon public attention on quite other grounds. 
Our present system of ascertaining and certifying the causes 
of death is, in the opinion of the coroners of two of the 
most important provincial cities, far too lax. Were crema- 
tion established, in every suspicious case the proper ex- 
amination would be made at once, and the results would be 
far more decisive than those obtained from the autopsy and 
the analysis of an exhumed corpse. 
The second argument is one of a sanitary nature. It has 
been contended that the destruction of so large a mass of 
organic matter as the human body, by fire, could not be 
effected without the emission of fumes certainly loathsome 
and probably dangerous. This objection is entertained only 
by such as have a totally wrong notion of the arrangements 
to be employed. True, if we lay a human body upon a heap 
of coal or wood, and then apply fire, we shall have a scene 
revolting to our feelings and sickening to the senses. A 
variety of volatile products, such as Dippel’s animal oil, will 
be given off, and it will be only after a very prolonged roasting 
that the charred remains will be reduced to their ultimate 
state — a pinkish white ash. But if the corpse is at once 
exposed to the heat of a Siemens gas furnace the offensive 
products of combustion are instantly decomposed into their 
simple elements ; there is no smell and no blackening, but 
the rapid production of the white ash. It must be confessed 
that the nitrogen of the body escapes in a free state, and is 
consequently of no more value from an agricultural point of 
view. But if we allow animal matter to putrefy, whether 
above ground or below its surface, a great part of its nitrogen 
escapes in the same inert condition. Of one thing we may 
feel absolutely certain — that disease-germs, ptomaines, and 
any other morbid matter, will have been exposed to temper- 
atures not far below a white-heat, and infallibly destroyed. 
Under no circumstances, then, can the corpse prove injurious 
after it has once been introduced into the incinerator. 
We may turn now to the economical phase of the question. 
Will the cost of cremation exceed or equal that of inter- 
ment ? Let us remember that the cost of the present system 
is threefold. There is a first charge, borne by the entire 
community of a town or a parish, in purchasing, fencing, 
laying out a cemetery, and keeping it in order. Then there 
are the charges which fall upon the family of the deceased. 
Lastly, comes the loss to the nation, by the withdrawal of a 
certain quantity of the land from remunerative purposes. 
The first and third of these items will be minimised by 
the introduction of cremation. A couple of incineration- 
