IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
83 
Cities at some points become nothing more or less than 
repositories for sewage of cities further up the river. In 
the adoption of some method to dispose of the sewage, 
other than utilization of the stream, will be found the solu- 
tion of the problem. Cremation has advantages offered 
by no other sanitary system. The chemical changes 
resulting from it remove all danger of infection. All 
matter is changed to harmless gases or a pure, clean mineral 
residue. There is no possible chance for disease germs to 
multiply, as nothing upon which they can subsist remains. 
While the movement may be slow, public sentiment is 
surely leaning toward cremation, not only for the safe 
disposal of certain excreta, but also as the correct and 
scientific disposition to be made of our bodies. And why 
should it not? The time is not far distant when the 
system will be in universal use. 
From a health standpoint no more forceful argument in 
favor of it can be advanced than its absolute annihilation 
of poisons. On the other hand, exactly opposite conditions 
are present in interment. The remains, in process of dis- 
solution, offers a field for germs to multiply in the soil, and 
not infrequently the air and water are impregnated with 
poisonous matter. Society is overcoming its prejudice to 
the system of cremation. This is attributed to the fact 
that the custom and tradition are being modified by the 
advance of science. The entire trend of scientific research 
on bacteriological lines during the past twenty years has 
been a combat with germs. And as research progresses, so 
does the sentiment in favor of cremation grow. Germs 
are effectively destroyed by heat. No more telling argu- 
ment can be presented for cremation. 
So far as the disposal of our sewage is concerned, the 
septic tanks that are in use in many places are perhaps the 
best that can be done at present. More will be said of this 
at some other time. 
If it were not for the purifying agencies of nature, it 
seems that the human race would have become almost ex- 
tinct on account of carelessness in regard to sanitary regu- 
