132 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
= CReMATIQH. = 
The Other Side of the Question. , 
In cremation vci'sus earth burial, leading scient- 
ists are to be found arrayed against each other on 
the two sides of the question. It has been pretty 
positively proved, according to the testimony of 
some prominent professional experts, that earth 
burial does not menace public health as set forth in 
the main arguments of those testifying on the side 
of cremation. Take this argument out and the 
battle must be fought on the lines suggested by the 
many other arguments used in favor of the latter 
method of disposing of the dead. But a new argu- 
ment has been most forcibly brought to bear on the 
subject by Sir Francis Seymour Haden in an ad- 
dress before the British Institute of Public Health, 
in which he took issue with the cremationists, and 
on which the A'czo York gives the following; 
He declared in the strongest language that earth 
burial, if properly conducted, can never endanger 
the health of the living, and carried the war into 
Africa by asserting that cremation is itself insani- 
tary, and therefore so serious a menace to the pub- 
lic health that it ought to be prohibited by law. 
The earth, he maintained, is the one great purifier 
and renovator. There resides in the soil the chem- 
ical power of forming new and innocuous combina- 
tions out of the poisonous and miasmatic substances 
buried in it. Not only that, but the earth needs to 
be enriched by the restoration to it of dead matter, 
whose substance was drawn from it by the proto- 
plasmic energy of life. So that, if all the effete 
residuum of the world were to be burned, the earth 
would soon be deprived, according to Sir Francis, 
of the chemical elements that support life, and all 
life would cease. * * * * It is pertinent to 
observe, however, that it is not the purely specula- 
tive question that it may seem to be at first. It 
has a practical application as well. If the conten- 
tion of Sir Seymour Haden is true, then the system 
of burning garbage, so frequently advocated and in 
many cities adopted, is unwise, for it is destroying 
valuable nutrient elements that ought to be returned 
to the soil. 
There is, says the Detroit Free Press, a misap- 
prehension in the public mind as to one of the ob- 
jections made to the practice of cremation. It has 
often been said, not only by those who favor but 
by those who approve the practice, that the chief 
objections are based upon the doctrines of the church 
and have their foundations in religious beliefs or 
scruples. While pronounced opposition may be bas- 
ed upon this idea. Reverend Hogan claims that the 
objection of the Catholic church, at least, instead of 
being, as so many have assumed, doctrinal or even 
religious, is substantially sentimental; and, what is 
more important, that the church holds itself ready 
to sacrifice the sentiment whenever it is shown to 
be necessary for the general good. 
Association of American Cemetery Superintendents. 
O. C. 8IMONDS, “GracehiDd,” Chicago. President. 
G. W. CREESY, “Harmony Grove,” Salem, Mass., Vice-President. 
F. EURICH, WoodlawD, Toledo, O., Secretary and Treasurer 
To Members of A. A. C. S.; 
Three copies of the Philadelphia Proceedings have been 
mailed to each member; those who will want additional copies 
will please send in their orders at once and remit at the rate of 
$2.50 per dozen or 25 cents for single copies; six or more sent at 
dozen rate. Frank Eurich, Sec. and Treasurer, 
Auburndale, O., Dec. 10., 1894. 
]®uls)U^l7er'^ tSepartment. 
Tlie receipt of Cemetery Literature and Trade Catalogues will he 
acknowledged in this column. 
* * * 
TO ADVERTISERS. The MODERN CEMETERY is the only puhlica- 
tion of its class and will he found a valuahle medium for reaching 
cemetery officials in all parts of the United States. 
* * * 
TO SUBSCRIBERS. Cemetery officials desiring to suhscrihe for a 
number of copies regularly to circulate among their lot owners, 
should send for our special terms. Several well-known cemeteries 
have already adopted this plan with good results. 
* * * 
Contributions on matters pertaining to cemeteries are solicited. 
Address all communications to 
R. J. HAIGHT, 334 Dearborn St., Chicago. 
Our readers who may wish to place their sub- 
scriptions for horticultural books or periodicals, 
can be supplied through the Modern Cemetery 
office, and frequently at a saving. Clubbing rates 
on any publication will be sent on application. 
Our many readers who have promised contribu- 
tions to the Modern Cemetery should avail them- 
selves of the long winter evenings that are now with 
us, to prepare them. Contributions on any subject 
of general interest to cemetery workers will be ap- 
preciated. 
Cemetery officials should send for specimen 
pages of the new Record of Interment and Improv- 
ed Lot Book before making changes in their system 
of keeping records. The method adopted in these 
books is recommended by leading cemetery of- 
ficials. The publisher will mail specimen pages on 
receipt of request. 
Received.- Mr. W. S. Loomis, superintendent 
of Forestdale Cemetery, Holyoke, Mass., sends a 
photogravure of a view in that cemetery showing Mt. 
Tom in the distance. — Maps of the cemetery grounds 
of the Oneida Cemetery Association, Oneida, 
New York, from Mr. T. F. Hand, secretary.— 
The descriptive catalogue of the Syracuse Nur- 
series, Smiths & Powell Co., Syracuse, New 
York, whose advertisement appears in another 
column, cantains lists and prices of Fruit and 
Ornamental trees, Vines, Shrubs, Roses, etc., with 
many illustrations, and hints and suggestions in 
this line of work. Attention is also drawn to their 
thorough bred stock farms, of which a separate cat- 
alogue is published. The nurseries were establish- 
ed in 1825, and have been practically under one 
management for 50 years. Between 400 and 500 
acres are under cultivation, and stock is grown in 
large quantities. 
