PARK AND CEMETE-RTf. 438 
RECEIVING VAULT, RIVER VIEW CEMETERY, SOUTH BEND, IND. 
sociation. The leading citizens of South Bend are 
stockholders in the association, whose affairs are ad- 
ministered by a board of nine directors. The officers 
are : President, Dr. D. E. Cummins ; vice-president, 
F. H. Badet, secretary, R. H. Lyon ; treasurer, Elmer 
Crockett. 
There have been over 300 interments, and about 239 
lots have been sold at prices ranging from $25 to $500, 
and varying in size from 10 to 100 square feet. All 
lots are given perpetual care, the fund for this purpose 
now amounts to $2,200, and is maintaining a steady 
and healthy growth. 
Ri^Kts in tHe Remains of tlie Dead. 
Frank W. Grinnell, a Boston lawyer, has prepared an 
exhaustive opinion on the question of the legal rights , to the 
remains of the dead, which was published in a recent issue 
of The Green Bag, a legal journal. The opinion is in part 
as follows ; 
“The writer recently had occasion to prepare an opinion 
for the Massachusetts Cremation Society upon the subject 
indicated’ by the title of this article. 
“It is, of course, to be understood that this examination 
has had especial reference to the cause of the cremation of 
the dead as advocated by the society above mentioned, and 
also that the writer does not discuss the statutory rules of 
different localities. 
“The inquiry seems naturally to divide itself into three 
parts or questions : 
“I. What is the right of a person to control the dispo- 
sition of his own body? 
“ 11 . In what form and substance should instructions be 
given by one desiring to control the disposition of 
his own body? 
“HI. What are the relative rights of members of the 
family of a dead person and others interested as 
among themselves? 
I. 
‘The Right of a Person to Control the Disposition of 
His Own Body. 
It has long been the common practice for persons to give 
directions in their wills for the disposition of their bodies, 
and from time immemorial these directions have been re- 
spected. See an interesting article in Vol. xvii of the Law 
Journal (London), p. 149. (Many early instances of this 
practice are here given.) 
“The writer ventures the assertion that no one who may 
read this article can examine three or four old family wills 
without finding evidence of this custom. 
“The effect of this is well stated in the English article 
above referred to, where it is said : ‘It is difficult to suppose 
that these directions, often accompanied with the minutest 
details as to the manner and cost of burial and by legacies 
dependent on their observance, should have been mere vain 
words of no binding force. At all events, though hundreds 
of wills contain such directions, it is strange, if they were of 
no binding force, that none of the large number which are 
extravagant or absurd should ever have been called in ques- 
tion in a court of law. It is true that without such direc- 
tions a duty would be implied in the executors to bury be- 
comingly, and that in most cases where it is expsessed the 
duty is laid on the executors. But the same is true of many 
other parts of an executor’s office, and there is no reason 
why this duty as well as the others should not be deputed to 
some one who is not an executor.’ 
“This right, therefore, of directing the disposition of one’s 
body has been exercised and respected here and elsewhere 
for centuries, although happily without frequent resort to 
the courts. And this has been appreciated by the courts, as 
