PARK AND CEMETERY. 
15 
ed in the United States. One of this num- 
ber. situated at Middletown, Conn., was 
built many years ago, but has never been 
operated. There is also one crematory in 
Canada, located in Montreal, so that fifty- 
nine crematories, fifty-eight of them in 
active service, represent the strength of 
the movement on this continent of this 
method of disposal of the dead. 
The United States Cremation Co., located 
at Fresh Pond, Long Island, in the state of 
New York, has incinerated 14,086 cases, 
beginning with 77 in 1885, its first complete 
year, and ending with 874 in the year 1913. 
Oakland, Cal.; Cypress Lawn, San Fran- 
cisco ; Washington, D. C. ; Los Angeles, 
Cal. ; Mt. Auburn, Cambridge, Mass., and 
the Massachusetts Cremation Society, of 
Boston, all show figures which are ex- 
tremely interesting regarding the progress 
made, and while it cannot be stated that 
the growth is rapid, the figures rendered by 
these several institutions prove, beyond ar- 
gument, that the sentiment has become 
firmly established and refute any sus- 
picion of faddism. The falling away in 
interest, invariably witnessed in connection 
with freak ventures, has at no time been 
evident in the faintest degree. 
The total number of cremations in this 
country for the period of the immediate 
preceding ten years are as follows : 
1903. 
3,532 cases 
1909 
1904. 
.... 4,093 “ 
1910 
.... 6,466 “ 
1905. 
.... 4,328 “ 
1911 
.... 7,524 “ 
1906. 
.... 4,537 “ 
1912 
.... 9,109 “ 
1907. 
.... 5,436 “ 
1913 
....10,183 “ 
1908. 
.... 6,152 “ 
These figures, with 
the exception of the 
year 
1909, indicate 
a steady, insistent 
growth and an increase in the number of 
cases in the past ten years of practically 
300 per cent. 
In the operation of cremation, the fuel 
employed for generating heat to provide 
the required temperature is obtained prin- 
cipally through the agency of fuel oil. In 
a few instances, it is true, coke, manufac- 
tured gas, and in one establishment elec- 
tricity ( which, by the way, has not as yet 
met with any pronounced success) have 
been used, but oil has found the most ad- 
vocates and has been almost universally 
adopted. 
In the conversion of oil to the require- 
ments, two types of burners have been pro- 
duced : the Bunsen type and the Mechan- 
ical, the results being practically identical 
as far as their efficacy is concerned, the 
difference being that in operation the Bun- 
sen is exceedingly noisy while the mechan- 
ical is silent. I am of the opinion that 
any lengthy explanation of this difference 
would not prove interesting; I would 
rather recommend a visit to a crematory, 
where the principles can be readily demon- 
strated ; for this reason I do not propose 
to express mv views on the merits of 
either, but I will endeavor to answer any 
questions that may be asked with reference 
to them. 
Viewing cremation from the standpoint 
of sanitation, it is only fair to assume that 
its adoption must come when sentiment 
gives way to sense, and when people who 
talk about “God’s Acre” and its peace will 
consent to think of the foul processes that 
are going on beneath the green sod, espe- 
cially if decomposition is delayed by sealed 
coffins in unsuitable soils. Men of our per- 
suasion, who witness the condition of 
bodies after different periods of occupancy 
of the grave, must be impressed by seeing 
a body, in an hour’s time, resolved into a 
small quantity of white bone fragments, all 
disease germs utterly destroyed in the 
process, and nothing left to pollute the air 
and water to the detriment of both. Do 
we not realize how seldom the conditions 
surrounding burial are satisfactory, viewed 
from the pressing need of greater progress 
in sanitary measures? First we need a 
dry, sandy subsoil, where the process of 
decomposition will proceed quickly; and, 
of greater importance, the body should be 
placed directly in that soil ; that is what 
burial means and implies. Ground burial 
chemically takes the body to pieces, but this 
object is often prevented or retarded by 
enclosing the dead in sealed receptacles. 
I mention these facts, which must be 
patent to all your minds, in order to prove 
that this side of the question must be thor- 
oughly understood before the general pub- 
lic can be educated to the advantages which 
would accrue to the living and be trans- 
mitted to future generations by the adop- 
tion of cremation. 
One of the earliest methods of which we 
have any record is an account of the crema- 
tion of Hector, in a description given by 
Homer. He relates how during nine days 
wood was collected and brought in carts 
to the site of the funeral pyre. The pyre 
was built and the body laid upon it; after 
burning twenty-four hours the smoldering 
embers were extinguished with libations of 
wine, the bones were picked out of the 
ashes and placed in a metallic urn which 
was deposited in a hollow grave and cov- 
ered with well-fitting stones. The extin- 
guishing of the embers by libation of wine 
may appear a poetical expression and one 
that for many reasons would not appeal to 
the present generation. 
Authentic testimony has been furnished 
that the burning of the dead has been prac- 
ticed for ages in Tndia ; it was also the 
custom of the Druids in Britain. The Par- 
see, of whom there are perhaps 100,000, 
worship the elements — 'fire, water, earth. 
They will not pollute fire by cremation or 
permit water or earth to touch the body 
from which the divine spirit had fled. 
They, therefore, place their dead on high 
towers, called the “Towers of Silence,” and 
there the awful vultures congregate and in 
an hour strip the dead of all save the 
skeletons, which are quickly reduced to 
ashes by the combined effects of chemicals 
and the torrid tropical sun. This terrible 
custom must pass away before the century 
reaches its noontime. Already the pro- 
gressive Parsees of the younger generation 
are discussing cremation as practiced in 
this country and Europe, and it is to be 
hoped that their study of the present-day 
principles will bear abundant fruit. 
Going back to distant periods, regarding 
burial and cremation : Anthropologists are 
well agreed that in prehistoric times our 
savage ancestors were accustomed to ex- 
pose the bodies of their dead above ground, 
to be consumed by natural forces, aided by 
birds and animals of prey. This, you will 
notice, is not the Parsee method of the 
“Towers of Silence.” As the living, how- 
ever, advanced in civilization, and the pop- 
ulation of communities became more con- 
gested, this custom became revolting and 
intolerable and the bodies were hidden 
away under a thin covering of earth. But 
very early in the development of the race 
the custom became common to consume the 
body on the funeral pyre, with the result 
that it is undoubtedly true that through a 
longer period of the world’s history and 
among a greater number of peoples crema- 
tion in some form has been practiced 
rather than earth burial. 
If I am asked to name objections that 
have been raised to cremation, I will state 
that the plea has been advanced that mur- 
der in the shape of crime by poisoning or 
otherwise would be more difficult of dis- 
covery if cremation became general. This 
plea has very little to commend it, when 
the legal requirements attending cremation 
are understood. 
The laws of this commonwealth are par- 
ticularly rigid. No body can be cremated 
until forty-eight hours have elapsed after 
death. The cause of death must be fur- 
nished to the Board of Health by the at- 
tending physician. The medical examiner 
of the district where the death occurred 
must view the body and issue a signed cer- 
tificate to the effect that he has made ex- 
amination into the cause and manner of 
death and sees no reason why cremation 
shall notibe allowed, before any institution 
can incinerate the remains. This procedure, 
it must he admitted, is not entirely fol- 
lowed by some of the states, but it can 
safely be ventured that mistakes are not 
very likely to occur, and as cremation ad- 
vances in popular approval, the probabili- 
ties are that a uniform method of legal re- 
quirements will become compulsory. 
We are also confronted with the preju- 
dice born of sentiment. This sentiment 
views with dismay the thought of fire dis- 
solving the form of a dear and loved one. 
Can this sentiment prevail when all the 
horrors attached to earth burial become a 
part of the reform education? It does not 
seem possible, after the intelligence is di- 
rected to a proper understanding; rather, 
the sentiment is so beautifully expressed 
