246 
CKEMATION. 
or vegetable life-germs. Hence the necessity for artificial treatment. 
There are so many methods by which the process could be successfully 
conducted that I will not enter on that branch of the subject. There 
would certainly be little difficulty in framing such regulations as 
should be a distinct improvement upon those which are at present in 
use for the disposal of the dead. 
The only objection to Cremation which is really of such a 
character as to call for serious consideration, and to remove which, 
special precautions must undoubtedly be taken, is the fact that the 
operation would entirely destroy all trace of foul means as the cause 
of death. It occasionally happens that after burial circumstances 
arise which render it desirable to exhume bodies for purposes 
of examination. Although exhumation seldom results in anything 
very definite or valuable, public opinion is not likely to be in 
favour of abandoning it until it is satisfied that a good substitute 
is ready. 
All regulations are more or less liable to abuse. People have been 
hung for offences they have had no part in. Society is occasionally 
shocked to find that an innocent person has undergone imprisonment 
or penal servitude (which by the bye are now synonymous terms), and 
endeavours to make such amends as are suggested by the circumstances. 
But it would not for a moment be contended that such unfortunate 
exceptions offer any inducement to abolish such punishments. It 
must also be admitted that under present conditions there are 
probably many persons buried whose deaths have been hastened by 
foul means, never suspected or questioned before or after burial, and 
with such precautions as are possible, I think it could be made much 
more difficult to dispose of such bodies than is now the case. 
Certainly it would not be difficult to improve upon the coroner’s 
inquiry as at present conducted. One cannot repress astonishment 
that such a cumbersome and unqualified piece of administration has 
not succumbed to the want of confidence its decisions excite in 
the minds of those intimately acquainted with such courts. 
Since the public mind has ceased to be satisfied with verdicts 
attributing deaths to the “Act of God” it is manifestly unfair to 
expect juries, as at present constituted, to elucidate mysteries too 
deep for the coroner or themselves. 
The legal profession never fails to supply the Judicial Bench with 
occupants who deservedly possess the fullest confidence of the public. 
Is it too 'much to say that the medical profession is equally well 
able to supply any required number of trained experts, in every sense 
qualified to give the public absolute facts respecting deaths calling 
for inquiry ? 
With such safeguards as medical men are well able to furnish, 
I will remind my hearers that the difficulty already referred to as 
presenting the most serious practical obstacle to cremation, does not 
apply to cases in which cremation is most necessary, i.e. where deaths 
have arisen from diseases of an infectious nature, and which are those 
