MODE OF DISPOSING OF OUR DEAD. 
257 
with the medical profession and the whole world at large, are 
interested in, especially from a sanitary point of view, where 
prevention becomes more essential than cure ; in fact I know 
of no subject of greater importance, and it is somewhat sur 
prising to see what little attention is given it by our sanitari¬ 
ans, how little it is understood by the public, and by no one 
thing is the health of the people placed in so much jeapordy as 
where beneficial hygienic reform is of so much importance ; 
I mean, “ In the disposal of the dead,” viewed by the light 
of modern science. 
The question of what shall we do with our dead, is one that 
concerns only the living, and has for many, many years been 
the subject of attention by leading sanitarians. As far back as 
1539 we can find literature bearing on this important subject, 
and at the present time several writers are giving the facts in 
reference to the dangers of our present mode of burial. 
There are three methods spoken of for the disposal of 
dead: First, mausoleum; second, earth-burial; third, crema¬ 
tion. The first is that method recently advocated in New 
York, and which consists of an enormous building, divided 
and subdivided into compartments or vaults, wherein the 
dead are to be hermetically sealed. The objections can be 
raised to this, that in time the building would crumble and 
decay; and the whole scheme is not feasible, when we con¬ 
sider the number of dead in any given number of years. 
Second, earth-burial. Within the last twenty years, scien¬ 
tific men, with hardly an exception, have universally con¬ 
demned this method ; its dangers have been recognized for 
three hundred years, for as far back as that, efforts were made 
to compel all cemeteries to be established outside of city 
limits. In the light of modern science, how can intelligent 
men believe in earth burial, for the pleasing illusion of pleas¬ 
ant sleep in the grave has been thrust aside and in its stead 
we are shown, that from the moment life leaves the body, be 
it man or animal, putrefaction begins its slow and loathsome 
process, passing through the different phases of putrid de¬ 
composition, too horrible to behold or describe. This decom¬ 
position is simply oxidization, and may vary ten, twenty, one 
