MODE OF DISPOSING OF OUR DEAD. 
261 
to their native land. Jewish history, in ist Samuel, chap, 
xxvi., verses 12 and 13 ; Amos, chap, vi., verse 10; Jer., chap, 
xxxiv., verse 5, tells us of cremation. In 1812, during- the re¬ 
treat of the French from Moscow, thousands of French sol- 
> diers who died were burned by the Russians. In 1814 rnore 
than four thousand soldiers who had died in the battles around 
Paris were incinerated. In 1870, after the battle of Sedan, the 
same was done; all in the interest of sanitary science, to de¬ 
stroy powerful causes of disease and promote public health. 
Nearly all scientific men speak in favor of cremation, and we 
believe when properly understood, sooner or later, it will be¬ 
come general. 
In our own country there is Dr. Beagless, who never fails 
to advocate as a veterinarian what he knows will promote 
health; and Dr. J. F. Lemoyne, who, besides using tongue and 
pen in its favor, built at his own expense a crematoiium in 
which his remains were cremated. Prof. Samuel Gioss said . 
u If people could see the human body after the pi ocess ol de¬ 
composition sets in, which is as soon as the vital spaik ceases 
to exist, they would not want to be buried ; they would be in 
favor of cremation. Burying the human body, I think, is a 
horrible thing. Why, if people knew what physicians know, 
what they have learned in the dissecting-room, they would 
look upon burning the body as a beautiful ait in compaiison 
with burying it. When I die I want my body to be ciemated. 
Objections of a religious nature have been raised against 
this method, but they are frail and fast fading away, and some 
of its most zealous advocates are Christian ministeis, and in 
Italy, where the Roman Catholic Church foimerly exeicised 
an intense opposition, this opposition has apparently ceased, 
and in Rome itself a crematorium is in actual use , in fact 
Italy as a nation is in the advance in favor of this method. 
Paris is not far behind, and is at present prepaied to incin¬ 
erate at least five thousand bodies annually; and Biazil since 
1887, cremates by State order all bodies of yellow fevei \ ic- 
tims. In the United States several crematories hav'e been 
established, but our people as a whole aie slow to accept 
what they so little understand, and exercise little interest in 
