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W. H. GRIBBLE. 
educating themselves on the subject; could they be persuad¬ 
ed to witness the process, its adoption would be assured, for 
(like myself) almost every person would be a convert to cre¬ 
mation. An argument in its favor is that body-snatching would 
be suppressed, examples of which the daily papers keep us 
well informed. A medico-legal argument is urged against it; 
that it would destroy all evidences of poisoning. To a slight 
extent this is true, not against the method, but shows that in 
all cases a careful autopsy should be had ; but where non-vola¬ 
tile minerals were used these would be as readily detected in 
the ashes as in the body. 
It may seem to some that the term ‘economy’ in reference 
to disposing of our dead friends is cruel; but there is hardly 
one of us who has not noticed the extravagance of a fashion¬ 
able funeral followed by want of food and shelter due to the 
expense entailed. Dr. Beagless says the cost of funerals ex¬ 
ceeds the annual product of all our gold and silver mines com¬ 
bined, and equals the amount of all the business failures of 
our country ; while the total cost of cremating a body at 
Milan is $1.60. 
Again, the value of land occupied. In the United States, 
with a population of over sixty millions, and an annual death 
roll of over nine hundred thousand, have you ever calculated 
how much space they occupy ? Allowing six feet by two feet 
per corpse, an acre buries 3,360, so it requires 250 acres of 
land to annually lay away our dead. Actually it requires four 
times this amount for paths, roads, monuments, and other ac¬ 
companiments to a cemetery, so wasting a thousand acres of 
valuable land yearly. Cremation, as before said, does not 
consist of actually burning the body in a fire. We have wit¬ 
nessed the modus operandi twice, and each time became more 
zealous in its favor. Scientific apparatus has been devised 
which makes the method safe, speedy and inoffensive, no flame 
or fuel comes in contact with the body ; there is no percep¬ 
tible sound, smell or smoke ; nothing that the most fastidious 
could take exception too. All volatile substances pass 
through a furnace, and are absolutely pure before reaching 
the atmosphere, and the process, when compared with earth- 
