MODE OF DISPOSING OF OUR DEAD. 
263 
burial, is simply beautiful. The method as conducted at Cin¬ 
cinnati does not materially differ from any other crematory. 
A large room or chapel is fitted up, underneath which is 
the incinerator proper. The body is borne into this chapel 
and placed on a raised dais, which is the upper part of an ele¬ 
vator in front of an altar. If the friends so desire, a funeral 
service is held, and as it proceeds the raised dais with the 
body silently descends into the basement, where the body is 
stripped of its clothing, wrapped in linen, which has previ¬ 
ously been soaked in a saturating solution of alum, then placed 
in a metal plate in front of the door of the incinerator. The 
incinerator, which has been heated to a white heat within, by 
means of superheated air, at a temperature of 1,500° or 2,000° 
F., is in readiness, and as the door is opened, the cold air 
rushing in cools it to a beautiful light red tint. The body, 
resting on its metal plate, passes over rollers into this beauti¬ 
ful rosy bath and immediately becomes incandescent, remain¬ 
ing so until incineration is complete, which for an average 
body requires about an hour. The ashes remaining, which 
are about four or five per cent, of the weight of the original 
body, are dropped into an ash chamber below, and from thence 
placed in any suitable receptacle. The funeral service being 
over, the friends find the ashes on the raised dais where they 
last saw the body, and can do with them as they see fit. Throw 
them to the four winds of heaven, as was done from the God¬ 
dess of Liberty ; sprinkle them on the broad waters of a river, 
as was done at Cincinnati; preserve them in an urn used for 
that purpose, or bury them in a family vault, well knowing 
that fire, that greatest of purifiers, had removed all danger 
to the health of the living from the body of our departed dead. 
Fellow veterinarians, these remarks should have for us as 
sanitarians an especial significance, for well we know the in¬ 
difference shown in the disposal of the remains of our dead 
patients. Glanders, farcy, anthrax, etc., are often left on the 
surface of the ground, and if buried at all it is exceedingly shal¬ 
low ; and rarely, if ever, is care taken, even in the matter of 
disinfection, becoming not only, as shown by Pasteur, a foci 
of contagion to the animal kingdom, but a daily menace to 
the health and well being of the human family. 
