| Show ARGUMENT AGAINST CREMATION the question of how to dispose of the dead no BO as an to insure aga against trist danger to the living hying fine ba of late years been much je cusmo and cremation has found many earnest advocate in this country as well veil as 88 abroad manyi many of abe anoint are known to have bove their dead to the garnes and especially their heroes who were cremated w wiach ith their aw nio abee laed in egypt however the bodies bodice were carefully embalmer embalmed ed the jews generally deposited them in vaults but bat iti ila times of contagious diseases the bodies in later times were buried in the valley of as were probably also corpses ot of criminals for which nobody cared cremation is ia still customary among many heathen nations looking at the matter from a purely sanitary point of view and aside from religious considerations it has always beau claimed by those who advocate cremation that cemeteries are a con stant menace to the health of the people living in the vicinity A certain amount of poisonous gas always escapes from places finding its way into the dwelling houses or contaminating tamina ting the water it to is claimed that sufferings from beaL lache and sore throat are gen oral eral to people who live near grave yards and also alo that burial in metallic coffins in vaults is more dangerous than ordinary burial on this ground cremation is urged as an the best beat method insuring abi solute safety to the at a recent congress oon greas of the british briller institute ot of public health sir air francis seymour delivered an adored address against cremation and for burial in the earth meeting the objection referred to squarely equa rely and in convincing vina illig arguments he points out however that burial to la proper only when the corpse is ia allowed to come in contact with the dis infecting earth the law he says in substance in ill that inasmuch as aa everything that alvis dies and everything that dim to tb the earth the earth Is and has baa been aiom we be world began the dally daily and hourly recipient of a mate mam of dead and effete matter the earth is i the sole ole agent in the th and abe be chief factor in the resolution revolution ot of the whole of this fehte enormous and otherwise poisonous mass masa this resolution which to Is only another name for the reentry re entry into new wind and harmless combination of this thia vast residuum um Is but ft a noces sary eary step sop to its revivification aud reanimation a condition that to li to say bay to a complete repair of all aft lose incurred throughout the globe by death and decay to the maintenance of its populations and ot of all other forma of lite lije animal as a well as a vegetable to be purification and of all afi rivers rivera and d spring ID the renewal of the and in a word to tue re and re in all if luxuriance and beauty of vve earth surface uri aoe law the cremation soule tier think they can improve upon it to IB a common belief that a buried body becomes part of the clay ab b which we oum alt it thistle the lecturer daniee HID he says a properly buried body barted ta in such a way that the earth way may have access to it ao doea not remain in the earth but retti return tf to abe the earth it in no way what ever the part played by the soil la Is that id of a medium between it if and tho the ai above through thle this medium the itie air filters and when it roaches reache the body ox Is ia to van aya resolves resolved it into dew bow and harmless products pro daoU and then these theae new pro due docto we UM ame my reenter re enter the tm and terome to or and of the nourishment and growth of plants I 1 the body literally ascends from the dead and becomes once more the source and renewal of life the contention therefore that nature has jett the bodies of the dead on our hands to our special hurt burt and detriment is a most singular one the speaker then arrives at the following conclusion I 1 contend therefore that what is wanted is not a bill to regulate cremation which on the contrary as a measure of bublic public safety ought rather to be at once declared a misdemeanor but a bill to regulate and ensure safe and proper burial which bill to be ef effective fictive should besides dealing with the whole subject of management contain the following provisions revisions 1 for burial within barte the mhd earth as the only legal mode of disposing of a dead body 2 for a limitation of time beyond which it should be illegal to keep a dead body unburied and 3 8 tor for the illegality of strong coffins brick graves graven and vaults and of all contrivances laving having for their effect to retard resolution and to confer on the dead a tenure practically illimitable of the soil which is is necessary to the purposes of the living |
