Show The Earth to Earth Society There is an institution in England called the Earth to Earth Society which deserves to be better known than it is throughout the world While acknowledging ac-knowledging all the evils of our present burial system as set forth by the crema tionists the members of this society object ob-ject to the burning of the body as repulsive re-pulsive and as an unnecessary waste of material which might enrich the soil In the decomposition of the body after death there results a watery vapor carbonic car-bonic acid and sulphate of ammonia which i the corpse is placed in dry earth mingle readily with the soil and become inert and inodorous Confined in a strong coffin these substances become be-come extremely offensive Then the the preservation of this noxious compound com-pound makes every graveyard and cemetery ceme-tery a peril to the health of the living The germs of terrible pestilences are often thus kept alive for centuries The Earth to Earth Society says that the body enwrapped in a single robe should be placed in an open wicker basket covered with flowers and then buried In dry earth There is then no festering no production of poisonous compounds but a wholesome mingling of the atoms that form our bodies with the earth from which we originally came Ophelias brother at her death expressed the hope that violets might spring from her pure and unpolluted flesh an expression ex-pression as scientific as poetical as plant life would be noruished by the decay of the body without pollution if our resting place was under the greensward without any covering between us and the ground in which we were placed Cremation would be an improvement upon our present methods of burial but it is a hard trial to consign ones dearest relatives rela-tives to the flames Then it removes all trace of such crimes as poisoning which would not be the case in earthburial Demorests Magazine I |