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                                  THE
                         CREMATION OF THE DEAD
                               CONSIDERED
  FROM AN ÆSTHETIC, SANITARY, RELIGIOUS, HISTORICAL, MEDICO-LEGAL, AND
                         ECONOMICAL STANDPOINT


                                    BY

                           HUGO ERICHSEN, M.D.

 LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF KINGSTON,
       CANADA; MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST
 INTERNATIONAL CREMATION CONGRESS; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE CREMATION
    SOCIETIES OF NEW YORK AND BERLIN; FOREIGN ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF THE
 HYGIENIC SOCIETY OF FRANCE; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE CREMATION SOCIETY OF
                            MILAN, ITALY; ETC.

                        With an Introductory Note

                                    BY

                   SIR T. SPENCER WELLS, BART., F.R.S.

  LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND; SURGEON TO
                       THE QUEEN’S HOUSEHOLD; ETC.

                               ILLUSTRATED

                         _Delenda est inhumatio!_

                                 DETROIT
                          D. O. HAYNES & COMPANY
                                   1887

------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “Why should we seek to clothe death with unnecessary terror, and
    spread horror round the tomb of those we love? The grave should be
    surrounded with everything that might ensure tenderness and
    veneration.”

                                                   —WASHINGTON IRVING.

    “Die Leichenverbrennung verdient die Achtung, welche ihr um ihres
    hohen Werthes willen im klassischen Alterthum gezollt wurde, auch
    heute noch, da sie die einzige Art der Todtenbestattung ist, die
    vor den schrecklichen Folgen der Verwesungsduenste sichert und das
    bei der Leichenbeerdigung so oft vorgekommene Wiedererwachen im
    Grabe verhuetet.”

                                                        —J. P. TRUSEN.

              “Si nous sommes une statue
              Sculptée à l’image de Dieu;
              Quand cette image est abattue,
              Jetons-en les débris au feu!

              Toi, forme immortelle, remonte
              Dans la flamme, aux sources du Beau,
              Sans que ton argile ait la honte
              Et les miséres du tombeau!”

                                      —THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.




                           _Copyright, 1887_,
                           BY HUGO ERICHSEN.

                 J. S. CUSHING & CO., PRINTERS, BOSTON.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                    TO

                      WILLIAM EASSIE, C.E., F.L.S.,

         Honorary Secretary of the Cremation Society of England,

                                   and

                       DR. PROSPER DE PIETRA-SANTA,

                                of Paris,

                         THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED

 as a mark of high esteem, and in recognition of their untiring labor in
   behalf of that greatest of all sanitary reforms, cremation, by their
                             sincere admirer,

                                                             THE AUTHOR.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                PREFACE.


It is hardly necessary to explain the purpose of this work. It is an
appeal to the general public; a plea for the burning of the dead. The
period of fierce and fanatic opposition to cremation has passed, and
made way for a calm consideration of the subject. In 1874 a Persian
gentleman, then a resident of one of the Eastern States of our own free
and great republic, who wanted to have his wife cremated, was compelled
by an ignorant mob to resort to interment. Happily we are over that now.

It is astonishing that the cremation question has not been taken hold of
by the literarians of our country; there is hardly a subject that
rewards its student so well as cremation, and future writers on
incineration, not hampered by the literary inexperience under which I
have labored, will reap a rich harvest indeed when they devote their
talent and time to the reform.

I would counsel those who are in favor of cremation to immediately put
in writing their desire to have their body committed to the flames after
death instead of having it consigned to “dirt and darkness.” Such
written requests should be preserved in places where they can be easily
found after decease; for instance, in the writing-desk. If every
individual promotor of the reform, male or female, considering the
uncertainty of life, would follow this advice, cremation would speedily
prevail.

I am sensible of the many defects of this book, but I trust that it will
be found to furnish some useful information which cannot well be
obtained elsewhere, besides proving an assistance to those who are
desirous of studying the question more fully.

I desire to express my indebtedness to crematists in all parts of the
world for the valuable assistance I received from them in the
preparation of this volume.

For all who like cleanliness, for all who love true sentiment, for all
friends of economy, for all who venerate their dead, and for all who are
not afraid of reform the following pages were written.

It only remains to express the thanks due the following gentlemen for
permission to use illustrations without which this book would have been
decidedly incomplete: Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., Cyrus K. Remington,
Augustus Cobb, Albert Meininger, and Dr. M. L. Davis.

                                                                   H. E.

 DETROIT, Feb. 28, 1887.




                               CONTENTS.


                               CHAPTER I.
                                                                    PAGE

 THE HISTORY OF CREMATION                                              1


                               CHAPTER II.

 THE EVILS OF BURIAL; THE SANITARY ASPECT OF INCINERATION             66


                              CHAPTER III.

 CREMATION IN TIMES OF WAR                                           129


                               CHAPTER IV.

 THE PROCESSES OF MODERN CREMATION                                   140


                               CHAPTER V.

 THE MEDICO-LEGAL ASPECT OF INCINERATION.—THE OBJECTIONS TO          157
   CREMATION


                               CHAPTER VI.

 BURIAL ALIVE.—CREMATION FROM AN ÆSTHETIC AND RELIGIOUS POINT OF     180
   VIEW


                              CHAPTER VII.

 THE ECONOMY OF CREMATING THE DEAD.—THE PRESENT STATE OF THE         224
   CREMATION QUESTION




                             INTRODUCTION.


 DR. H. ERICHSEN:

_Dear Sir_,—In reply to your request that I should write an introduction
to a work which you are about to compose on cremation, I am placed in
the great difficulty of knowing nothing of your book, not even having
seen its title-page or table of contents. It is quite impossible,
therefore, for me to say how far your views and my own may accord. But,
as I suppose your object is to bring before the people of America proof
of the evil effects to the living inseparable from the present mode of
disposal of the dead by burying them in the earth, as well as to show
how these evils may be avoided by burning dead bodies,—in a word, by the
substitution of cremation for burial, of purification for
putrefaction,—I have great pleasure in doing the little that is in my
power to assist in bringing a very important question of sanitary reform
before a thoughtful, intelligent, and advancing nation.

I do not know how far I am right in supposing that with you in the West,
as with us in the East, a knowledge of sanitary science, of the
conditions which are necessary for the health of mankind, is still
confined to the comparatively few who may be called the well educated
class. Nor do I know how far this knowledge has been diffused among the
classes of your population who have received but little education. But I
do know with us it is the highest classes, in the sense of the best
educated classes, who are the most earnest in their efforts to
disseminate that branch of knowledge or science which, in the words of
_Parkes_, aims at rendering “youth most perfect, decay less rapid, life
more vigorous, and death more remote.” _Parkes_ is dead, but he still
speaks to us by his book, and he says:—

“The disposal of the dead is always a question of difficulty. If the
dead are buried, so great at last is the accumulation of bodies that the
whole country round a great city becomes gradually a vast cemetery.
After death, the buried body returns to its elements. If, instead of
being buried, the body is burned, the same process occurs more rapidly.
A community must always dispose of its dead, either by burial in land or
water, or by burning, or chemical destruction equivalent to burning, or
by embalming or preserving. The eventual dispersion of our frame is the
same in all cases. Neither affection nor religion can be outraged by any
manner of disposal of the dead which is done with proper solemnity and
respect to the earthly dwelling-places of our friends. The question
should be entirely placed on sanitary grounds. Burying in the ground
appears certainly to be the most insanitary plan.”

Parkes died before we had learned how perfectly and cheaply, how rapidly
and inoffensively cremation could be carried on; and he favored burying
in the sea rather than in the earth, whenever the distance was not too
great for transport. He knew well how impossible it is to prevent
graveyards within towns, or suburban cemeteries, from becoming sooner or
later a source of danger or nuisance to the living, how difficult it is
to find a suitable site and soil, sufficient space, and to secure proper
regulations and management. These difficulties may not be so great amid
your unlimited space as with us; but they must be an increasing evil in
and around your large cities. I trust, therefore, that your work may
assist in the more rapid progress of cremation as a substitute for
burial.

With us the legal objection has ceased. It is now acknowledged by the
government, and has been decided by three judges that if cremation is so
performed as to create no nuisance, and incite to no breach of the
peace, it is not illegal.

The religious objection has been answered by the _Bishop of Manchester_,
by _Canon Liddon_, and by the _Earl of Shaftesbury_. The bishop said:
“No intelligent faith can suppose that any Christian doctrine is
affected by the manner in which this mortal body of ours crumbles into
dust and sees corruption.”

_Canon Liddon_ said, in a sermon at St. Paul’s Cathedral:—

“The resurrection of a body from its ashes is not a greater miracle than
the resurrection of an unburnt body; each must be purely miraculous.”

_Lord Shaftesbury_ said to me that any doubt as to the resurrection of a
body because it had been burnt was an “audacious limitation of the
Almighty”; and he asked, “What, then, has become of the blessed martyrs
who were burned at the stake in ancient and modern persecution?”

The medico-legal objection that murdered or poisoned persons if burned
could not be exhumed, as is sometimes done if suspicion of foul play
arise after burial, is answered by the strict observance of proper
regulations before cremation. Much more complete medical certificates as
to the cause of death are required by the cremation society of England
than by any cemetery company; and in some cases, a post-mortem
examination is insisted on. In this way, cremation becomes a security to
the public against secret poisoning or any form of murder.

The sentimental objection is that which can only be overcome by time and
education. When the people know how great are the evils dependent on
burial in the earth, even when this is done under the most favorable
conditions, how seldom these conditions can be secured, and, when the
knowledge becomes general that when a human body which would require
five, ten, or twenty years to slowly putrefy in any soil can in one hour
be cheaply and inoffensively converted into a white ash, public
sentiment must favor cremation in place of corruption, and for
putrefaction substitute purification. The same religious ceremonial
might accompany either mode of disposal of the dead. The ashes might be
dispersed to the winds, harmlessly buried, or preserved in urns near
monuments or memorial tablets in our cemeteries, or beneath or around
any place of worship, or in any family mausoleum, or in some park,
public garden, or any ornamental open space near a great city, as the
wishes of the dead or of the surviving relations and friends may prefer.

Here, we hope the city of London will be the first municipal body in the
Kingdom to set the example in this sanitary reform. But, perhaps, the
impetus may be given by our American cousins and brothers.

                                 I am, dear sir, faithfully yours,
                                                       T. SPENCER WELLS.




                               CHAPTER I.
                       THE HISTORY OF CREMATION.

                 Ye in the age gone by,
         Who ruled the world—a world how lovely then
         And guided still the steps of happy men
         In the light leading-strings of careless joy!
         Before the bed of death
         No ghastly spectre stood—but from the porch
         Of life, the lip—one kiss inhaled the breath,
         And the mute, graceful genius lowered a torch!

                               SCHILLER: _The Gods of Greece_.


Primeval man most likely disposed of his dead by carrying them into the
woods or leaving them anywhere above ground, a prey to animals of all
kinds. But soon the organs of sight and smell took offense at the
mutilated and decayed corpses, and they were buried. With the increase
of population it became necessary to render the dead innocuous to the
living, and then, perhaps, cremation was originally resorted to as a
means of protecting the living from the effects of corruption.

In the early stages of the world’s history, when there was plenty of
available land, interment was of course a very cheap process, and
therefore often resorted to by the poorer classes, but persons of
intelligence and education always preferred incineration as the better
method of disposing of dead bodies.

[Illustration: A ROMAN COLUMBARIUM.]

In the gradual growth among scientists of the belief that cremation is
preferable to the present system of inhumation, is seen another instance
of modern civilization borrowing the ideas of the far-distant past.

The pendulum by which the world’s age is measured swings in an immense
arc. Now, after thousands of years, the views of the leaders of human
thought are swinging back to that expressed by some of the earliest
peoples.

Incineration is a most ancient practice. It has always been a matter of
difficulty to ascertain the origin of ancient customs. In the case of
cremation the historians have not been able to discover the date when it
was first practiced. The history of ancient cremation, however, can be
traced to nearly 2000 years before Christ. Incineration is regarded by
some authors as the outcome of the sun-worship of the Phœnicians. Their
solar god (Helios)—the Melikertes of the Greeks—was represented by them
as burning himself, whereby they wanted to indicate the ever-returning
solar year. Among the ancient nations, the sun was especially revered
and worshipped by the Persians, Egyptians, and the Sabian Arabs. At
Heliopolis, Phœnicia, and Palmyra, Syria, there were celebrated temples
consecrated to the sun. In some of the countries mentioned, horses which
were, on account of their celerity, regarded as symbols of the sun were
sacrificed to this celestial body.

Some authors ascribe the origin of cremation to the self-immolation of
Hercules. Dr. Le Moyne, the founder of the first crematorium erected in
the United States, asserted that the first authenticated case of burning
the dead was the proposed incineration of Isaac, and that, although it
was not consummated, it was fully authorized by the Deity. In
consequence he argues that cremationists stand in the shadow of the
Lord, and that any one who opposes them commits a sacrilege.

I do not believe that incineration, as some of its antagonists have
imputed, had its origin in a heathen religion, but I am quite certain,
from existing evidence, that it was originally resorted to upon sanitary
grounds, and as a means to protect the living against corruption.

It may be possible that incineration owes its origin to the ancient
nomadic tribes that burnt their dead and carried the ashes with them.
Among agricultural peoples, those who died in war, and while hunting,
were sometimes consigned to the flames, either because the grave would
not protect them from wild animals, or because it was desired to return
the ashes to the relatives, who would keep them sacred.

The origin of incineration, as appears from what I have said, is
surrounded with a great deal of obscurity. It is, however, an
established fact that the Orient was the birthplace of cremation.

The Egyptians first buried their dead, then embalmed them, and,
according to Walker, at a period not stated, abolished embalming and
substituted burning. They performed incineration by placing the corpse
in an amianthus receptacle, which, remaining intact, kept the bones
apart from the fuel.

The tombs of the Assyrians, discovered on the banks of the Tigris and
Euphrates, furnish us with unmistakable evidence of the fact that the
burning of the dead was not unknown to them. The same applies to the
Babylonians. The tombs of both peoples when explored were found to
contain urns holding human bones and ashes; these urns were often very
large, being sometimes of sufficient size to admit the body of an adult.
The Persians either burned their dead or dissolved them in aqua fortis.
Yet they also practiced burial in deep sepulchres that had niches in
which the bodies were deposited upon slabs.

The Hebrews commonly interred their deceased, but incineration was
likewise practiced. The Mosaic code prescribed that those who
transgressed the laws of