in the course of a few hours integral and active elements
in some form of vegetable life. The result of this reasoning has
been that, by slow degrees, crematoria have been constructed
at many of the populous cities in Great Britain and abroad
(see Statistics below).
The subject of employing cremation for the bodies of those who die of contagious disease is a most important one. Sir H. Thompson advocated this course in a paper read before the International Congress of Hygiene held in London in 1891; and a resolution strongly approving the practice was carried unanimously at a large meeting of experts and medical officers of health. Such diseases are small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, consumption, malignant cholera, enteric, relapsing and puerperal fevers, the annual number of deaths from which in the United Kingdom is upwards of 80,000. Complete disinfection takes place by means of the high temperature to which the body is exposed. At the present day it is compulsory to report any case in the foregoing list, whenever it occurs, to the medical officer of health for the district; and it is customary to disinfect the rooms themselves, as well as the clothes and furniture used by the patient if the case be fatal; but the body, which is the source and origin of the evil, and is itself loaded with the germs of a specific poison, is left to the chances which attach to its preservation in that condition, when buried in a fit or unfit soil or situation.
The process of preparing a body for cremation requires a brief notice. The plan generally adopted is to place it (in the usual shroud) in a light pine shell, discarding all heavy oak or other coffin, and to introduce it into the furnace in that manner. Thus there is no handling or exposure of the body after it reaches the crematorium. The type of furnace in general use is on the reverberatory principle, the body being consumed in a separate chamber heated to over 2000° Fahr. by a coke fire. In a few instances a furnace burning ordinary illuminating gas instead of coke is in use. (H. Th.)
Statistics.—The following statistics show the history of modern cremation and its progress at home and abroad:—
Foreign Countries.—The first experiment in Italy was made by Brunetti in 1869, his second and third in 1870. Gorini and Polli published their first cases in 1872. Brunetti exhibited his at Vienna in 1873. All were performed in the open air. The next in Europe was a single case at Breslau in 1874. Soon after, an English lady was cremated in a closed apparatus (Siemens) at Dresden. The next cremation in a closed receptacle took place at Milan in 1876. In the same year a Cremation Society was formed, a handsome building was erected, and two Gorini furnaces were at work in 1880. In 1899 the total number of cremations was 1355. In Italy 28 crematoria exist, viz. at Alessandria, Asti, Bologna, Bra, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Florence, Genoa, Leghorn, Lodi, Mantua, Milan, Modena, Novara, Padua, Perugia, Pisa, Pistoia, Rome, San Remo, Siena, Spezia, Turin, Udine, Verona and Venice. The total number of cremations in Italy in 1906 was 440.
In Germany the first crematorium was erected at Gotha; it was opened in 1878, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907, numbered 4584. At Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, the crematorium was opened in November 1892, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907, numbered 2521. At Heidelberg the crematorium was opened in 1891, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907, numbered 1741. Throughout the German empire there are, in addition to the above, crematoria at Bremen, Eisenach, Jena, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Mainz, Offenbach, Heilbronn, Ulm, Chemnitz and Stuttgart, besides over eighty societies for promoting cremation. The total number of cremations which took place in Germany in 1906 was 2057, making a total of 13,614 down to September 1st, 1907.
Other societies exist in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. At the crematorium at Copenhagen 77 bodies were cremated in 1906, the total being 500. The Stockholm crematorium was opened in October 1887, and the cremations in 1906 numbered 56. The Gothenburg crematorium (also in Sweden) was opened in January 1890, and the cremations there in 1906 were 14. Switzerland has four crematoria, viz. at Basel, Geneva, Zurich and St Gallen—524 cremations took place in that country in 1906.
In Paris a cremation society was founded in 1880, and in 1886–1887 a large crematorium was constructed by the municipal council at Père Lachaise, containing three Gorini furnaces. It was first used in October 1887 for two men who died of small-pox. The demand became large; an improved furnace was soon devised, the unclaimed bodies at the hospitals and the remains at the dissecting rooms being cremated there, besides a large number of embryos. In 1906 the number, including the last-named class, was 6906. The total number of incinerations at Père Lachaise down to December 31st, 1906 (including both classes) was 86,962; but the employment of cremation for the purposes named has deterred a resort to it by many. Had a separate establishment been organized for the public, its success would have been greater. A magnificent edifice has been constructed by the municipality of Paris for the conservation of the ashes of persons who have been cremated. Crematoria have been established also at Rouen, Rheims and Marseilles, and the construction of crematoria in other of the great provincial centres of France was in contemplation.
In Buenos Aires, since 1844, the bodies of all persons dying of contagious disease are cremated, and there is also a separate establishment for the use of the public.
At Tokio in Japan no fewer than 22 crematoria exist, and about an equal number of cremations and burials in earth take place.
At Calcutta a crematorium was opened in 1906.
At Montreal, Canada, there is a crematorium which began operations in 1902, and completed 44 cremations up to the 31st of December 1905.
United States.—There were 33 crematoria in the United States on September 1st, 1907. At Fresh Pond, New York, erected in 1885, the total number of cremations to December 31st, 1906, being 8514. At Buffalo, N.Y., the first cremation taking place in 1885, and the total number down to December 31st, 1905, being 787. At Troy (Earl Crematorium), N. Y., the first cremation taking place in 1890, and the total number down to December 31st, 1905, 249. At Swinburne Island, N.Y., cremations beginning in 1890, total to December 31st, 1905, 123. At Waterville, N.Y., cremations beginning in 1893, total to December 31st, 1906, 62. At St Louis, Missouri, cremations beginning in 1888, total to September 1st, 1907, 2151. At Philadelphia, Penn., cremations beginning in 1888, total to September 1st, 1907, 1685. At San Francisco, Cal., “Odd Fellows,” opened in 1895, total to December 31st, 1906, 6151. Also at San Francisco, Cal., “Cypress Lawn,” opened in 1893, total to December 31st, 1905, 1492. At Los Angeles, Cal., No. 1, Rosedale, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 866; No. 2, Evergreen, opened in 1902, total to December 31st, 1905, 413; No. 3, Gower Street, opened in 1907 with 54 down to September 1st. At Boston, Mass., opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2493. At Cincinnati, Ohio, opened in 1887, total to September 1st, 1907, 1245. At Chicago, opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2188. At Detroit, Michigan, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 689. At Pittsburg, Penn., opened in 1886, total to September 1st, 1907, 377. At Baltimore, opened in 1889, total to December 31st, 1905, 263. At Lancaster, Penn., opened in 1884, total to December 31st, 1906, 106. At Davenport, Iowa, opened in 1891, total to September 1st, 1907, 331. At Milwaukee, opened in 1896, total to October 1905, 442. At Washington, opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905, 275. The Le Moyne (Washington, Pa.) crematory, the first in the United States, was erected by Dr F. Julius le Moyne in 1876, for private use. The first cremation was that of the baron de Palin, of New York, December 6th, 1876. Dr F. Julius le Moyne died October 1879, and his remains were cremated in his own crematory. Total number of cremations (to 1907) 41. At Pasadena, Cal., opened in 1895, total to September 1st, 1907, 491. At St. Paul, Minn., opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905, 145. At Fort Wayne, Ind., opened in 1897, total to September 1st, 1907, 41. At Cambridge, Mass., opened in 1900, total to September 1st, 1907, 1090. At Cleveland, Ohio, opened in 1901, total to December 31st, 1905, 283. At Denver, Col., opened in 1904, total to December 31st, 1905, 109. At Indianapolis, opened in 1904, total to December 31st, 1905, 32. At Oakland, Cal., opened in 1902, total to September 1st, 1907, 2196. At Portland, Ore., opened in 1901, total to December 31st, 1905, 327. At Seattle, Washington, opened in 1905, with 21 to the end of that year.
United Kingdom.—There were 13 crematoria in operation in the United Kingdom on September 1st, 1907. The oldest is that at Woking, Surrey, which was first used for the cremation of human remains in 1885. In that year three cremations took place there, the number gradually increasing each year until in 1901 301 bodies were cremated. Up to September 1st, 1907, the total number of cremations at Woking was 2939. Then followed the crematorium at Manchester, opened in 1892 with 90 in 1906 and a total of 1085; at Glasgow, opened in 1895 with 45 in 1906 and a total of 252; at Liverpool, opened in 1896, with 46 in 1906 and a total of 374; at Hull, opened in 1901 (the first municipal crematorium), with 17 in 1906 and a total of 116; at Darlington, also opened in 1901, with 13 in 1906 and a total of 33. The Leicester Corporation crematorium was opened in 1902, with 12 in 1906 and a total of 50. Next in order came the Golder’s Green crematorium, Hampstead, London, which was opened in December 1902. In 1906 298 cremations took place there, making a total of 1091. After this followed the Birmingham crematorium, opened in 1903, with 21 in 1906 and a total of 84; the City of London crematorium at Little Ilford, opened in 1905, with 23 for 1906 and a total of 46; the Leeds crematorium, opened in 1905, with 15 in 1906 and a total of 42; the Bradford Corporation crematorium, opened in 1905, with 13 in 1906, and a total of 20; and the Sheffield Corporation crematorium, opened in 1905, with
