Cremation of the Dead: Its History and Bearings Upon Public Health

BY WILLIAM EASSIE, C.E.
FELLOW OF THE LINNEAN AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES MEMBER OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1875
Dedicated TO SIR H. THOMPSON, F.R.C.S. ETC. ETC. IN RECOGNITION OF HIS ENLIGHTENED ADVOCACY OF A PRACTICE PREVALENT IN ANCIENT TIMES, BUT LONG ABANDONED, TO THE GREAT DETRIMENT OF MANKIND
Shortly after having accepted, from the members of the Council of the Cremation Society of London, the office of Secretary, a wish was expressed to me by the President of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association, that I should prepare a paper upon the Bearings of Cremation upon Public Health. A short paper, with this title, was therefore read, and was afterwards published in the Journal of the Association by the Editor, Mr. Ernest Hart. It was so favourably received by all, that I have been induced to extend my enquiries and so render the work, if possible, more acceptable as an exposition of the subject. I am sensible of its many defects, 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.
William Eassie.
Child's Hill, London, N.W. December, 1874.
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The probable sanitary origin of Cremation—Not necessarily opposed to Religion—General reasons—Wisdom of adopting it in cases of epidemics—Sundry objections treated—The decorousness of the practice—Cremation desirable in the battlefield—In cases of murrain—In the destruction of condemned food, &c.
1-23
Exposure, or the absence of all burial—Consignment to the deep—Petrifaction—Envelopment in some solid material—Burial in the earth—Embalming preparations—Desiccation of the body—Cremation a widely-spread practice—Examples of quasi-cremation