El Anfiteatro Anatomico Español of March 15, 1874, contains an admirable article on incineration by Don Federico Gilman. Two pamphlets on the subject also appeared, one by Enrico Salcedo at Valencia in 1876, the other by L. Gallardo at Madrid in 1878.
The Board of Public Health at Madrid resolved in 1884 to request the government to make cremation obligatory during epidemics, and to permit incineration in all cases where the family of a deceased wish to dispose of him so.
Dr. Cervera, member of the municipal chamber of Madrid, proposed the erection of a crematory temple in the new cemetery of that city.
At Lisbon, Portugal, cremation is not only optional, but the authorities of the city have even issued a decree making cremation compulsory in time of epidemics.
The cremation movement in Switzerland began in the spring of 1874. On the 20th of December, 1878, the municipal council of Zuerich granted leave to erect a crematorium on a ceded piece of ground in the new cemetery of that town. I am sorry to say that a crematory has as yet not been erected, owing to a lack of funds. This deplorable condition is due to a great extent to the ridiculously small membership-fee and annual dues of but two francs; yet, in spite of all this, success is sure to come in the end, for even this lagging fund grows yearly. The society at Zuerich now numbers nearly 400 members, and is (the fund dilemma excepted) in a prosperous condition. Wegmann-Ercolani is its recognized leader, and must be looked upon as the foremost champion of incineration in Switzerland.
In Austria the outlook for cremation is not favorable, but one need not be surprised at that, for Austria is known to be one of the most conservative countries in the world.
In 1658, when several collections of cinerary urns were discovered in Old Walsingham, Norfolk, England, Sir Thomas Browne, a learned physician, came forward with a brilliant dissertation on cremation, which still holds its rank among standard English literature. This essay, conspicuous for the erudition displayed, was a singularly powerful and idiomatic plea for incineration. The next to take up the righteous cause of cremation in Great Britain was no less a person than Sir James Y. Simpson, the eminent surgeon of Edinburgh, Scotland. He demonstrated how easy it would be for his fellow-townsmen to maintain a fire constantly on the hill of the Hunter’s Bog, near Edinburgh. But he, too, only had in view the ancient pyre; therefore it is not astonishing that his efforts were not crowned with success.
It appears that about the year 1844, the sanction of the authorities of the city of London was obtained for the cremation, within the City of London Gas Works, of the dead of Bridewell Hospital; an arrangement was also concluded with the city authorities for the incineration of bodies of dead prisoners, and of the condemned meat and offal of the markets. The project, however, met with so much opposition from certain churchmen that it fell into abeyance.
In modern times the gong of cineration was first struck by Sir Henry Thompson, who had become enamored with incineration at the Vienna Exposition, and who earnestly treated of cremation in a brilliant paper, “The Treatment of the Body after Death,” in The Contemporary Review for January, 1874. This article, as might be expected, elicited great popular interest, much approval from all classes of the public, and some vigorous opposition. It was replied to, in the February issue of the same periodical, by Mr. Philip H. Holland, the Medical Inspector of Burials for England and Wales, whose statements and arguments, adroit though some of them were, were properly refuted in the succeeding number of the Review. Sir Henry fortified his arguments by citing some experiments with the bodies of lower animals, which he had burned, with little cost and no inconvenience, in a Siemens furnace.
For many years prior to 1874, Dr. Lord, health officer for Hampstead, continued to urge the practical necessity for the introduction of incremation.