The Paris Municipality will at a future sitting vote the construction of a sort of lay temple, where families will be allowed to keep urns or other funereal vessels, containing the ashes of dead relatives. This will not necessarily do away with any religious ceremony short of that of consigning the dead to consecrated ground; but, as M. Koechlin-Schwartz says, there is no reason why urns may not be consecrated, or why Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Free Thinkers may not build a vast mausoleum in which the ashes of thousands could be deposited in beautiful vessels without injury to the living.
It is probable that crematories being now legal in such an art center as Paris, new and beautiful forms of artistic decoration will grow out of it.
Altogether, cremation is progressing so favorably everywhere that one may be hopeful that comparatively soon it will be adopted by every country in the world.
Public opinion in England has undergone a wonderful change, and now is universally in favor of cremation. Even so great a newspaper as the Times, once a vehement opponent of the reform, has come around, and now upholds incineration.
The crematory belonging to the Cremation Society of England, erected by them at St. John’s, Woking, Surrey, was made use of for the first time on the 26th of March, 1885. The body upon which the rite was performed was that of Mrs. Pickersgill, of London, aged seventy-one—a lady well known in literary and scientific circles. She had previously become a member of the society, with a view of supporting the reform, in which she took great interest. The form of declaration drawn up by the society had been signed by her, and, after the medical certificates had been duly filled up by registered medical men and an application from a representative of the deceased, the cremation was allowed to proceed. An autopsy had been previously carried out by the medical attendants of the deceased.
The body was conveyed to the crematory from London in a suitable hearse; and the cremation, which lasted one hour, was attended by two friends of the deceased, who expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with the system employed. The cost for fuel was under ten shillings altogether; and during the time of the cremation, no smoke escaped from the chimney-shaft, whilst the ashes were of a purest white and small in volume.
The Italian government ordered the building of a crematory, on the Gorini-Gozzi system, for the cholera hospital at Varignano, which was completed in the summer of 1885.
A crematorium was erected at Florence, on the Venini system, which cremates a body in 70 minutes, and the cost of which was 4500 francs. Crematories are building at Pisa and Como.
On the 23d of June, 1885, the crematorium at Livorno was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. It contains a Spaciani Mesmer furnace.
General acquiescence in the process of cremation is steadily growing among us; and I verily believe that the time is not far distant when crematories will be established in every state and territory of the Union. The fact that one was recently erected in New York City, one has been built at Lancaster, and one has just been completed at Pittsburg, certainly proves that cremation has found a foothold in this country.