A short distance from the collection of thatched huts which composed the village, a shallow ditch had been dug in the desert, in which were laid logs of the mezquite (Prosopis and Strombocarpus), hard and dense wood, which makes, as all Western campaigners know, a very hot fire with little flame or smoke. After a short time the body was brought from the village, surrounded by the family and other inhabitants, and laid on the logs in the trench. The relatives, as is usual with Indians, had their faces disfigured with black paint, and the females, as is the custom with other savages, made very loud exclamations of grief, mingled with what might be supposed to be funeral songs. Some smaller faggots were then placed on top, a few personal effects of the dead man added, and fire applied. After a time a dense mass of dark-coloured smoke arose, and the burning of the body, which was much emaciated, proceeded rapidly. I began to be rather tired of the spectacle, and was about to go away, when one of the Indians, in a few words of Spanish, told me to remain, as there was something yet to be seen. An old man then advanced from the assemblage, with a long pointed stick in his hand. Going near to the burning body, he removed the eyes, holding them successively in the direction of the sun, with his face turned towards that luminary, repeating at the same time some words which I understood from our guide were a prayer for the happiness of the soul of the deceased. After this, more faggots were heaped on the fire, which was kept up for perhaps three or four hours longer. I did not remain, as there was nothing more of interest, but I learned on inquiry that after the fire was burned out it was the custom to collect the fragments of bone which remained, and put them in a terra-cotta vase, which was kept under the care of the family.
From these old-world practices—for they are old-world practices, although performed at the present day—we will now turn aside to examine into the modern and improved systems of cremation. The extracts which I shall make will be mostly from the work of Dr. De Pietra Santa.[185] First of all come the experiments made by Dr. Polli at the gas works in Milan.
In a cylindrical retort of refracting clay, used for the distillation of coal-gas, was placed the body of an unfortunate poodle dog, drowned for contravention of the muzzle laws promulgated by the police. The dog weighed twenty-two and a half pounds. The apparatus was heated by a crown of flames issuing from a perforated circular tube. In order to render combustion as active as possible, the coal-gas was mixed with a certain quantity of pure air. Our readers will recollect this addition of atmospheric air is the principle of the Bunsen burner, which ensures perfect combustion of coal-gas, and produces a maximum of heat with a minimum of light. The cremation lasted several hours, producing a thick smoke, &c. After carbonisation, the skilful chemist succeeded in obtaining complete incineration, that is to say, the calcination of all the solid parts of the body, which weighed one pound fourteen-and-a-half ounces.
Satisfied with the result of this experiment, which proved the possibility of reducing the carcase of an animal to ashes by ordinary coal-gas, Dr. Polli proceeded with a second and more complete experiment. One improvement was the disposition of a vertical retort in such manner as to consume the gaseous products of combustion. This is easily effected by placing at the upper orifice of the retort a second ring of gas jets. On this occasion better arrangements were made for carrying out the principle of the Bunsen burner, with the result of producing the complete incineration of a dog weighing forty-two and three-quarter pounds in the space of a couple of hours. On this occasion the solid residue weighed only two pounds and some ounces.
Few have given more time and study to practical cremation than Professor Brunetti. This gentleman sent a case of apparatus to the Vienna Exhibition, and records his conviction—arrived at after five experiments upon human bodies—that the total incineration of a corpse and the complete calcination of the bones by fire is, under ordinary conditions, impossible. He has tried various combustibles, gas retorts, closed vessels, and the open air, and has arrived at the conclusion that special apparatus is indispensable to the success of any attempt at perfect cremation. His apparatus consists of an oblong furnace built of ordinary, or, still better, of refracting brick, and furnished with ten side openings, in order to give the power of regulating at will the draught, and consequently the intensity of the fire. In the upper part is a cornice of tiles, destined to support an iron framework, above which is the dome-shaped roof, furnished with cast-iron shutters, which may be opened or closed by means of regulators, to shut in the flame and concentrate the heat. The body to be incinerated is placed upon a thin metallic plate, suspended by stout iron wire. The operation may be divided into three sections. Firstly, the kindling of the body; secondly, its combustion; thirdly, the incineration of the soft parts, and the calcination of the bones. Wood having been piled up in the furnace and lighted, the body catches fire at the end of half an hour. A considerable quantity of gas is now evolved, and the moveable shutters come into operation. The body then burns freely, and, if the pile of wood have been deftly arranged, complete carbonisation ensues at the end of a couple of hours. The shutters are then opened, another sheet of metal is lowered over the carbonised mass to concentrate the heat still more, and the wood is renewed. By means of this apparatus, and at the cost of 160 or 180 lbs. of wood, complete cremation is achieved in two hours more. When the furnace is cold, the residue is collected and placed in a funereal urn. The last experiment of Dr. Brunetti was made upon the body of a man who died, at the age of fifty, of chronic bronchitis.
A description of a Siemens apparatus as constructed for use in Germany is given by Professor Reclam in an article entitled 'Die Feuerbestattung' in the 'Gartenlaube.' A sketch of it in action, partly copied from this article, is given in Plate I.
It consists of (1) a gasometer for the manufacture of the gas necessary to heat the furnace; (2) the furnace itself, with a regulator and a space for burning; (3) a chimney to take away the smoke &c. We may conceive a large, beautiful dead-house built for the purposes of cremation. In the midst, but invisible to those present, is a furnace. The funeral procession arrives at the house, and enters it the same as the churchyard is now entered. When the coffin has been placed on the tressel, and the usual ceremony ended, it is let down into the grave and disappears. In a short time after it is let down the covering of the furnace is removed, and replaced when it has received the coffin.
The process of cremation is effected by means of heated air. The gasometer is put in action by the consumption of coal, charcoal, peat, or wood. The gas thus produced is conducted through a pipe provided with a regulating-valve, where, meeting with a stream of air, also under regulation, it is converted into a flame. This flame extends through the room which has the regulator, so that the brick material which is piled up there is heated to white heat, and kept to this. The flame still continuing, supplies heat till the furnace or place for the reception of the body is heated to a weak red heat, when the flame escapes through a pipe into the chimney.
As soon as the furnace is in the condition thus described, the process of cremation goes on. The covering of the furnace is removed by the man who superintends the burning of the bodies. It is put back again, and the body subjected to the action of the red heat for a longer or a shorter time, according to its physical condition. After this is done the gas-valve is closed, and the air in consequence goes through the regulator into the place for burning. It is here heated in the regulator nearly to red heat, in which condition it comes to the bodies already, in some measure, dried, so that decomposition soon follows. The bones are decomposed by the action of the heat, while the carbonate dissolves, and the lime remains as dust. To collect this dust an instrument is provided, that it may be placed in a jar, or any other vessel, and preserved by the relatives of the deceased.[186]
The most perfect apparatus, however, yet devised for the reduction of a body to ashes is that adopted by Sir Henry Thompson. From his work upon cremation I take the following description, which will be always studied with interest. This extract will fitly conclude these quotations.
A powerful reverberating-furnace will reduce a body of more than average size and weight, leaving only a few white and fragile portions of earthy material, in less than one hour. I have myself personally superintended the burning of two entire bodies, one small and emaciated, of 47 lbs. weight, and one of 144 lbs. weight, not emaciated, and possess the products—in the former case weighing 1¾ lb.; in the latter, weighing about 4 lbs. The former was completed in twenty-five minutes, the latter in fifty. No trace of odour was perceived—indeed, such a thing is impossible—and not the slightest difficulty presented itself. The remains already described were not withdrawn till the process was complete; and nothing can be more pure, tested by sight or smell, than they are; and nothing less suggestive of decay or decomposition. It is a refined sublimate, and not a portion of refuse, which I have before me. The experiment took place in the presence of several persons. Among the witnesses of the second experiment was Dr. George Buchanan, the well-known medical officer of the Local Government Board, who can testify to the completeness of the process.
In the proceeding above described, the gases which leave the furnace-chimney during the first three or four minutes of combustion are noxious; after that they cease to be so, and no smoke would be seen. But these noxious gases are not to be permitted to escape by any chimney, and will pass through a flue into a second furnace, where they are entirely consumed; and the chimney of the latter is smokeless—no organic products whatever can issue by it. A complete combustion is thus attained. Not even a tall chimney is necessary, which might be pointed at as that which marked the site where cremation is performed. A small jet of steam, quickening the draught of a low chimney, is all that is requisite. If the process is required on a large scale, the second furnace could be utilised for cremation also, and its product passed through another, and so on without limit.
This plan, however, has been thrown into the shade by subsequent experiments:—
By means of one of the furnaces invented by Dr. Wm. Siemens, I have obtained even a more rapid and more complete combustion than before. The body employed was a severe test of its powers, for it weighed no less than 227 lbs., and was not emaciated. It was placed in a cylindrical vessel about 7 feet long, by 5 or 6 feet in diameter, the interior of which was already heated to about 2,000° Fahr. The inner surface of the cylinder is smooth, almost polished, and no solid matter but that of the body is introduced into it. The product, therefore, can be nothing more than the ashes of the body. No foreign dust can be introduced, no coal or other solid combustible being near it: nothing but heated hydrocarbon in a gaseous form, and heated air. Nothing is visible in the cylinder before using it—a pure, almost white, interior—the lining having acquired a temperature of white heat. In this case the gases, given off from the body so abundantly at first, passed through a highly-heated chamber, among thousands of interstices made by intersecting firebricks, laid throughout the entire chamber, lattice-fashion, in order to minutely divide and delay the current, and expose it to an immense area of heated surface. By this means they were rapidly oxidised, and not a particle of smoke issued by the chimney; no second furnace, therefore, is necessary by this method to consume any noxious matters, since none escape. The process was completed in fifty-five minutes; and the ashes, which weighed about 5 lbs., were removed with ease.