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series of transformations in some unknown region, to rejoin the body.
It was therefore important to preserve the body against destruction
until the time when the spirit or " double " should rejoin it. Hence
the elaborate procedure and ritual in connection with embalment, the
liberal supply of mummified provisions, ducks, geese and loaves of
bread, with furniture and treasures of every description placed in the
tomb. This we have lately had brought home to us by the contents of
Tutankhamen's tomb. The poor were buried in the sand on a bed of
charcoal, wrapped in a simple straw mat, when, owing to the dryness
of the sand, the body soon became naturally mummified.
In ancient Greece, during the Heroic Age, it was an honour to be
burnt at death and a disgrace not to be burned. The slain in battle
were also frequently burned on sanitary grounds.
In ancient Rome burning was also very common, and cinerary urns
containing the ashes abound.
In India, amongst the Hindoos burning the body is the approved
method ; on the banks of the Ganges this process is continually going
on at the "Burning Ghats." The crude and primitive method there
adopted leads to serious nuisance and is totally different from modern
cremation in a scientifically constructed reverberatory furnace.
The Parsees expose their dead in " Tombs of Silence " on slabs of
stone. Within two hours or so, flocks of vultures have entirely stripped
the flesh from the bones. Disgusting as this may seem to us, it is
preferable to the method of disposal of the dead in England, where we
leave the body in the grave to rot and poison the air, soil and water.
The more enlightened Parsees are now adopting cremation.
Cremation was given up a few centuries after the dawn of the
Christian era. The early Christians were against it, probably because
it conflicted with the doctrine of the resurrection of the actual body;
indeed, Dr. Hilliard states that this is one of the reasons officially put
forward by a certain Church to-day in justification of the refusal of that
Church to sanction cremation.
Modern cremation was revived in Italy about the year 1876 at
Milan, and the Cremation Society of England was founded by a
surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, about the same time. The first
crematorium, at Woking, was opened for public use in 1885. The
movement has grown steadily, and now we find 84 crematoria in the
United States, 55 in Germany, 28 in Italy, 13 in Switzerland, 6 in
France, 5 in Scandinavia, 1 in Holland and 2 in Czecho-Slovakia,