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20
Cancer.
This disease was responsible for a total of 156 deaths for the
year. The number of deaths in 1934, 1933, 1932, 1931 and 1930
were 161, 162, 155, 160 and 150 respectively.
The distribution of deaths were as follows :—67 in East
Greenwich, 40 in West Greenwich, 34 in Charlton and Kidbrooke
and 15 in St. Nicholas, Deptford.
DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM.
Heart Disease.—Once again the deaths from this cause occupy
the principal place in the classification of diseases, there being 240
deaths under this class as compared with 209 for the year 1934.
CREMATION.
It may not be out of place to remark here that the problem
of the disposal of the dead, is one which the Borough Council will
have to consider seriously in the very near future.
The ever increasing demands for new burial grounds and the
large amount of ground required to establish or extend the two
cemeteries in the Borough, the scarcity of ground available within
reasonable distance, the cost of the provision and maintenance, are
all points which call for the utmost deliberation in the solving
of this problem.
The best and most obvious solution would be the establishment
of a Crematorium.
Cremation is not a modern innovation: it has been used as
a method of disposal of the dead since very early times. Cremation
fulfils nature's laws more quickly by reducing the body to its
natural state in a few hours, whereas in Earth burial, the process
takes many years to accomplish. The sanctity at present associated
with earth burial is preserved.
The advantages of Cremation are both sanitary and economical;
the cost compares favourably with ordinary burial, and if more
generally co-opted, the cost could be much reduced. No one can
study this problem without realising how much preferable cremation
is to that of earth burial. This is specially seen when as in the
case of necessitous people, one remembers the practice of burying
several bodies in a common grave, especially when it is borne in
mind that the remains bear no relation to one another.