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CONGRESSES.
The Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, at Birmingham, from the 12th to 17th july;
the Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, at Margate, from 25th to 29th May;
the Congress of the British Social Hygiene Council, in London, from 5th to 9th July, were
all attended by representatives of the City Corporation.
CONGRESS OF SANITARY INSPECTORS ASSOCIATION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.
The Public Health Committee authorised the attendance of one of the Sanitary Inspectors
at the Fiftieth Annual Conference of the Sanitary Inspectors Association of England and
Wales, which was held at Brighton at the end of August. The permission of the Public
Health Committee for one of the staff to attend at this Congress was very much appreciated,
and the report I have received from the representative of the staff indicates that these
opportunities for the interchange of views and experiences are undoubtedly of great value.
CREMATION.
The number of cremations taking place in Great Britain during 1937 advanced from
11,289 in 1936 to 14,129. To those who maintain that this method of the disposal of the
dead is the only one that should be permitted in the vicinity of residential and industrial
areas, these figures are encouraging, and the opening of crematoria during 1937 at Norwich,
Croydon, Birmingham, Islington and St. Marylebone, which brings the total in operation
to 38, leads one to anticipate that the rate of advance in hygienic disposal will be accelerated
in the near future. The old prejudice and belief that this is but a relic of a pagan age and
practice is, happily, fast dying, and the observations of The Right Rev. F. L. Dean, D.D.,
the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, at the placing of the Dedication stone at Aberdeen
Crematorium last April is illustrative of the enlightened view-point of many present-day
clergy.
After affirming that his own remains are to be disposed of in this " reverent and seemly
manner," he proceeds: " This representative gathering of ministers of religion this afternoon
bear witness to the fact that there is no principle in the Christian Religion on which
could be based any condemnation of the practice of cremation."
The following summary of cremations at all the Crematoria in Great Britain since 1885,
when the first Crematorium was established at Woking, shows that, with only two exceptions,
each Crematorium has shown, during 1937, an increase on the 1936 figure: the percentage
increase being approximately 25.