WM. C REICH TON WOODWARD,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
SCHOOL OF LAW
LIBRARY
'
THE LAW OF CREMATION
AN OUTLINE OF
THE LAW RELATING TO CREMATION
ANCIENT AND MODERN
TOGETHER WITH THE
RULES AND REGULATIONS OF VARIOUS
CREMATION SOCIETIES AT HOME
AND ABROAD
AUBREY RICHARDSON
SOLICITOR
Witt. Creighton Woodwanl,
Washington, D. O.
LONDON
REEVES & TURNER
100 CHANCERY LANE, AND CAREY STREET
1893
T
PREFACE
SOME three years ago, at the Medical Society of
London, a discussion arose on a paper on the subject
of Cremation, read by my father, Dr. Benjamin Ward
IJichardson, F.K.S., whether a person could determine
for himself as to the mode of the disposal of his
remains after death, and whether or not such dis-
posal was entirely in the hands of his executors.
At the meeting great uncertainty and difference of
opinion prevailed, which led the author of the paper to
request me to ascertain if there was any method by
which a testator could ensure that his body after death
would be disposed of according to his own wishes.
The question thus opened widened under inquiry,
and I was led therefore to collect information from
various authoi'ities in Foreign Countries, all of whom
iv PREFACE.
replied to me with a fulness and courtesy for which I
cannot be too grateful. The result left me in possession
of material which I have attempted to bring into brief
and convenient form, and which I trust may prove
useful to the legal profession and the public generally.
49A LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
January 1898.
%aw of Cremation.
PAKT I.
ANCIENT LAW.
Ix his exhaustive work, " La Cremation et ses Bien-
faits," Monsieur Alexandre Bonneau points out that the
history of cremation may be divided into three epochs :
i. The Vedic period, during which the practice spread
among all the branches of the Aryan race ; 2. The
Brahmanic period, that was signalised by the erection
of pyres in all parts of India ; and 3. The Buddhistic
period, when the custom spread to all the peoples of the
Turanian race (i.e., the non- Aryan and non-Iranian 1
races), even to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and to
America.
The primitive Aryans saw that death deprived al.
living beings of bodily warmth, and so came to regard
heat as the principle of life ; they perceived, moreover,
that fire is the great purifier, and noted that, while it
1 One of the earliest great sub-races of the Aryan family that
settled in the region now known as Persia.
A
2 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
had power to destroy some forms of matter, upon oth-r>
it could only work a transformation. These observa-
tions led them to place the bodies of their dead before
a fire, and to supplicate Agni the Life-Giver to re-
animate and purify them. At last they adopted the
practice of consigning them altogether to the flames, in
the belief that by that means alone could the body be
transformed into spirit.
Concerning the place of abode of the Aryan race
before its division into sub-races and dispersion through-
out many lands, Professor Max Miiller would still have
us believe that it was " somewhere in Asia ''; but the
view of the larger number of the scholars of the day
is, that the great plain of Northern Europe, stretching
from the Ural Mountains over Northern Germany and
the North of France as far as the Atlantic, formed the
cradlo of the Aryan family. That the custom of crema-
tion prevailed in that region in pre-historic times we
know from the evidence of dolmen and tumulus. 1
These ancient altars and tombs are scattered through-
out Europe and in parts of Asia and Northern Africa.
The accounts of Cassar, Diodorus of Sicily, and others
of the mortuary customs of Gaul and those practised by
the Druids, clearly prove that the ancient inhabitants
of France and Britain burned their dead ; while among
the Scandinavians the custom prevailed until the
ninth and among the Slavs until the eleventh century.
Tacitus gives a description of the crematory process in
vogue among the ancient Germans or Goths.- In
1 " The Origin of the Aryans," by Isaac Taylor, M.A. ' The
Contemporary Science Series."
3 "La Cremation et ses Bienfaits.''
ANCIENT LAW. 3
course of time all the great nations of the globe came
to be in some way influenced by Aryan modes of
thought, and cremation was either wholly or partly
established in nearly all of them. Only Egypt, Persia,
and China resisted the introduction of the practice.
EGYPT.
The strong belief of the Egyptians in personal im-
mortality and their devout expectation of the eventual
return of each individual spirit to the " tenement of
clay" vacated at death, doubtless led them to ignore
the method of sepulture that was not only in vogue in
cotemporary European civilisations, but was practised
by the Ethiopians and Carthaginians. 1
Monsieur Bonneau, however, shrewdly surmises that
scarcity of wood may have had something to do with
the staunch adherence of the Egyptians to their inva-
riable custom of embalming.
PERSIA.
Ostensibly, the cause of Persia's resistance lay in the
high reverence paid by the followers of Zoroaster to fire.
They would not pollute the Life- Giver by feeding it
with decomposing substances. The same pious awe of
the universal elements led them to refrain from burying
corpses in either earth or water. They had, however,
less regard for air. Their practice, originally, was to
1 See articls on Cremation in " Encyclopaedia Britannica '' ; also
Account of Death of Elissa (Dido), Foundress of Carthage, in
44 The History of the World," by Justin.
I THE LAW OF CREMATION.
leave their dead exposed on the bare earth and, later
en, in large paved enclosures, or on the summits of high
towers, built for the purpose, called " dakhma," where
they speedily became the prey of wild beasts and
vultures. If a corpse were promptly devoured, it was
esteemed a great honour, for it was inferred that a
person must have been very bad indeed if even the
beasts would not touch him after death. According to
Pierre Muret, Parthians, Medes, Iberians, and Caspians
had a great horror of the corruption of dead bodies, and
their being eaten by worms, and preferred to believ
that, when devoured by wild beasts, departed souls
enjoyed a partial life in their living sepulchres. It was
part of the Zoroastrian faith that, by a wise provision
of Nature, all ferocious beasts, wild dogs, and vultures,
had been specially endowed with the function of destroy-
ing human remains. The fundamental tenet that gave
rise to these ideas was that death was highly infectious.
It was believed that a corpse was a focus of contagion,
aud that it must therefore be so disposed of that death
might not be spread abroad. On this point the old
Indo-European customs were completely changed by
Mazdeism. 1 The Indo-Europeans, or Aryans, either
burnt their corpses or buried them. 2 Both customs
are held to be sacrilegious in the Zend-Avesta. 3 In the
1 The faith of the Magi, the " wise men of the East," the greatest
of whom was Zoroaster.
- See Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, by James Darmesteter,
chap. v. p. Ixxxix. vol. iv. of Max Miiller's " Sacred Books of the
East."
3 The Zend-Avesta is the sacred book of the Parsis, embodying
the teachings of Zoroaster and the Magi throughout many
centuries. S.-e Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, by James Dar-
mesteter, as above.
ANCIENT LAW. 5
beginning, however, less obvious though more potent
reasons led the followers of Zoroaster to denounce the
practice of cremation.
Mazdeism, or Magism, was the professed faith and doc-
trine of the Magi, and had its origin in Media, though
when and how it arose the greatest scholars are unable to
say. 1 The teaching of Zoroaster and his followers did
much to consolidate it and reduce its theories to hard-
and-fast rules of conduct, and there is good reason to
believe that, quite as much as religious scruples, political
and territorial considerations led the compilers of the
Vendidad 2 to put a strict prohibition on cremation. 3
" A comparison/' writes Monsieur Bonneau, " of the text
of the Zend-Avesta and the Rig- Veda 4 shows that a deep
antagonism existed between the Eastern and Western
Aryans ; they not only disagreed in religious matters, but
were not of one mind in regard to more mundane questions.
In point of fact, Zoroaster found his followers among a
people much attached to ancient usage, whilst the Aryans
1 Introduction to the " Zend-Avesta,'' by James Darmestetcr,
chap. iii. p. 1. Compare ibid. Part III. p. xxx. and Part I. p. Ixxxix.
2 " The Vendidad" is a compilation of religious laws and mythi-
cal tales included in the first part of the "Zend-Avesta." Ibid.
chap. iii. p. xxx.
3 The Assyrians were cremationists, for their last king, Sar-
danapalus, having marched with a few undisciplined troops to
quell a revolt that his effeminacy had stirred up, and being
worsted, raised and set fire to a pile of wood, and threw himself and
his riches into the flames. His successor, Arbactus, Lieutenant of
Media, translated his kingdom to the Medes. See " History of the
World," Justin, Book I. chap. iii. See also Herodotus, Valerius
Maximus, and others for ancient Scythian method of disposing of
their dead kings. Their bodies were carried for a year throughout
t heir dominions, and eventually burned,
4 Ancient Sacred Hymns of the Brahmans of India.
THE LAAV OF CREMATION.
of t he hlast were the earnest propagandists of the doctrine
of cremation, and had even introduced it into one of the
countries that Zoroaster desired to bring under his zone
of influence. Zoroaster feared lest the next move of
these missionaries should be the annexation of the soil,
and, in order to erect an impassable barrier against the
invaders, the Magi rigorously enforced all ancient and
local habits by attributing all innovations to the inter-
vention of the evil one, Angra Mainyu, and the original
customs of the inhabitants of the countries they sought
to keep under their dominion to the work of the supreme
and holy Ruler of All Ahura Mazda. 1 The laws of
the Magi, as set down in the Vendidad, fully bear out
this theory.
Vendidad. 2 Fargard I. 17 (63). "The thirteenth
of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura
Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Kakhra.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
and he counter- created by his witchcraft a sin
for which there is no atonement, the burning of
corpses."
Fargard VIII. 73 (229). " O Maker of the material
world, thou Holy One ! If worshippers of
Mazda, walking, or running, or riding, or driving,
come upon a corpse-burning fire, whereon a
corpse is being cooked or roasted, what shall
they do?"
74 (233). " Ahura Mazda answered : They shall kill
the man that burns the corpse ; surely they shall
1 See Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, Part I. chap. v.
p. Ixxxix. &c.
- Vol. iv. of "The Sacred Books of the East. 1 '
ANCIENT LAW. 7
kill him. They shall take off the caldron, they
shall take off the tripod."
75 ( 2 37)- "Then they shall kindle wood from that
fire ; either wood of those trees thut have the
seed of fire in them, or bundles of the very wood
that was prepared for that fire ; and they shall
separate and disperse it, that it may die out the
sooner."
Fargard VIII.-IX. Si (251). O Maker of the
Material World, thou Holy One ! If a man bring
a corpse-burning fire to the Baityo-gatu, what
shall be his reward when his soul has parted
with his body ? Ahura-Mazda answered : His
reward shall be the same as if he had, here below,
brought ten thousand firebrands to the Baity 6-
gatu."
The " Baityo-gatu " is the everlasting fire, always
kept alight where Parsis are settled. 1 It is called
the Bahran fire, and is continually fed with perfumes
and dry woods. Whichever side its flames are blown
by the wind, it kills thousands and thousands of fiends
as Bahran does in heaven. If the necessities of life
oblige Parsis to employ fire for profane uses, it must
only be for a time as an exile on the hearth or in the
oven of the potter. It must go thence to the Right
Place of the fire (Ddityo-ydtu) the altar of the Bahran
fire, there to be restored to the dignity and rights of its
nature. No gratuitous or wanton degradation must be
inflicted on it even blowing it with the breath is a
crime ; burning the dead is the most heinous of crimes ;
in the times of Strabo it was a capital crime (Strabo,
1 Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, vol. i. chap. v. pp. Ixxxix. &c.
8 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
xv. 14), and the Avesta expresses the same when
putting it in the number of sins for which there is no
atonement : " Not less holy was the earth, or at least it
became so Burying the dead is like burning the
dead, a deed for which there is no atonement. It was
not always so in Persia : the burning of the dead had
been forbidden for years, while the burying was still
general."
Of all the Iranian peoples, the Medes were the ear-
liest to rise to a high state of civilisation and to give
to religion and worship a systematic and elaborate form.
And since the statement of Mr. James Darmesteter, that
a in religion, as in politics, the best organised power must
sooner or later get the upper hand," is borne out in the
histories of all creeds and countries, it is easily under-
stood that the long subjugation of Persia to Media, and
the subsequent conquest of the Medes by the Persians
under Cyrus, only led to the adoption by the Persians
of the religious system of the Magi. Mr. Darmesteter
tells us that "Cyrus is said to have introduced
the Magian priesthood into Persia (Xenophon, Cyross
VIII. i. 23), which agrees with the legend mentioned by
Nikolaus, that it was on the occasion of the miraculous
escape of Croesus that the Persians remembered the
old Xoy/a of Zoroaster, forbidding the dead to be burnt." 1
Cyrus, as is well known, condemned Croesus to perish
on the pyre : he would surely not have dared to do so
had the custom of burning the dead been given up in
his time. Cambyses, too, must have been guided by
some well-known usage when he caused the embalmed
remains of Pharaoh Arnasis and the Princes and
1 Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, Part 1. p. li.
ANCIENT LAW. 9
Princesses of his family to be burned at Sa'is and Thebes,
though Pierre Muret would have us believe that his
command was wholly unprecedented. " Cambyses well-
nigh made his people to rise in rebellion against him
for having caused the body of Amasis, King of Egypt, to
be digged out of his Grave and afterwards Burnt with
great pomp and ceremony. They openly declared that
this was to give a very dangerous example to Posterity ;
since instead of being a Conservator (Strabo, 1.15 ^ic.
1. Tuscul. 1. i) of the laws of the land, which did not
allow either of Burials or Burning, he was the first that
brake them." 1
We have good evidence that Darius, son of Hystapes,
who succeeded to the throne of Cambyses, was even a
stronger advocate of cremation than his predecessor.
In a message sent by him to the Carthaginians,' 2 whose
suzerain, on the grounds that Carthage was a colony
of Tyre, he pretended to be, Darius forbade the Car-
thaginians thenceforward to sacrifice human victims
or to eat the flesh of dogs, and he ordered them to
burn instead of bury their dead.
It is indeed certain that Darius could not have been
a Zoroastrian according to the later faith of the Vendi-
dad. The cuneiform inscriptions of his reign bear
internal evidence that they were written by one who
did not possess the more developed form of Mazdeisni.
" But allowing," writes Professor Max Miiller, 3 " that
it is not quite fair to reason from such scanty texts, we
1 Chap. iv. p. 49, " Rites of Funeral, &c."
- "The History of the World," Justin.
:! Introduction to Part III. of the Zend-Avesta, voL xxxi. p. xxxi.
of "Sacred Books."
10 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
are met by the positive fact that an important inscrip-
tion is written on a tomb ; and as the burial of the dead
was one of the most flagrant violations of the Zara-
thustrian or Zoroastrian ceremonial law, it is not con-
ceivable that Darius could have been a Zarathustrian
according to the later faith. ... It is not possible that
he could have been an isolated schismatic as to such a
particular. If he composed the inscriptions as the
monarch of another religion than that of the later
A vesta, it would seem to prove, either that ho was an
adherent to a cruder or half-effaced form of Gilthic
Zarathustrianism, which had found its way during the
long period of its existence westward before the later
Zarathustrianism arose in the Western settlements, or
else that it, the religion of the Inscriptions, simply
originated where we find it, from an original and wide-
spread Mazda-worship, which had not yet forbidden the
burial of the dead." In a foot-note Mr. Max Miiller
adds : " And perhaps it had also not forbidden cremation.
Geiger (see the ' Civilisation of the Eastern Iranians in
Ancient Times') conjectures that the dakhtna were
originally places for cremation. If this is a correct
surmise, both burial and cremation may have been
permitted at the Gathic period, being forbidden long
after. At least the original Mazda-worship did not
recoil from cremation ; otherwise, the story of the
attempt to burn the Lydian Croesus could not have
arisen. The earlier Persians had no abhorrence of
either burial or burning. Only the developed Zarathus-
trian Magism of the Medes obeyed the Vendidad."
Yet even at that early day Magism was becoming a
power in the land. The same Darius who enjoined the
ANCIENT LAW. 11
cremation of royal mummies, and wrote inscriptions
upon tombs, tried, in the second half of his long reign
to enter into an arrangement with the religious authori-
ties for the promotion of a spirit of unity throughout
his domains. 1 He accepted Mazdeism, after having
induced the Magi to ordain certain important reforms.
Magism thus became the State religion, and the ex-
posure of corpses the obligatory funeral rite throughout
Persia.
CHINA.
Later on in the world's history, China became partially
influenced by Buddhism, and adopted the custom of
cremation in common with many other Aryan habits. 2
But the Chinese are a conservative people, and the
ancient usage of burial has ever been more generally
favoured than what is to them the comparatively
modern practice of incineration.
INDIA.
In no other country of the world has the ancient
Aryan practice of incineration of the dead, with its ever-
increasing multiplicity of rites and ceremonies, been so
persistently adhered to throughout the centuries as in
India. There the custom has been followed with un-
broken continuity from prehistoric periods until the
present day. As a natural consequence, it has become
inextricably allied to the fundamental laws of Hindu
social and family life. It is a frequently disputed
question, whether the laws and usages of Hindu society
1 " La Cremation et ses Bienfaits," by A. Bonneau.
- Ibid.
12 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
are founded solely on the elaborate codes of the Rig-
Yeda and the laws of Manu, or whether different
authorities obtain in different parts of India. The
earlier European exponents of native law assumed that
rvi-ry rigid Brahmanic doctrine was acknowledged and
accepted as incontrovertible law throughout the length
and breadth of Hindustan. They believed that the
whole of Indian law was formulated by sages of old,
and imposed upon the people of that vast country in
the same way that British Acts of Parliament have
lately forced new regulations upon them.
Later writers, and especially those who have person-
ally studied the ways and manners of Hindus, and have
noted the many differences in extant native customs,
have been led to think that ancient and local usages,
extending back to a period anterior even to the penetra-
tion into India of the Aryan race, form the bases of all
Hindu law. Mr. John D. Mayne l writes : " My view is
that Hindu law is based upon immemorial custom,
which existed prior to and independent of Brahmanism.
That when the Aryans penetrated into India, they
found there a number of usages, either the same as or not
wholly unlike their own. . . . That when Brahmanism
arose, and the Brahman writers turned their attention
to law, they at first simply stated facts as they found
them, without attaching to them any religious influence.
That the religious element subsequently grew up and
entwined itself with the legal conceptions, and then
distorted them in three ways : Fu-xl, by attributing a
pious purpose to acts of a purely secular nature ;
secondly, by clogging those acts with rules and restric-
1 " A Treatise on Hindu Law and Usage," by John D. Mayac.
ANCIENT LAW. 13
tions suitable to the assumed pious purpose ; and
thirdly, by gradually altering the customs themselves
so as to further the special objects of religion or policy
favoured by Brahminism."
Mr. Mayne's view in regard to the laws of marriage,
inheritance, partition and adoption is perhaps the right
one. But Monsieur Bonneau, in his erudite and philo-
sophical work before referred to (" La Cremation et ses
Bienfaits "), clearly shows that the custom of burning
instead of burying the dead was introduced into India by
the Aryan peoples, and obtained its popularity through
the influence of Aryan modes of thought. Wherever the
Aryans, to whom in prehistoric times fell the task of
sowing among the barbaric nations of the globe the
seeds of civilisation, established their patriarchal com-
munities, they, as custodians of the elements of spiritual
religion, promoted cremation in that place. In India,
where they distinguished themselves from the aboriginal
populations by the title of " twice-born " since they con-
sidered they were first born of their natural parents, and
then acquired regeneration from the due performance of
prescribed religious duties they regarded the burning
of the dead as the third birth, whereby the spirit was
set free from its fleshly prison and started upon its
heavenly career. We read in the " Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica " that on the occasion of a cremation the friends of
the deceased stood round the pyre as around a natal
bed, and commanded his eye to go to the sun, his breath
to the wind, his limbs to the earth the water and
plants whence they had been derived. But " as for his
unborn part, do thou Lord (Agni) quicken it with
thy heat ; let thy flame and thy brightness quicken
14 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
it ; convey it to the world of the righteous." .... The
doctrine of transmigration was unknown. The circle
round the funeral pyre sang with an assurance that
their friends went to a state of blessedness and reunion
with the loved ones who had gone before." Another
account of this ceremony is to be found in the chapter
on Death, Funeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship in
*' Religious Thought and Life in India," by Monier
Williams, M.A., C.I.E. : l "When a man died, his
immediate family, headed by the eldest sou or other
near relative, formed a procession to a properly
prepared place in the Smasfma, or ' burning ground,'
carrying the sacred tires and sacrificial implements.
The younger walked first, the elder behind the men
separated from the women bearing the corpse (the
hair and nails of which had been clipped), and leading
the sacrificial animal, either a cow or a black she-goat.
The remaining relatives followed, with their garments
hanging down and their hair dishevelled the elder in
front, the younger behind. When they reached the
funeral ground, the son or brother, or other near relative,
appointed to perform the ceremony, taking a branch of
the Sumi-tree, sprinkled holy water on the spot excavated
and prepared for the pile, and repeated Rig-Veda x. 14,
9 : ' Depart (ye evil spirits), slink away from here ; the
fathers (his departed ancestors) have made for him
this place of rest.'
"Then the sacred fires were deposited around the
margin of the excavated place, and a heap of firewood
was piled up inside the sacrificial ground (antar-vedi).
Next, a layer of Kusa grass was spread over the pile
' P. 299.
ANCIENT LAW. 15
along with the black skin of the goat. Then the
clipped hair and the dead body were placed upon it.
with the feet towards one of the fires and the head
towards the other. Next, the widow was made to lie
down on the funeral pile north of the body, along with
the bow of her deceased husband, but was not allowed to
remain there long. Soon the leader of the funeral called
upon her to rise, repeating Rig-Veda x. 1 8, 8 : ' Rise up,
O woman, come back to the world of the living ; thou art
lying by a dead man ; come back ; come back. Thou hast
sufficiently fulfilled the duty of a wife to the husband
who formerly wooed thee and took thee by the hand.'
" Next, he (the leader) took the bow Then he
placed the various sacrificial implements and portions of
the sacrificial animal in the two hands and in different
parts of the body of the corpse. This being done, he
kindled the three sacred fires. While the body was burn-
ing, portions of hymns of the Rig- Veda were repeated.
" When a dead body was thus burnt the spirit, invested
with its incombustible, subtle frame, was supposed to rise
along with the smoke to heaven. On the tenth day the
bones and ashes of the deceased were gathered together
and placed in a plain, undecorated funeral vase. This
particular act which in modern times is generally
performed on the fourth day, was called Asthisaficaya
(bone-collection). A hole was excavated, and the vessel
placed in it, while Rig- Veda x. 18-10 was repeated:
' Return to thy mother Earth, the widely extended, the
Broad, the Auspicious ; may she be to thee like a young
maiden, soft as wool ; may she protect thee from the
embrace of the Goddess of Corruption.' Then earth was
scattered over the excavation, with repetition of the
1C THE LAW OF CREMATION.
tw fifth verse of the same hymn. Lastly, a cover was
placed over the vase, and the hole was filled up with
earth, while the thirteenth verse was repeated : ' I raise
up the earth around thee, for a support, placing this
cover on thee without causing injury. May the Fathers
guard this funeral monument for thee: may Yama
establish a habitation for thee there ! ' '
In process of time some additions to the ancient
ceremonial have been made, but none of them are strik-
ing, except that of cracking the skull of the deceased
when the body is half burnt. The idea is that the soul
may not have been able to escape through the aperture
at the top of the head, and that the cracking of the skull
may open a crevice and facilitate the exit. The neces-
sary blow is dealt with a piece of sacred wood.
In the Institutes of Vishnu, 1 a collection of ancient
aphorisms on the sacred laws of India, 2 we read that
" Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Yaisyas, and Sudras, are the
four castes, that the first three of these are called twice-
born, and that for them the whole number of ceremonies
which begin with the impregnation and end with the
ceremony of burning the dead body, have to be per-
formed with (the recitation of) Mantras. 3 In xix. 6
of the Institutes we read that " those that have carried
out a dead relative and burnt his corpse shall walk
round the pile from left to right, and then plunge into
water, dressed in their clothes." This rule is preceded
and followed by many others minutely prescribing the
1 Translated by Julius Jolly: vol. vii. of "The Sacred Books of
the East."
- Introduction, p. ix.
3 II. i, 2, 3.
ANCIENT LAW. 17
methods of purification to be adopted by those who
assist at the burning of a dead body.
The book of Manu l strictly commands that the
cremation of corpses shall take place without the gates
of cities, in places specially provided for the purpose.
All four castes have the privilege of cremation, but a
Brahma (member of the highest or priestly caste) must
be carried out by the eastern gate.
Book of Manu, v. 91 : " A student does not break his
vow by carrying out (to the place of cremation) his
own dead teacher (dkdrya), sub-teacher (upddliydya)?
father, mother, or Guru."
" 92. Let him carry out a dead Sudra (slave and ab-
original caste) by the southern gate of the town, but
(the corpses of) twice-born men, as is proper, by the
western, northern, or eastern (gates).
I.e., a Vaisya (husbandman) by the western gate,
a Kshatriya (warrior caste) by the northern, and a Brah-
mana (priestly) by the eastern."
Virtuous wives were also allowed the honour of crema-
tion.
Book of Manu, v. 167 : "A twice-born man, versed in
the sacred law, shall burn a wife of equal caste, who
conducts herself thus, and dies before him with (the
sacred fires used for) the Agnihotra, and with the
sacrificial implements.
" 1 68. Having thus at the funeral given the sacred
fire to his wife who dies before him, he may marry
again, and again kindle (the fires)."
Only to very young children such as had not cut
1 Vol. xxv. of " Sacred Books of the East," edited by Max
Miiller.
18 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
their teeth or were not old enough to have been in-
itiated into the State religion was the honour of cre-
mation denied. 1
Laws of Manu, v. 68 : "A child that has died before
the completion of its second year, the relatives shall
carry out (of the village) decked (with flowers and bury
it) in pure ground, without collecting the bones after-
wards.
" 69. Such (a child) shall not be burnt with fire and
no libations of water shall be offered it ; leaving it like
a (log of) wood in the forest, (the relatives) shall
remain impure during three days only."
In regard to Suttee (or Sati) i.e., the immolation of a
woman on the funeral pyre of her husband the early
teachings of the Sages are by no means clear. 2 " That
woman," says Angiras, 3 " who on the death of her hus-
band ascends the same burning pile with him, is exalted
to heaven as equal in virtue to Arundhati, and expiates
the sins of three generations on both sides of her hus-
band's family." The sum of the doctrines of Angiras
is, that " no other effectual duty is known for virtuous
women, at any time after the death of their lords,
except casting themselves into the same fire. Vyasa,
the reputed author of the Puranas, adopted the same
doctrine, and declared that with the widow it rested to
redeem by self-sacrifice her husband from torment,
and that her reward would be to share his felicity " as
long as fourteen Indras reign." The Laws of Manu,
1 "Asiatic Researches," vol. vii. p. 242.
- " Lectures on Hindu Law," Herbert Cowell, Barrister-at-Law
and Tagore Law Professor. See also Colebrooke's " Digest," Book IV.
chap. iii.
3 Laws of Manu, i. 34 and 35.
ANCIENT LAW. 19
however, nowhere insist upon the practice. Vrihaspati,
who considered a wife to be half the body of her husband,
declared that, whether she ascended the funeral pile
after him or survived for his benefit, she was a faithful
wife and violated no duty by refusing to burn. He
endeavoured also to set limits to the practice by for-
bidding the mother of an infant child, or one about to
give birth to a child, to ascend the funeral pile. The
practice of Sati is based upon the principle of the entire
subjection of the wife, which runs through all Hindu
law. custom, and feeling. It was probably due, in the
first instance, to the horror of re-marriage, which dates
from the time of the code of Manu. 1
In a The Law relating to the Hindu Widows " 2 we
are informed that the obligation to burn was enjoined
upon every female except mothers of infant children,
pregnant women, young girls, and women who are ac-
tually unclean after childbirth or from other cause
(Vrihat Naradiya Puran, quoted in the Digest, Bk. IV.
chap. iii. sec. i. v. cxxvii.) This exception was ad-
mitted in consideration of other lives being at stake, or
on account of the extreme youth of the person who was
to suffer, for, among the commentators, Ilaghunandana,
in particular, observes: "That if 'the infant can be
nurtured by any other person, then the mother is en-
titled to follow her deceased husband.'' It was further
held that all the wives of a man are entitled to die with
or after him, and the cremation of the husband may be
postponed by one day a serious departure from the
1 " Lectures on Hindu Law," by Herbert Cowell.
2 By Trailokyanath-Mitra, M.A., D.L., Law Lecturer of Presidency
College, and Tagore Law Professor.
20 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
strict injunction on the subject to allow the absent wife
to come and die with her husband ; and facilities were
so far afforded for the purpose, that if, on account of
any uncleanness, a woman is prevented from dying
with her husband, she will be entitled to all the benefit
of Sahamarana (literally '///''/<// n'ith /"/' ftttt&nuQ, if she
followed her husband within one month after the im-
purity had ceased. The antiquity of this custom is
beyond question. Professor Wilson says : " That it is of
long standing, is not to be disputed, and the pundits of
India maintain that it was observed in Vedic times and
has a direct Vedic origin." Mr. Colebrooke, in his Essay 1
upon the " Duties of a Sdti, or Faithful Widow," was of
opinion that the custom was enjoined by a text of the
Rig- Veda, of which he gave the following translation :
Let these women, not to be widowed, good wives
adorned with collyrium, holding clarified butter, con-
sign themselves to the fire. Immortal, not childless
nor husbandless, excellent ; let them pass into the
fire whose original element is water." In 1854, in his
paper on " The supposed Vaidic authority for the
Burning of Hindu Widows," which was printed in
vol. xvi. of the " Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,"
Professor Wilson maintained ' : that the text of the Rig-
Veda, cited as authority for the burning of widows,
enjoins the very contrary, and directs them to remain
in the world. Professor Wilson has given a literal
translation of the whole sukta or hymn, in which this
passage occurs. The verse, of which we have already
cited Mr. Colebrooke's translation, is thus rendered by
Professor Wilson :
1 "Asiatic Researches," vol. iv. p. 213.
ANCIENT LAW. 21
" May these women who are not widows, who have
good husbands, who are mothers, enter with unguents
and clarified butter, without tears, without sorrow ; let
them first go up into the dwelling."
" The question," says Trailokyanath-Mitra, 1 " ulti-
mately settles itself into one of disputed reading ; and
is one of considerable difficulty. Whether the passage
contains any injunctions for the widow to burn may
be doubtful, but it is almost certain that the practice
was known in Yedic times, for, if Professor Wilson
be right in asserting that the Rig- Veda text contains
a prohibition against the practice, it is clear that the
custom must have been known or observed at the
Yedic era."
The subject of Sahamarana is discussed by Rag-
hunandana in his " Sudditattwa." It forms the first
chapter of that treatise ; all the provisions of the law
bearing upon this topic are collected there. The chapter
opens with a discussion as to whether Sahamarana is
lawful. For this purpose, the author first quotes the
text of Angira, already quoted, and then cites the
following passages from the Mahabharata :
" Those who have slighted their former lords through
an evil disposition, or have remained at all times averse
from their husbands, if they follow their lords at the
proper times in such a mode, are all purified from lust,
wrath, fear and avarice."
He also quotes a well-known passage from the
Braharna Parana :
" If her lord die in another country, let the faithful
1 " The Law relating to the Hindu Widow."
22 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
wife place his sandals on her breast, and, pure, enter the
lire."
On these authorities, Raghunandana comes to the con-
clusion " that the wives of Brahmins and others desirous
of enjoying the rewards of their own acts, and of their
husbands' acts, are entitled to sahamarana and
litririnix, except women who are pregnant and those
who have infant children/' The eighth verse of the Rig-
Yeda is a great bone of contention with the supporters
and antagonists of the theory that Sfiti is enjoined in the
Rig- Veda. Some assert it to have been recited to test the
resolution of the widow, while others take it to be a strict
injunction that widows are not to burn. It runs thus :
" Rise up, woman, come to the world of living beings ;
thou sleepest nigh unto the lifeless. Come : thou hast
been associated with maternity, through the husband
by whom thy hand was formerly taken."
The view that this verse was pronounced as a test of
the endurance of the woman already mounted on the
funeral pile, is taken by Radhakant Deb of Calcutta in
his " Rejoinder to Professor Wilson.'' He says : " The
necessity of giving option appears the more strong when
we find it declared that the Sdti who retires from the
funeral pile after the conclusion of the rites commits
a highly sinful act."
Another Hindu authority, Raga, 1 is of opinion that
explicit authority for the burning of widows is found
in two verses of the " Aukhya Sakha " of the " Tailtiriya
" Sanhita " quoted in the eighty-fourth anuvaka of the
Narayaniya Upanishad :
1 Letter in vol. xvii. of the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society."
ANCIENT LAW. 23
(1) <: 0h, Agni, of all vratas thou art the Vratapati,
I will observe the vow (vrata) of following the
husband. Do thou enable me to accomplish
it/'
(2) " Here (in this rite) to thee, oh Agni, I offer salu-
tation to join the heavenly mansion. I enter
into thee ; (wherefore) oh Jatavedah (source of
the Vedas), this day, satisfied with the clarified
butter (offered by me), inspire me with the
courage (for sahagamana) and take me to my
lord."
Thus we see that for long ages Sati has been enjoined
by Vedic law as something more than a wifely duty.
It is esteemed a privilege for a virtuous woman to share
with her husband the third birth, and to gain with him,
through a veritable Baptism of Fire, freedom from all
earthly limitations and perfect purification of body
and spirit.
GREECE.
In " Sepulture, its History and Methods, &c.," Mr,
Stephen Wickes avers that the more ancient custom of
the Greeks Avas burial. "It is supposed," he writes,
" that their subsequent usage of burning was intro-
duced at the siege of Troy, 1 when the great slaughter
and the example of the Phrygians determined them to
consume the bodies of the slain as the readiest mode of
disposing of them." ' 2 It must be remembered, however,
that there were no records before Homer : the custom of
cremation might have been, and probably was, common
1 Pope's "Homer's Iliad," Books VII. XXII. and XXIV.
2 Comp. P. Muret's " Rites of Funeral."
24 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
in Greece prior to the great siege. After Homer the
manners of the Greeks -softened ; they ceased to offer
human victims, but the rite of cremation survived.
Both burial and burning were practised, but the latter
was considered the more worthy. In time, when the
custom came to be attended with overmuch luxury and
pomp, the Spartans dropped it, as not simple enough ;
and the Laws of Lycurgus permitted burial within the
walls of towns. 1 In the Grasco-ltoman world, children
who had not yet got their teeth were excluded from
cremation. These prohibitions, whether Greek, Roman,
or Hindu, have their origin in the religious sentiments
of the Aryan peoples, and they anticipate our later
Christian law enjoining the burial of unbaptised infants
in unconsecrated ground.
ROME.
In regard to the Romans, Pierre Muret writes :
" Their history acquaints us (Herodot. Dion. Herod.)
that the former Burials lasted from Romulus (who was
the founder of their city) to the tyrannous Dictatorship
of Sylla (Liv. 1. 12), who, having caused the Bones of
his Enemy Marius to be digged out of his grave, and
fearing that the like affront might be done to him after
his Death, he, by an express Law made for that pur-
pose, and many pompous Ceremonies, engaged their
People to burn their Dead to Ashes, which were after-
wards gathered and shut up in Urnes.- This law was
observed until the Empire of the Antonins, who, being
1 " Rites of Funeral," chap. ii. p. 18.
- Related by Pliny.
ANCIENT LAW. 25
Philosophers and Virtuous Princes, could not endure
that this kind of cruelty should be any longer exercised
upon Humane Bodies, and therefore did abolish the use
of Wood piles, and restor'd the former way of Burying."
Whatever may have been the precise cause of the
introduction of cremation into Rome, it undeniably
became the general custom, and gave rise to a con-
siderable amount of legislation.
Among the Romans, every citizen of the Empire was
entitled to be buried iu a sepulchre i.e., the fact of his
burial consecrated his place of interment, and made it a
grave in perpetuity for his remains. In this sepulchre
it was absolutely necessary that a portion of the body
of the man to whom it was dedicated should repose.
No man, however, was permitted to have more than
one sepulchre ; so if various parts of a body happened to
be interred in different places, only one of those places
could be reserved as a perpetual tomb. In the case of
a life lost at sea, a cenotaph erected to the memory of
the deceased might be regarded as a sepulchre. 1
When the practice of burning the dead became
general through the influence of religious principles, a
bone or limb of a deceased person, styled the os exccptum,
or os receptum, was put aside before cremation, and
subsequently entombed with the ashes. 2
The worship of the dead, which formed an integral
part of the religious system of the Romans, demanded
at last that the act of cremation should be accompanied
by such elaborate ritual and extravagant social cere-
1 " Du Jiw Hepulchri A, Rome," by Auguste Benoit. Nancy.
8 " Le Droit Funeraire i Borne," by H. Daniel- Lacombe, Docteur
en Droit. Paris.
26 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
monial that the rulers of the Empire felt called upon
to curtail the many religious and family rites that had
grown up around the practice. The " trappings of
woe " necessitated by the unwritten rules of Roman
society were of so sumptuous a character that it was no
uncommon occurrence for wealthy families to become
pauperised by the death of a single relative. 1 And the
libations, wherewith the mourners, gathered round the
funeral pyre, toasted the departed spirit on its way to
the realms of the blest, were so limitless in quantity
that funeral ceremonies sometimes degenerated into
drunken orgies. Numa made some efforts to suppress
the luxury and display that had become inseparably
connected with the attendant rites of cremation.
He directed that his own body should be buried. 2
But his example not having the effect of setting a
fashion, more rigorous measures were enforced by the
twelve Tables of Justinian. The laws embodied in these
Tables had the object of establishing customs at once
sanitary and economical :
TABLE X. Fragment i. " A dead man shall not be
buried or cremated within the City."
Fragment 2. " More than this shall not be done, the
wood of a funeral pyre shall not be smoothed with an
adze." This enactment was designed to prevent the
wasteful expense of providing ornamental and polished
woods for the construction of the funeral pyre.
Fragment 5. " The bones of a dead man shall not be
gathered for subsequent funeral rites (except of persons
killed in battle).'' This rule was added in order that
criminals, heretics, and all offenders against national
1 "La Cremation et ses Bienfaits." . * Ibid.
ANCIENT LAW. 27
morals and national creeds, should not, after they had
been slain by wild beasts or gladiators in the arena,
be honoured and apotheosised by the solemn act of
cremation.
Fragment 10. " A funeral pyre or new sepulchre
shall not be erected within sixty feet of another man's
house."
The twelve Tables further forbade the sprinkling
of the funeral pyre with myrrh, perfume, wine, or gar-
lands, and prohibited the erection of altars for burning
perfumes. 1
The municipal arrangements at Rome for the pro-
vision of cremation for the multitude were based on a
system in which order, decency, and economy were duly
observed. There was a public usturina a vast enclosure
paved with fire-proof stone and containing wood-sheds
and shops for the sale of urns. Any one might bring
their dead to this place ; a separate pyre was raised for
each corpse, and the charge was moderate. A colom-
barium was also provided, in which niches for the
disposal of urns were sold at a low price. 2 Paupers and
criminals were usually thrown into wells or pits out-
side the city walls, but there were also common pyres.
Macrobius and Plutarch say that as many as eleven
corpses were burnt at a time, and, according to these
chroniclers, the corpse of one woman was sometimes
joined to those of ten men, in order to quicken com-
bustion, on account of the " inflammable nature of the
woman."
The burning, consecration, and deifying of the
Emperors at length brought the practice of cremation
1 De Leg. 22-24. - " La Cremation et ses Bienfaits."
28 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
into disrepute. 1 The adoration of these infamous men
attainted the pure worship of Manes (ancestors turned
gods), and purification by fire, together with the im-
mortality of the spirit of man, became to be less and less
believed in. 2
AMERICA.
Under a variety of forms the practice of burning
the dead still survives among many of the tribes of
American Indians, both in the Northern and Southern
Continents. 3 There appears also to be little doubt
that cremation was practised by the ancient Mexicans,
though it was not, as has been supposed, the only
mode of disposing of the dead adopted by the Aztecs.
Mr. A. F. Bandelier, in his " Report of an Archseo-
logical Tour in Mexico," states that " bones of Ancient
Aztecs have been exhumed in various parts, and
also urns containing ashes and charred human
remains."
As the result of his inquiries into the mortuary
customs of the ancient dwellers in Mexico, Mr. A. F.
Bandelier writes : " Urn-burial I consider as established,
but cremation, though not improbable, is not yet abso-
lutely proved to have existed. Should, therefore,
cremation not be proved, or should it be established
that its practice was coeval with one or the other of the
1 See Pierre Muret's " Rites of Funeral," chap. iii. p. 34.
- " La Cremation et ses Bienfaits," by A. Bonneau.
3 "Sepulture, its History, Methods, and Sanitary Requisites, 1 ' by
Stephen Wickes, A. II., M.D., published by 1'. Blakiston, Son
and Co., Philadelphia ; " Introduction to the Study of Mortuary
Customs among the North American Indians," by Dr. H. C. Yarrow,
published at the Government Printing Office, Washington.
ANCIENT LAW. 29
customs mentioned, there should be at least three
different aboriginal modes of disposal of the dead."
In opposition to this view, we have the accounts of
M. Pierre Muret and Mr. H. H. Bancroft. The latter,
in his " History of the Mexican People," tells us, "that
the temple to the God of War, erected by the Aztecs
on the site of the present city of Mexico, was built in
two stories, the upper story being used as a receptacle
for the ashes of deceased monarchs and nobles. This
statement is borne out by Pierre Muret, who, in his
"Rites of Funeral, Ancient and Modern" (p. 106),
refers the reader for a description of the ceremonial
burning of the Kings of Mexico and Mechuacan to the
" History of America," by Barth. de las Casas, and more-
over, describes at length some of the modes of burning
practised in the ancient civilisations of South America.
" Most commonly," he writes, "they buried the Dead;
and some of them plac'd them sitting upright in their
Graves. . . . Others, after having let the Body lye in the
ground for the space of a whole Year, at the end thereof
took it up out of the Grave, and paid a Duty or Service
to it, which was so much the more ridiculous because
it was made up of weeping and laughter. And not to
speak of other barbarous ceremonies which attended it,
they first began these Obsequies with Songs that con-
tained a relation of the whole life of the Dead, which
were oft interrupted with the doleful noise of wailing
and lamentations, after which they sate down to eat
the Provisions they had brought along with them ; and
having thus feasted themselves, they rose and danc'd a
kind of Jig round the Corps, which they concluded
with huge cries, roaring out as loud as ever they could,
80 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
stamping their Feet against the ground, and lifting
their eyes toward Heaven. At last they burnt the
Bones of the deceased, and gave his Head to his Widow
or nearest Relation, that they might keep the same as a
Relick " (chap. vii. pp. 100-1). And further he writes :
" Those among them that consider 'd their Physicians as
petty Gods, because of their procuring and preserving
of health (which of all temporal blessings is the greatest).
that they might show them a proportionable honour at
their Death, did not Bury them as others, but burnt
them publicly with solemn rejoycings ; Men and Women
confusedly singing and dancing together round about the
Fire ; and when the Bones were burnt to Ashes every
one endeavoured to get some part of them to carry to
his own House, which they afterwards drank in wine,
as an Antidote against all manner of diseases. Now,
though these ashes did. by the Law of the Countiy,
belong to the Relict or other nearest Relations of the
Deceased, to the end they might by drinking the same
preserve his skill and knowledge in their Family, yet
they, for the most part, had much ado to save them
from the Rabble, especially if the Physician had been
a Person of great repute for curing of diseases : For as
every one does naturally love his health, they believing
that this was an infallible Remedy to preserve it, we
need not admire that they used their utmost endeavour
to procure some of these Relicks which they often
snatched by force out of the hands of his Kindred and
Relations. Neither was this Custom of drinking the
Ashes of their dead Physicians so peculiar to the
Inhabitants of Panuco, for I find that a like Ceremony
was commonly us'd in the Countrcy of Vencssuda at the
ANCIENT LAW. 31
death of all manner of persons." (Sep. Hist. Ind. ;
Acost. Hist. Amer.) 1
ISRAEL.
It is a moot point whether the " very great burning "
mentioned in II. Chron. xvi. 14 was an actual cremation
of the remains of Asa, or merely the burning of spices
by the tomb in which his embalmed body was laid.
The special pleaders for cremation profess to find
sufficient evidence in the Bible to confirm them in their
belief that, at least before the period of the Captivity,
partial cremation i.e., the destruction of the flesh and
the preservation of the bones alone for burial was the
original mode of entombment with the Israelites. In
I. Samuel xxxi. 10, n, 12, 13, and II. Samuel xxi. 12,
we find the ceremony of burning the body spoken of
as a rite in honour of kings. But the practice must
have been of short duration, and limited to a few. 2 The
burning of the body of Saul may have been occasioned
by the special circumstances of its mutilation. In
Amos we read of cremation being strictly applied to
those who died from plague. II. Chronicles xxi. 19,
and Amos ii. I, vii., IO, bear out the theory of partial
cremation, which is also supported by a law of the
Talmud : " The relations of the guilty condemned to
death cannot entomb their bones in the family sepul-
chres until their flesh is consumed." 3 There is little
1 " Rites of Funeral, &c.," by Pierre Muret, p. 104.
- See " La Cremation etsesBienfaits," by A. Bonneau, and "Sepul-
ture, its History, Methods, &c.," by Stephen Wickes, A.M., M.D.,
Philadelphia.
3 In the Talmud is recorded a Jewish tradition, that Titus willed
that after his death his body should undergo cremation, and his
32 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
doubt that during the period of their captivity in
Babylon the Jews were influenced by Mazdeism, for
there is no evidence to show that any form of cre-
mation was practised by them after their return from
captivity.
ISLAM.
Among the Mahommedaus, burial has been the
invariable rule. Mahomet formed his religion of the
scattered fragments of Mazdeism, Judaism, and Chris-
tianity ; it therefore discouraged burning and pro-
moted interment. Islamism in fact did for a large
part of Asia what Christianity subsequently did for
Europe. 1
CHRISTENDOM.
No mode of entombment was prescribed by the
Founder of the Christian Church, and among His early
disciples were those who indignantly scouted the pro-
position that the destruction of man's physical body
could become a bar to his resurrection from the dead. 2
Tertullian makes use of the following argument : " That
which you take to be the death of the flesh is only its
retreat. The soul is not alone in retiring ; the flesh
has also its places of retreat in water, in fires, in birds,
and in beasts (which consume the body). The flesh
ashes should be scattered over the surface of the seven seas, that
the God of the Jews might not find him and bring him to judg-
ment." Gittin, fol. 56, B, from the " Treasures of the Talmud,"
by P. J. Hershon.
1 "La Cremation et ses Bienfaits," by A, Bonneau. - Ibid.
ANCIENT LAW. 32
disappears, but is not lost." 1 The first adherents of
Christianity, not only in Judea, but in Rome, Alexan-
dria, Antioch and Greece, were Jews that is to say,
Jews influenced by Mazdeism and inimical to cremation.
But under the Empire of Liberty, which Christianity
proclaimed, the i'aithf ul followed the mortuary customs
of the countries in which they dwelt.
In Egypt, Christians were embalmed. S. Anthony
protested against a usage that prevented the observance
of the prescription in Genesis iii., and the Christians
protested against the acts of violenca with which he
threatened them ; the clergy were divided on the point,
and the bishops met to decide upon the question. The
result of their conference was a declaration that burial
was the best form of sepulture, but in order to conciliate
both parties they recommended Christians to bury their
dead after having embalmed them. It is probable that
the Church proceeded in analogous manner in those
countries where cremation was in vogue, advising but
not enjoining burial. In the cemeteries of early Chris-
tians in Rome, as also in the catacombs, urns have been
found enclosing ashes and portions of burned bones.
Under the Roman Empire, Christians were cremated in
other places besides the capital. Over twenty years
since, the late Dr. Schnepp, the Medical Officer of
Health for the French Government in Egypt, whilst
exploring an ancient subterranean cemetery situated
not far from Alexandria, penetrated into a gallery, upon
one of the walls of which he found a rectangular Greek
cross. He was in the portion of that ancient necropolis
reserved for the Christians. In this place Dr. Schnepp
1 " La Cremation et ses Bienfaits."
34 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
found a great number of skeletons, but discovered also
three urns, one of which contained ashes and small
fragments of human bones. Thus, even in Egypt
there were Christians who caused themselves to be
burnt, and these must have been wealthy persons, for
wood is very scarce and very dear in the land of the
Pharaohs. 1 It is, however, not to be doubted that the
general Christian sentiment ever favoured the idea of
burial. In A.D. 312 Constantino ascended the throne,
and at the close of the following century cremation
was no longer practised in Italy and Greece, though it
was some time before it was abandoned in Gaul. As
late as the middle of the eighth century cremation was
still practised in parts of the kingdom of the Franks, for
Pepin-le-Bref, in the name of Chilperic III., published
an edict forbidding all persons, under .pain of death, to
burn the corpses of deceased friends.
Thus we see that it was the influence of religion that
prevailed upon the authorities of the nations of Europe
to stamp out the practice of burning the dead. But
fai back in prehistoric ages it had been the religious
influences of the times that had made cremation an all
but universal custom in those communities that first
attained to civilisation and to the apprehension of the
spiritual essence of true religion.
1 "La Cremation et ses Bienfaits.''
PART II.
MODERN LAW (FOREIGN).
A SURVEY of the various struggles in which the present-
day advocates of cremation have already taken part, and
in which many of them are still engaged, affords clear
evidence that religious scruples are not the only
obstacles in the way of the universal re-adoption of
the practice of disposing of the dead by burning. In
all countries legal difficulties have had to be faced. It
is with the nature of these difficulties, as well as
with the different methods by which they have been
more or less successfully overcome, that this Part is
designed to deal.
The desirability of the re-introduction of cremation
into civilised society was first publicly discussed in
1797, France being the scene of the discussion.
FRANCE.
In year V. of the French Republic (1797), Legrand
d'Aussy, a Jesuit father and a member of the Institute
of France, loudly proclaimed the necessity of substi-
tuting cremation for burial. Upon his proposal, the
Ardopaye voted a prize of 150x3 francs for the scientific
36 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
study of the question. 1 The propositions made by those
who competed for this prize all proved abortive. Yet,
owing to the fact that the question of incineration was
at that time first mooted, the people of France are to
be looked upon as the pioneers of modern cremation.
In the same year, the Council of the Five Hundred 2
appointed a commission to draw up and present to the
Legislature, a plan for the re-organisation of the pre-
vailing methods of disposing of the dead. The Bill
formulated by the commissioners was read to the
Council by Daubermesnil, who had charge of it, on the
2 ist Brumaire, year V. (November n, 1797). The 5th
article ran thus :
u Every individual shall be permitted to burn or bury,
in whatever place he shall deem fit, the bodies of
relatives dear to him, provided that he conforms to the
police regulations and to the laws relating to the public
health." 3
The 6th article of the same bill forbade cremation or
burial within boundaries of towns or other centres of
population ; and the 7th article provided that the
Ilepublic alone should confer the honour of public
mausoleums on those whose services it ought to recog-
nise, and further stipulated that the citizen who gave
private burial should be obliged, in due season, to plant
a tree, suitable to the climate, on the tomb. These
1 "Modern Cremation," by Dr. de Pietra Santa, p. 10.
- The Conseil des Cinq-Cents, with the Conseil des Anciens,
formed, according to the Constitution of year III. (1795), the
legislative body of the day. See "Modern Cremation," by Dr.
de Pietra Santa, p. 10.
3 " La Cremation et ses Bienfaits," by A. Bonneau,p. 270 ; " Ency-
clopedic d'Hygiene," 1891, vol. iv.
MODERN LAW. 37
proposals provoked the most violent attacks. The 5th
and 6th articles might have passed, for even the oppo-
nents of cremation approved the liberty of action they
permitted ; but the peremptory terms of the /th article
furnished enough good and bad arguments to cause the
committee's suggestions to be rejected.
In 1799, Jacques Cambray, the Administrator of the
Department of Paris, 1 brought the subject before the
administration of the Department of the Seine. Though
rather extravagant, Cambray's arguments were based
upon hygienic and economic grounds, and therefore
proved convincing to those to whom they were addressed.
Upon his representations the authorities of the Seine
Department issued an order containing the announce-
ment that a crematorium and some columbaria would
shortly be erected in a cemetery at Montmartre.
Among the provisions of the order are the following :
u Considering that in ancient times the greater
number of nations were accustomed to burn their dead,
and. that this usage was only abolished, or rather fell
into disuse, through the influence exercised by religious
opinions, it is, according to all advises, advantageous to
re-establish the practice, but the power of conforming
to this custom shall not do away with the privilege of
committing bodies to the earth, as is and has been
practised by other peoples. . . ."
This announcement stirred the Government to take
some further steps in the matter. 2
In year VIII. of the Republic (A.D. 1800) the Minister
1 And author of " Rapport sur les Sepultures."
2 " Encyclopedic d'Hygiene, 1891," vol. iv. p. 61 ; " La Cremation
ct sea Bienfaits/' by A. Bonneau.
38 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
of the Interior (Home Secretary) requested the members
of the Institute of France to form a committee to
put forward the question : " What should be consi-
dered the necessary funeral ceremonies (of cremation),
and what regulations should be adopted regarding the
place of sepulture?" To this question forty answers
wore received, but none of them solved it. The greater
number condemned cremation on the grounds of the
difficulty of carrying it out and the expense of the
combustibles. Nobody, however, suggested that the
authorities were justified in opposing the practice, and
despite the adverse decisions of the Council of the Five
Hundred and the many difficulties raised on all hands,
Comte Frochot, Prefect of the Police, granted permission
to Citoyenne Dupre-Geneste to burn the body of her
son, aged eight ; and further authorised cremation
generally, in the following precisely worded order:
"The last office performed for human remains is a
religious act, the mode of which the authorities cannot
prescribe without violating the principle of liberty of
opinion." 1
Notwithstanding the explicit terms of Frochot's order,
the governmental cataclysms and political changes, that
succeeded each other in quick succession, further de-
layed the establishment of the principle of individual
liberty of choice in regard to modes of sepulture.
During the Consulate, the method of burial was exactly
defined by the decree of the 23rd Prairial, year XII.
(June 1 2th, 1804). This decree, issued after Napoleon
had concluded a treaty with Pope Pius VII., dealt only
1 "Modern Cremation," p. 10; "Encyclopedic d'Hygiene," 1891,
vol. iv. p. 61.
MODERN LAW. 39
with modes of burial. No reference was made in it
to cremation, but it specified the classes of persons to
whom Christian burial might be refused or accorded,
provided for the laying out of cemeteries outside the
walls of towns, and prohibited burial within the walls of
churches or in places of public resort. These enactments
continued in force until 1887. For a period of fifty
years the question of cremation remained in abeyance.
In 1856 some slight stir was created by the appearance
in the Presse of an article by A. Bonneau, advocating
the incineration of human remains. A few other emi-
nent writers, among whom was Georges Sand, also
sought to revive the question, but no practical results
were arrived at. It was not until 1 870-7 1, 1 when the
Franco-Prussian war afforded to the French the sad
spectacle of hasty and superficial burial on the field of
battle of thousands of decomposing corpses, that
certain scientific men endeavoured to persuade the
Government to lose no time in applying a process of
cremation to the bodies of soldiers killed in war. After
the battles of Worth and Sedan, the French Govern-
ment, acting in concert with that of Belgium, was con-
strained to incinerate a great number of the corpses of the
soldiers by a chemical process. And this method was
resorted to in spite of the fact that three years before,
at the " International Congress of Aid to the Wounded,"
held at Paris, the French had rejected the proposals of
some Italians who had proclaimed the advisability of
practising cremation on fields of battle. It was at this
date that public interest in cremation again revived in
1 "La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c.," p. 8; and "Modem
Cremation," by Dr. de Pietra Santa, p. 10.
40 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
France. Brochures, conferences, the records of learned
societies and of the two Academies, correspondence with
the Municipal Council of Paris, and articles in reviews
and daily papers, promoted an enthusiasm for burial
reform. Successive Ministers were memoralised in
favour of cremation, but to all representations invari-
ably replied that they could not countenance the prac-
tice until they saw it more popular in other countries,
and they maintained further that the medico-legal
difficulty was an insuperable one. The upholders of
cremation were divided into two parties. One of these
subsequently formed the nucleus of the Socidtt Franqaise
de Cremation, which desired the extinction of all senti-
mental care for the dead, and demanded that not only
cremation, but also civil funerals, should be made
obligatory. The other party included a number of
scientific men, who, while earnestly desiring the revival
of the practice on sanitaiy grounds, admitted tlu*
principle enunciated by Comte Frochot, that the disposal
of the dead should be regarded as a religious act, and
the mode of it be determined by individual choice.
In 1874 Monsieur Herold had occasion to present to the
Municipal Council of Paris his report on the proposal
to make a cemetery at Mery-sur-Oise. In this report
the following sentence is noticeable : " It is not without
regret that some members of the Commission have been
obliged to relinquish their intention of suggesting an
examination of the system of cremation. In their
opinion, cremation would not only have the incontestable
advantage of simplifying the solution of the material
question from the double point of view of salubrity and
space, but, far from lessening the respect for the dead,
MODERN LAW. 41
it would enable due reverence to be more easily paid, and
consequently make it more general. The objection that
cremation might sometimes permit the traces of crime
to be more rapidly effaced is serious, but it is of no great
moment, since the reply to it is, that all deceased persons
are submitted to a strict examination, which might be
made still more rigorous, and that in suspected cases a
permit of cremation should always be refused." 1 The
discussion on this report resulted in the formation of a
Conference to consider the best process of incineration or
any other method of the disposal of the dead conducive
of similar results. At the termination of this conference
an administrative Commission, composed of municipal
councillors and sanitarians was nominated by the Decree
of February 15, 1875. This Commission declared the
following conditions necessary to the introduction of
permissive cremation :
Article I. The process of incineration or of chemical
decomposition ought to insure the transforma-
tion of all organic matter without producing any
odour, smoke, or deleterious gases.
Article IL Identity, together with complete and
unmixed preservation of all indestructible matter,
should be guaranteed.
Article III. The means chosen should be expeditious
and economical.
Article IV. No obstacle should be placed in the
way of the celebration of the religious ceremonies
of any sect or denomination.
Before submitting this programme to the Municipal
Council, the Administi-ative Commission consulted the
1 " La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c. ," p. 10.
42 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
Council of Hygiene, which body, in its sitting 011
February 25, 1876, came to the following conclu-
sions :
I. It is not only possible, but easy, to burn corpses
without producing odour, smoke, or deleterious
gases.
II. From the point of view of sanitation, incineration
may have advantages over burial ; above all. in
regard to the conditions under which the latter
is practised in the matter of pauper graves
(fosses communes).
III. Incineration presents serious difficulties in re-
gard to the investigations of justice (for the
tracking of crime).
This report was communicated by the Prelect of the
Police to the Municipal Council on March 4, 1 876, and
the matter subsequently dropped. 1
In the following year (1877), Monsieur Level called
for a Conference to inquire into the best method of
incineration, on the grounds that " cremation forces
itself upon us to-day as a necessity of hygiene and of
social economy." His demand drew forth the reports
of Monsieur Morin, which bear the dates respectively
of June 1879, June 1880, and July 1880. In the first
of these, Monsieur Morin proposed the erection of a
crematorium in Pere Lachaise. " When a measure is
salutary and required by the general interest," said he,
" an enlightened Administration should not hesitate to
adopt it." The second report, which was supported by
the majority of the members of the Municipal Council,
1 "Encyclopedic d'Hygtene," Paris, 1891, vol. iv. p. 68.
MODERN LAW. 43
called upon the Prefect of the Seine " to summon the
Conference energetically demanded by Monsieur A.
Cadet." l About the time that this report was issued
the Prefect of the Seine received two despatches one
from the Minister of Justice, and the other from the
Minister of the Interior. The first-named of these two
Ministers drew attention to the Decree of Prairial,
year XII., concerning burial, and to the Articles 77 of
the Civil Code 2 and 358 of the Penal Code. 3 " These
legal objections appear to me," said he, "to prevent
the authorisation even of experiments." The view of
the Minister of the Interior was as decided as that
of his colleague. He thought that a fresh law for
the modification of the dispositions of existing laws
and the authorisation of cremation, even as a mere
matter of experiment, 4 indispensable. Monsieur Morin's
third report refuted the Ministerial "impedimenta,"
and stated that " the Municipal Council of Paris adheres
to its former deliberations, and invites the Government
to bring forward a law authorising cremation." In the
end the Municipality gained its point. On March 2 1 ,
1885, the Minister of the Interior declared himself not
opposed to the incineration of the debris of the dissecting-
room, provided that crematories should not be established
except as an experiment, and that the arrangements of
the crematories should be approved by the Consultative
Committee of Hygiene of France ; the Council of Hy-
giene of the Seine having previously expressed approval
1 Author of " Hygiene, Inhumation, Cremation ou Incineration
des Corps."
- "Les Codes Annote"s de Sirey," p. 45.
3 Ibid. p. 284.
4 " La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c.," p. 1 1.
44 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
of the plan. 1 The Municipal Council had already gone
fully into the question of methods, so it was not long
before a small crematory for the destruction of human
remains, mutilated in the cause of science, was built.
In November 1883, Monsieur Casimir-Perrier laid upon
the table of the Chamber of Deputies a Bill to provide
for permissive cremation. This Bill was not proceeded
with; but on March 30, 1885, during the discussion
upon the law providing for liberty of choice in regard
to the conduct of funerals, Monsieur Blatin proposed
an amendment giving to all persons in position to
dispose of their worldly belongings by will, complete
option in regard to the burial or burning of their ovm,
bodies. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
adopted this amendment ; and on November 15, 1887,
a law containing the following provisions was promul-
gated : 2
Article 3. 3 Every person of full age, or emancipated
minor, of a condition to dispose of his worldly
belongings by will, may regulate the nature of
his obsequies, and in particular that which
concerns the civil or religious character to be
given them, and the mode of his entombment.
.... A regulation of the public administration
shall determine the conditions applicable to the
various methods of entombment. All contra-
vention of the dispositions of this regulation
shall be punishable by the penalties set forth in
Article 5
1 "Encyclopedic d'Hy-iene,*' 1891, p. 69.
3 Ibid. p. 70.
3 Of the law of November 15, 1887.
MODEBN LAW. 4S
Article 5. Any person who shall give to obsequies a
character contrary to the will of the defunct or
to the judicial decision, when the deed setting
forth the wish of the defunct or the decision of
the judge shall have been duly notified to him,
shall be punished by the penalties enumerated
in Articles 199 and 200 of the Penal Code ; 1
except where Article 463 of the said Code 2
applies.
The special conditions applicable to the different
modes of sepulture were subsequently fixed by the
Decree in Council, i889. 3 I cite the portions of the
Decree that bear on cremation.
"The President of the French Republic, upon
the advice of the Minister of the Interior, and
in consideration of the law of November 15,
1887, permitting freedom of choice in the
matter of funerals, notably Articles 3 and 5 ...
decrees . . .
TlTRE III.
( Concerning Incineration. )
Article 1 6. No appliance for cremation shall be put
into use without an authorisation of the Prefect,
accorded upon the advice of the Council of
Hygiene.
Article 17. Every incineration shall be carried out
under the supervision of the municipal authori-
ties, and shall be previously authorised by the
1 " Codes Annotes," p. 250. 2 Ibid. p. 324.
3 April 27.
46 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
officer of the Civil State in the place of decease,
who shall give this authorisation only after
approving the following documents :
1 . A demand in writing by a member of the
family (of the deceased), or of some other person
qualified to arrange the funeral. Such demand
shall indicate the place where the incineration is
to be carried out.
2. A certificate of the doctor attending [de-
ceased] stating that the death is due to natural
causes.
3. The report of a ' sworn doctor,' l forwarded
by the officer of the Civil State verifying the
cause of death.
In default of the certificate of the doctor in
attendance, the 'sworn doctor' shall hold a
summary inquest, the results of which he shall
set forth in his report. In any case the
authorisation shall not be accorded unless the
' sworn doctor ' certifies that death is due to
natural causes.
Article 1 8. Should it be necessary for the incinera-
tion to be carried out in a commune other than
that in which the death has taken place, it shall
be further justified by an authorisation for
the transport of bodies, in conformity with
Article 4/ 2
1 Medecin assermente, literally, "sworn doctor." No identical
officer in England ; Medical Officer of Health corresponds most
nearly Medical Examiner would be perhaps a better title.
- Article 4. " Except in the case of transference to the mortuary
chamber, as provided for in the following article, the removal of a
corpse shall only be effected when authorised by the mayor or
MODERN LAW. 47
Article 19. The reception of the corpse and its in-
cineration shall be vouched for by an official
report, which shall be transmitted to the proper
authorities.
Article 20. The ashes, even by a provisional order,
shall only be deposited in regularly established
places of sepulture.
Article 21. The ashes shall not be disturbed, except
by the permission of the municipal authorities.
Article 22. Any contravention of the decrees regu-
lating the conditions of sepulture contained in
Articles 3, 4, 8 ( 2), 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21,
renders offenders liable to penalties provided
for in Articles 3 and 5 of the law of November
15, I88;. 1
Article 23. All dispositions contrary to the decree
now in recital are thereby rendered void."
As yet, Paris is the only French town that has
availed itself of the privileges of the decree above cited,-
but that city has done its best to remove all difficulties
incident to the re-adoption of the practice. The Prt-
fecture of the Seine 3 has commissioned a special doctor
to fulfil the task imposed by Article 3 of the Decree of
April 27, 1889. This task consists of determining
sub-prefect, provided that the removal takes place within the
limits of the commune or arrondissement (district), and in other
cases it shall be authorised by the Prefect of the Department in
which the death shall have taken place. The introduction of
bodies into France, and their transport to the place of sepulture,
shall be authorised by the Minister of the Interior."
1 Before cited.
2 "Encyclopedic d" Hygiene," 1891, p. 71.
3 Practically, the Corporation of Paris.
48 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
the existence of any indications that seem to call for a
special inquiry into the cause of death. The Munici-
pality, for its part, has endeavoured to put the new
process within reach of every one and has issued a notice
giving a full account of all the details to be observed
in connection with a cremation. This notice has been
forwarded to all the mayors in France, and is given to
every person who registers a death. The Municipality
has, moreover, fixed 50 francs as the uniform tax to be
charged, apart from the price of the urn and all decorative
expenses, which vary from 12 to 200 francs, according to
the class of funeral decided upon. 1 This tax includes a
right to the possession of a niche in the municipal colum-
barium for five years, but it is only exacted from those who
are in a position to pay. For the indigent, everything,
including the medical certificate, is free. The Munici-
pality of Paris has also suppressed the charges for the
exhumation of all bodies to be eventually taken out of
the cemeteries of Paris, in view of their retrospective
cremation, and has exempted from the tax of transport
all bodies brought from other parts of the country to
the crematories of Paris. 2 Paris is at present the sole
French city in possession of a crematorium ; but on the
1 2th of April 1892, the Town Council of Lyons voted
the sum of 270,000 francs for the purpose of building a
crematory in the public cemetery of that town. 3
1 It must be remembered that in Paris all funerals are conducted
by the Municipality at fixed charges, that vary according to the
style of funeral adopted.
- " Encyclopedic d'Hygicne," 1891.
3 Phcenix, organ of the Union of German-speaking Societies
for the Promotion of Burial Reform and Permissive Cremation,
No. 5, May 1892.
MODERN LAW. 49
ITALY.
In the years 1851 and 1857 two eminent savants,
Professors Moleschott and Coletti, lifted up their voices
and denounced the cemeteries of Italy as dangerous to
the public health. In 1869 the question of the practi-
cability of incineration was raised at the International
Medical Congress at Florence by Professors Coletti and
Castiglioni. This Congress next met in 1871 at Rome,
when the same question was made an order of the day.
On both occasions the following resolution was put and
carried by a large majority : " That by every possible
means the attempt should be made, in the interests of
the laws of hygiene, to obtain legal sanction to the
substitution of incineration of corpses for the present
system of burial."
The Royal Institute of Science and Literature of
Lombardy at once associated itself with the suggested
reform, and set aside one of its prizes for the proposer
of the most prompt and economical method of cremation,
in the carrying out of which due respect should be
paid to all civil usages and social convenances. Further
than this, the Lombard Institute addressed the following
declaration to the Legislative Body of the kingdom : l
"The Lombard Institute being profoundly convinced
that the adoption of the process of cremation would mark
a stage of progress in the march of civilisation, hopes
that the Government will put forth every effort to make
Italy the first country to adopt it, and thus to set the
example to every other civilised nation."
1 "La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, etc.," by Dr. de Pietra Santa,
pp. 20 and 21.
D
50 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
From the time of this declaration the successive
stages of the progress of the reform may be easily noted.
Dr. de Pietra Santa, in his brochure, " La Cremation, sa
raison d'etre, etc.," has enumerated them with great
exactitude. In 1873, * ne Italian Senate, upon the
proposition of the Professor and Senator Maggiorani,
and in spite of the scruples of Minister Lanza, inserted
in the Sanitary Code of the kingdom (Article 185,
chap. i. titre ix.) a permissive regulation enabling
families who had previously obtained the authorisation
of the Superior Council of Health to adopt the process
of cremation.
In April 1874, a public conference was held at Milan.
This meeting, comprising all classes of society, and
under the presidency of Professor Polli, invited the
Chamber of Deputies to confirm, in its next discussion
upon the Sanitary Code (already approved by the Upper
House), the optional cremation of corpses, under tin
immediate sii.ri:eillance of the magistrates of the communes.
In September of the same year (1874) the following
Article was added to the Sanitary Code :
Article 67. " The prefect of the province, repre-
senting the provincial Council of Health, may
permit other modes of burial, of preservation, or
of destruction of corpses, including cremation, in
particular cases and for exceptional reasons"
In 1877, owing to the representations of Senator
Maggiorani and Senator Berti, the Honourable Nicotera,
Minister of the Interior (Home Secretary), modified
this Article by the issue of a royal decree providing
that " for the future the prefect of the province, acting
upon the testator's wishes and in response to the express
MODERN LAW. 51
demand of the family (of the deceased), shall grant the
preliminary authorisation, after having received the
consent of the provincial Council of Health."
Upon the publication of this Decree, the Milanese
Cremation Society formulated some fixed rules for
carrying out the process of cremation, with due regard
for payment of proper respect for the dead and the
establishment of scientific and civilised methods. These
regulations were approved by the Sanitary Council and
authorised by the prefectoral decrees of October i,
1878, and April 2, 1880. In 1880, too, the munici-
palities of Rome, Udine, Padua, Cremona, and Varese,
in conjunction with the different local societies, applied
themselves to the task of furthering the regular practice
of cremation. Thenceforward, the chief aims of the
societies, were to influence other municipalities and to
induce the Government to abolish the tax always charged
for the transport of dead bodies, and likewise assessed
for the conveyance of human ashes. They sought also
to stir up the Government to make proper provision for
the consecration of ashes, which were not then protected
in the same way that dead bodies were. Further than
this, the societies laboured to remove all obstacles to
the discovery of foul play and criminal negligence.
But one of the chief hindrances to the progress of
cremation in Italy was then as in England it is now
the inability of a testator to determine the nature of
his own funeral. The wishes of the legal repre-
sentatives were paramount, and, though permitted,
cremation could not be carried out if surviving
relatives objected. The most prominent case of this
overruling of the expressed desires of the deceased was
52 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
that of Garibaldi. On September 27, 1877, General
(Jaribaldi, writing from Caprera, sent the following
letter to his friend, Dr. Prandina :
*' MY DEAR PKANDINA,
" You have been so kind as to undertake the
charge of burning my body, and I thank you for so
doing.
" On the road that leads northwards from my house
to the shore, there is, upon the left hand, about 300
paces distant, a slight decline in the ground, bordered
by a wall.
"At that angle a pyre, two metres high, of acacias,
lentisk, myrtle, and other aromatic woods, shall be
erected. There will be placed on the pyre a little bed
of iron, and on this the uncovered bier containing my
mortal remains dressed in the red shirt.
" A handful of ashes are to be put in some sort of
urn that shall be placed in the spot where the remains
of my daughters Rose and Anita rest.
" Always yours,
" G. GARIBALDI/'
Upon the death of Garibaldi, the Minister of the
Interior directed Dr. Pini, Secretary of the Cremation
Society, to go to Caprera, in company with Dr. Todaro
and the Honourable Deputy Signer Crispi, 1 to carry out
the wishes of Garibaldi ; but the family and friends of the
patriot opposed the plan in the most determined manner,
and the three delegates were forced to return to Milan
with their mission unfulfilled. 2 There on the i8th of
1 Subsequently Prime Minister of Italy.
- "Encyclopedic d'Hygiene," 1891, p. 64.
MODERN LAW. 53
June a solemn assemblage was held, which was attended
by all the members of the Cremation Society, and by al]
sorts of political and popular associations. The follow-
ing resolution was passed :
"The citizens and associations of Milan, convoked
in a public assembly by the Cremation Society, demand
that the wish expressed by General Garibaldi relative
to his mortal remains and ashes shall be strictly
respected."
The day after that on which this public meeting was
held, the following resolution was entered upon the
minutes of the Cremation Society :
"The Society of Cremation at Milan, the vigilant
and scrupulous guardian of all that is done in Italy and
elsewhere for the application and diffusion of the
hygienic and civil reform that it upholds ;
" Knowing the wish expressed by the living voice of
General Garibaldi to the Society's President, and con-
firmed in writing to our Associate Dr. Prandina, by
which he enjoined in precise terms that his mortal
remains should be incinerated ;
" Knowing that, by the last testamentary act of the
General, he ordered the incineration of his body, and
imposed the scrupulous accomplishment of his design
upon his widow ;
"The Society of Cremation deplores the existing
non-accomplishment of the immutable wishes of the
great departed, who, in decreeing the cremation of his
corpse, sanctioned and ennobled the principle of the
purification of mortal remains."
But the Society did not rest satisfied with deploring
the non-accomplishment of the General's wish, but
fll THE LAW OF CREMATION.
further determined not to rest until his desires had
been carried out. But the injunctions contained in
Garibaldi's will, the trust confided to his widow, the
agitation stirred up by the Milanese Cremation Society,
the influence of political friends, and the force of
popular opinion, all proved unavailing in the face of
the law of Italy that gave the right of disposal of the
body to the nearest legal representatives of the deceased.
And for nine more years the law remained unchanged.
In the meantime, on July 9, 1882, the Council of
State, having previously provided that the ashes of the
dead should be deposited in public cemeteries, and not
in houses or private grounds, granted permission to
societies, churches, and various public bodies, to pre-
serve the ashes of departed benefactors and others
within the walls of institutions and in other appropriate
places.
On January n, 1891, the new Italian Burial Law
was passed. In Italy now, as in France, the deceased
has the absolute right to determine whether his body
shall be burned or buried. 1 The following is the
text of the police instructions concerning cremation now
in force in Italy : -
Article 65. Crematory furnaces must not be erected
without the walls of public cemeteries.
Article 66. The employment of crematory furnaces
necessitates the surveillance of the town authori-
ties, and every cremation must be conducted
with the permission of the person who holds the
Communicated by Dr. dc Pietra Santa, Paris, February 1892.
u; No. 3, March 1892.
MODERN LAW. 55
right to the private use of the furnace, or, when
the furnace belongs to the community, with the
permission of the local authorities.
Article 67. A cremation can only be permitted by
the civil officers of the place of abode of the
deceased, on the production of the following
documents :
1. (a) A legal extract from the will of the
deceased.
(6) In the absence of the above, a written
request by the nearest relative, or by a friend
if no relatives are living and no objections are
raised.
2. A certificate of the attendant doctor setting
forth the cause of death, and entirely removing
all suspicion of a criminal cause.
Article 68. In the absence of clause 2 of the pre-
ceding Article, and in case of sudden or suspicious
death, no antinomy must be laid before the
authorities.
Article 69. If the cremation is to be carried out in
another parish than that to which the deceased
belonged, then, besides the aforesaid documents,
an order of the prefect, permitting the trans-
port of the body, must be obtained.
Article 70. The body must be deposited in the
furnace in the clothes in which it is brought on
the bier.
Article 7 1 . In the following cases, the bier as well
as the clothes will be burned :
(a) When the clothes are in a dirty condi-
tion.
58 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
(6) When it has been employed for a person
who has died from an infectious disease.
(c) When, apart from the aforesaid conditions,
the family of the defunct desires it.
Article 72. 1 In accordance with the cremation regu-
lations, the ashes shall be carefully collected, and,
when desired, returned to the relations or friends,
or their representatives, enclosed in an urn.
Article 73. The urn must bear an inscription setting
forth the Christian and surname of the person
whose ashes are contained in it.
Article 74. Each urn must contain the ashes of only
one person.
Article 75. The urns must be made of durable
material, and must, besides, be shut fast without
any opening when they are delivered up; or
they may, instead, be placed in the niche of a
suitable vault.
Article 76. The transport of urns that contain
cremated ashes is not a transgression of the
hygienic precautionary measure that applies to
transport of bodies.
Article 77. Urns containing ashes can, in accord-
ance with Article 59 of the Law for Protection
of the Public Health, be placed in vaults or
private graves, in churchyards, or in temples,
infirmaries, hospitals, or other situations, so long
as the place chosen is suitable and is under the
supervision of a legally recognised benevolent
society, and the situation is chosen and approved
by the family and the society.
1 Phoenix, No. 4, April 1892.
MODERN LAW. 57
At the present time there are over twenty crematoria
ir- active use in Italy, and a very large number of
corpses have already been incinerated at the Campo
Varano cemetery at Rome. 1
THE GERMAN STATES AND PRUSSIA.
As early as 1854, a Cremation Society was formed in
Hamburg, and in 1856 Jacques Grimm began in Ger-
many his propagandism of the principles of cremation.
GOTHA.
To the Government of Gotha, however, belongs the
honour of having been the first administrative body to
authorise the practice of burning the dead. In Decem-
ber 1878, the Gotha crematorium was completed and
put into use, the law of the State having already pro-
vided for incineration, upon strictly sanitary principles,
of the remains of those who in life expressed a wish
to be cremated, and whose relatives consented to the
operation. Special measures had been also prescribed
to prevent the concealment of the evidences of crime. 2
(See Appendix.)
Five years before the opening of the Gotha crema-
torium, two scientifically conducted, though unatithor-
1 Phoenix, No. 5, May 1892. Organ of the " Union of
German-speaking Societies for promotion of Burial Reform and
permissive Cremation." See article on " The Progress of Crema-
tion '' in the " Annual Encyclopaedia " for 1889.
2 " La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c.," by Dr. de Pietra Santat
P- 35-
68 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
ised, cremations had taken place in Germany ; the
first at Breslau in Silesia, Prussia ; the other at Dresden,
Saxony.
SAXONY.
After the installation of the Gotha crematorium, the
Cremation Society of Dresden " The Urn " begged
permission to inter the ashes of Dresden citizens, cre-
mated in the furnace at Gotha, in the Dresden cemetery.
To this entreaty the State Consistory replied : " The
Consistory sees no occasion for making a general
regulation in the matter." l The Dresden Society con-
tinued, however, to base its operations on the fact that
cremation was not forbidden by the law of Saxony. At
the present time, transportation of bodies for cremation
in other countries is permitted when the deceased has,,
in his will, expressed a desire to be cremated, and when
this will has been signed in the presence of a judge or
notary, or, in the absence of these, before five witnesses. -
Leipzig and Chemnitz have long possessed Cremation
Societies. The aim of the Leipzig Society, as set
forth in the PJwenix for January 1892, is to insure the
possibility of cremation for those who desire it for
themselves, and to support the means of cremation in
other places, until such a time as Leipzig shall have a
crematorium of its own. In a meeting of this Society,
1 "Erde oder Feuer" (Earth or Fire), by Wilhelm Schiiffer.
Darmstadt. 1890.
- Advertisement of Chemnitz Cremation Society in Phocnix f
No. 2, February 1892.
MODERN LAW. 59
held on October 4, 1892,! it was decided to petition
the Town Council to establish permissive cremation in
Leipzig, and to give the Society a site on which to erect
a crematorium.
HAMBURG.
Between 1870 and 1880, the question of the advisa-
bility of adopting the practice of cremation was brought
before the Assembly of Burgesses of Hamburg, on the
occasion of the laying out of a new cemetery. The
result of the discussion in the Assembly was the appoint-
ment, in 1878, of a committee empowered to go to
Gotha and study the working of the crematorium there.
In 1883, a new Cremation Society was formed. This
body addressed a memorial to the Senate, praying for
permission to erect a crematorium, and asking for a
grant of State land for a site. The memorial was much
discussed in the Assembly of Burgesses, and upon two
occasions an almost unanimous vote was taken in favour
of requesting the Senate to accede to both demands of
the Society. As a result of this agitation, the Senate,
in 1885, made the announcement that, upon the con-
ditions that the capital for building the crematorium
was first raised, and a pledge given by the Society,
that only persons dying in Hamburg should be in-
cinerated there, the State would assign a piece of
ground for the desired purpose. 2
1 Phoenix, No. n, November 1892.
- Report of the Congress at Gotha of the German-speaking
Societies for the promotion of Burial Reform and Permissive
Cremation, 1886, p. 40. See also Pha-nij: for July 1892, p. 81.
(50 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
The crematorium was built, but the limitation of its
use to persons dying in Hamburg was soon felt to be a
great drawback. The fewer the incinerations, the
greater the cost of each particular cremation. For
economical reasons, therefore, it was most desirable
that many more incinerations, than those that the
population of the city of Hamburg afforded, should be
effected there. On this account the Assembly of
Burgesses, in 1891, petitioned the Senate to reconsider
the conditions they had previously made. 1 In a docu-
ment dated December 21, 1891, the Senate replied to
the petition of the burgesses with an emphatic refusal
to modify the conditions that had been accepted by the
Hamburg Cremation Society. The chief ground of the
refusal, so it was stated in the document, was the fear
lest the transport of bodies, from places where cremation
was not established, might lessen the regard borne by
neighbouring States to the free city of Hamburg. This
unequivocal refusal called for some reply from the bur-
gesses. They therefore appointed a committee to con-
sider the matter. In May 1 892, this committee had arrived
at the con elusion that the question ought not to be allowed
to rest, but the Senate again appealed to. 2 The report of
the committee wholly opposed the idea of the Society's
design causing friction with neighbouring Governments,
and stated that between December 14, 1878, and the
middle of March 1802, 742 bodies had been burned at
Gotha, 335 of which came from outside Gotha, and nearly
half of these from Prussia ; and the report further went
on to say that a fifth of the bodies already burned in
1 Phtrnix, No. 2, February 1892.
2 Ibid. No. 7, July 1892.
MODERN LAW. 61
the new crematorium of Heidelberg had been brought
from Prussia, and no ill-feeling had been excited in
either case. The committee also reminded the Senate
that it had itself sought the co-operation of the bur-
gesses in the work of legislating for the establishment
of cremation, and had thereby given them the right to
express their opinion ; wherefore the Senate ought not
to circumvent them. The committee concluded its
report by suggesting further regulations for determining
the cause of death and registering the same.
The Senate is, however, still obdurate, and as the
Constitution of Hamburg requires that all laws must
receive the consent of both Assembly and Senate, the
crematorium still remains closed to all but the deceased
townspeople of Hamburg.
PRUSSIA.
Quite recently, the building of a columbarium in one
of the Berlin cemeteries has been tacitly permitted, but
the State Church prohibits the attendance of a clergyman
and the exercise of religious rites at incinerations. 1 A
crematorium is used by the city authorities of Berlin
for the destruction of the corpses of paupers, unidentified
persons, and human remains from dissecting-rooms. 2
Since the erection of this building, the report of the
Berlin magistrates, who compose the Funeral Com-
mission, has been published. As a result of their
1 Article on "Progress of Cremation " in the New York Evening
Pot, April 9, 1892. See also " Report on the Administration of
the Public Cemeteries of Berlin, from April i, 1890, to March 31,
1891."
- Phoenix, No. 3, March 1892.
62 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
inquiries, the report states that " the magistrates
are of opinion that against partial and permissive
cremation, such as the commonalty of Berlin desire,
there can be, from a judicial standpoint, no plausible
objection." 1
On May 28, 1892, the question whether cremation
could not be put on the same footing as earth-burial was
asked in the Prussian Parliament. In reply, the
Attorney-General (Ober-Eegicrungsrath) Hopker stated
that no law prohibiting cremation existed in Prussia,
that in the future perhaps regulations for the estab-
lishment of the practice of incineration might be drawn
up ; but that at present there was no need for any legis-
lation on the subject, as no general opinion existed in
favour of it. The Minister of Health, (Schonfeld) an-
nounced that his department took a neutral attitude
towards cremation ; and Dr. Renvers, as representative
of the Minister of Public Worship, said that, though no
Christian doctrine forbade cremation, the practice was
repugnant to the ideas of all Christian sects and pro-
moted unbelief. Judge Supper, on behalf of the
Minister of Justice, spoke against cremation in the
interests of criminal law.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN.
In Frankfort the building of a crematorium was for-
bidden, on account of the existence of a law providing
for the erection of a tombstone over the body of every
person dying in the State. 2 The Berlin Ministry, being
, No. 6, June, 1892.
- Report of the Congress at Gotha, 1886.
MODERN LAW. 63
appealed to, to remove this technical difficulty, refused
to interfere with the existing burial laws, upon the
excuse that the custom of cremation was not yet viewed
with popular favour. But the Imperial Government
intimated that, when cremation was more generally ap-
proved, something might be done to legalise it in Frank-
fort. Up to 1886, this was the only result that the
efforts of the Frankfort friends of cremation had
achieved. The present state of the cremation question
in Frankfort is described in a letter written to the
author by Dr. Karl Flesch, a solicitor, and member of
the Town Council of Frankfort : l
" We have no crematorium (in Frankfort), for the
Prussian Government has announced that it will forbid
cremation. Our Senate has no legislative powers, as
we are no longer a self-governing State. Whether the
burning of the dead is a matter that falls under the
jurisdiction of a Town Council, in the way of local
government, is disputed ; I think it does, and hope to
bring the question before our highest Verwaltungsgericht
(Court of Queen's Bench), and get a decision to support
my view. The Prussian Minister of the Interior con-
siders himself entitled to forbid the practice of cremation
by simply issuing an arbitrary command. No law on
the subject exists in Prussia."
HESSE.
The Frankfort Cremation Society had always drawn
a large number of its members from the neighbouring
town of Offenbach, in Hesse, and in February 1891
1 October 1892.
64 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
this fact suggested the idea that the Frankfort Crema-
tion Society should build a crematorium in the ceme-
tery at Offenbach. By August of the same year enough
money had been subscribed for the purpose. In order
that the best possible system should be adopted, the
Frankfort Society joined that of Heidelberg, which was
about to undertake a similar task, in ascertaining the
mode of construction most advisable for them to employ. 1
Klingenstierna's furnace was eventually decided upon,
and the crematorium erected. On July 6, 1892, an
experimental cremation was carried out in it. 2 So far,
everything transpired according to the wishes of the
friends of cremation. But on September 29, 1892, the
Town Council 3 of Offenbach received a formal com-
munication from the Burgherrnaster, in his capacity
of chief officer of the local police, forbidding the crema-
tion of human remains, and commanding that within
ten days the furnace so recently erected should be put
into such a condition that it would be impossible to use
it for the purpose for which it was built. This order
was issued in obedience to the injunction of the Grand
Ducal Administration which claimed to take its autho-
rity from Article 80 of the District and Provincial
Regulations, 4 and it expressly stated that earth-burial
was the only mode of disposing of the dead recognised
within the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Further than this,
the order contained the announcement that a penalty
not exceeding 90 marks would be exacted of any person
contravening or not complying with the order. The
1 Phtrnix, No. I, January 1892.
- Ibid. No. S, August 1892.
3 " Stadtverordneten."
4 " Kreis-und Provinzialordnung."
MODERN LAW. 65
document containing these peremptory commands
was received by the Town Council at its sitting on
September 15, 1892. This body, in its turn, for-
warded the order to the committee that had promoted
the building of the crematorium, and subjoined a
lengthy and detailed statement, in which it was
announced that, in the opinion of the Town Council,
the order was grounded on an erroneous application of
the principles of justice, and was further both " illegal
and inadmissible." This statement of the Town Council
was drawn up under three heads. In the first place, it
was contended that cremation was not forbidden by the
laws of the German Empire, nor by those of the Grand
Duchy, and that, though burial was enjoined by impli-
cation, the burial of ashes after cremation had taken'
place would fully meet the requirements of that injunc-
tion. Secondly, it was urged that only acts endanger-
ing the public peace, or those that were in opposition to
laws and regulations already established could be in-
cluded among punishable offences ; and thirdly, it was
pronounced inadmissible that the police should interfere
with actions against which no prohibition existed in
law, which were beneficial to the public health, and
which it was not proposed to force upon those to whom
religious views rendered them objectionable. 1
In Hesse, therefore, the matter rests for the present
where these documents leave it. But the question of
the legality of cremation is shortly to be brought before
tbe courts of law. 2
1 Phwnix, No. 11, November 1892.
a Communication from Dr. Fix, of the <: Hess- Land verein for
Burial Reform and Permissive Cremation."
E
C6 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
WCRTEMBERG.
In the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg, the question of
burning the dead was first raised towards the close of
the year 1874, when a Cremation Society was formed.
On February 4, 1875, the Town Council 1 subjoined to
a memorial presented to that body by the Cremation
Society, a statement to the effect that the members of
the Council were under the impression that the Society
not only desired to obtain permission of the State to
establish cremation in the town of Stuttgart, but also
wished to be provided with a site for a crematorium as
the means of carrying out their purpose. After this
the matter came to a standstill, and, in 1882, the
Society disbanded.
In the meantime, a Royal Decree, concerning the
exposure, dissection, and burial of bodies, issued
January 24, 1882, contained the following words: "A
dead body must be disposed of only by means of inter-
ment in a public burial-ground. For burial in any
other place, except a public burial-ground, permission
from the Government is necessary."
This order completely shut out the possibility of
establishing cremation, until special permission could
be obtained from the Government of the Kingdom of
Wurtemberg. In 1 890, another Cremation Society was
formed. This gave occasion for bringing the matter
once more before the authorities, by means of a petition
to the Minister of the Interior praying for permission
to build a crematorium. 2 The Society further requested
1 " Gemeinderath."
J February 2, 1891. See Phoenix, No. n, November 1892.
MODERN LAW. 67
the Town Council not to place any obstacles in the
way of the establishment of permissive cremation and
the erection of a crematorium ; whereupon the Council
determined to lay the matter before its Police and
Cemetery Committees.
The sitting of these Committees for consideration of
this question was held on February 12, 1892.
On the motion of a member of the Police Commit-
tee, 1 it was agreed that the Council had no objections
to the establishment of cremation, provided certain
precautions, presently to be determined upon, were
observed.
On the motion of Councillor Payer, it was carried, by
seven votes to six, that the Council should declare itself
in favour of the establishment of cremation in the town
of Stuttgart, and inform the Cremation Society of its
willingness, in the event of the approval of its project
by the State Government, to assign a special place for
the erection of a crematorium, and, on account of the
Society, to take the same under control of the town
authorities.
On the motion of Councillor Baumeister, it was
agreed, by ten votes to three, that the Town Council
should announce that it had nothing to urge against
the establishment of cremation in Stuttgart, but was
ready, in the event of the Society's project being
approved by the State Government, to appoint a special
site for the erection of a crematorium in a public
cemetery. 2
Up to the present time, no answer to the petition
delivered by the Stuttgart Cremation Society to the
1 " Polizeirath." " Phoenix, No. 4, March 1892.
8 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg
has been received, and the Society is quite unable to
account for the unusual delay. 1
BADEN.
In the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Government is
not inimical to cremation. Mannheim, Baden-Baden.
and Heidelberg all possess flourishing cremation
societies.- Heidelberg is one of the four German towns
(Gotha, Hamburg, and Offenbach being the other three)
that possess crematory furnaces.
The Heidelberg crematorium was put into use in
December 1891. It stands in a separate part of the
town cemetery, 3 and, under due police supervision, is
equally available for strangers and for the inhabitants
of Heidelberg. 4 (See Appendix.) From December 1 89 1
to the end of October 1892, thirty-six incinerations had
taken place in it. 5 The Baden-Baden Society has
recently been instrumental in establishing another
Society at Lahr (in Baden), 6 and in May 1892 the
" Friends of Cremation " in Baden were able at their
general meeting to congratulate the members of the
Society at Mannheim on their recent determination to
build a crematorium of their own. 7 It was agreed that
the size of the town of Mannheim and its liberal character
were sufficient guarantees that this action would in no way
interfere with the success of the Heidelberg crematorium.
; No. ii, November 1892.
a " Erde oder FeuerJ? " p. 43, by Wilhelm Schaffer. Darmstadt.
8 Phrsnijc, No. 3, March 1892.
4 Ibid. No. 2, February 1892. 5 Ibid. No. 10, October 1892.
Ibid. No. i, January 1892. 7 Ibid. No. 6, June 1892.
MODERN LAW. 69
BAVARIA.
When, in October 1891, the Town Council of Munich,
was about to purchase a site for a new cemetery, the
Munich Cremation Society put forth the demand that
a portion of that cemetery might be reserved for the
future building of a crematorium. At the same time,
the Society inquired of the magistrates whether any
objections could be raised to the depositing of caskets
or urns in burial places or family vaults. 1
In their public sitting on January 19, 1892, the
Munich magistrates addressed a reply to the Society, of
which the following is the substance :
"Concerning your memorial, presented October 29,
1892, we beg to inform you that the reservation
of a special site for the building of a crematorium
in planning out the new cemetery does not appear to
be necessary, as the Town Council has already entered
into an arrangement with the commissioners of one of
the cemeteries to build a crematorium, and we would
state further that, before any more steps can be taken in
the matter, the opinion of the Royal Bavarian State
Government must be ascertained. On this account, there-
fore, we leave it in your hands to address a memorial
on this question to the Government of the Kingdom.
" What further concerns the depositing of ashes
by the sides of bodies, buried in graves and vaults in
the cemeteries of this town, can be treated of in the
future." 2
Upon receipt of this comunication, the Society inv
mediately set itself the task of drawing up a petition
1 Plucnix, No. 3, March 1892. - Ibid.
70 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
to the State Government praying for the establishment
of permissive cremation in Bavaria.
This petition, which was agreed upon in the general
meeting of the Munich Cremation Society 1 held on
January 31, and dispatched February 12, 1892, was
discussed in the sitting of the town magistrates on
March 29, and led to the following announcement being
addressed to the Society. -
"Concerning your petition of February 12, we
beg to inform you that the magistracy in to-day's
sitting, unanimously agreed to support the aforesaid
petition for the establishment of permissive cremation
in Bavaria."
No change has yet taken place in the laws of the
Kingdom, but, in spite of this fact, the Town Council of
Nuremberg (Bavaria) has recently (October II, 1892),
announced its intention of building a crematorium in
that city. 3
The speeches of the delegates to the General
Assembly of the " German-speaking Societies for the
Promotion of Burial Reform and Permissive Crema-
tion "at Baden-Baden, on September 8, 1892, prove
that in all places where cremation societies exist, efforts
are being made to induce the respective Governments
to legalise permissive cremation and to consent to the
building of crematoria. 4 In most towns, regulations are
1 There are in Munich two cremation societies, the " Verein
fur Feuerbestattung," and the "Verein fiir Leichenverbrennung."
The latter is the one mentioned above.
Plifrnic, No. 5, May 1892.
3 Jbid. No. ii. November 1892.
4 Jbiil. No. 10. October 1802.
MODERN LAW. 71
already in force, in conformity with which bodies may be
removed to Gotha, Heidelberg, or Zurich for incineration.
But as in all countries under Prussian jurisdiction
the cremation of corpses is strictly forbidden, the result
of the action of the Cremation Society of Frankfort in
bringing the matter before the " Verwaltungsgericht "
(Court of Queen's Bench) is anxiously awaited through-
out the German Empire. 1
AUSTRIA.
In 1 8/2, the crematory appliances, displayed by Dr.
Brunetti at the International Exhibition at Vienna,
made a strong impression upon the people of that city^
and led to a movement in favour of cremation.
After a serious study of the question, the Sanitary
Council of the Empire and the Army Health Council
pronounced themselves in favour of incineration. But
Court influences and opinions current in the higher
governmental spheres proved inimical to the practice. 2
In 1874, the Municipal Council of Vienna unanimously
passed a proposition to the effect that " the Administra-
tion be asked to provide for the immediate carrying out of
the system of cremation." After the question had been
submitted to and rejected by the Upper House, a Bill
was introduced into the Chamber of Deputies, but,
before the matter came under discussion, Parliament
was prorogued.
According to the laws of Austria, an Act not
passed before a dissolution must be drawn up
No. 10, October 1892.
- " La Cremation, &c." by Dr. de Pietra Santa, p. 45.
72 THH LAW OF CREMATION.
entirely afresh. It therefore became necessary to g<-t
up new petitions and revise all memoranda, before the
subject of cremation could be again brought before
Parliament. 1
A few years later a society for the " burning of
bodies " was founded in Vienna under the title of
" The Urn." This society sent a deputation to the
Prime Minister Count Taaffe to ask him to further
the passing of a law making cremation legal. Iut
an absolute refusal was the only response granted to
A deputation that represented the Governor of Lower
Austria, the Municipality of Vienna, and many persons
who were interested in the question of cremation. -
For some time after this, no steps of importance were
taken by " The Urn," and the inertia of that body
led to the secession of some of its members and the
formation of a new Society, under the Presidency of
Herr Siedeck, entitled " The Flame." 3 This Society has
put forth ceaseless efforts to obtain governmental sanc-
tion for the practice of cremation in Austria ; it has also
made arrangements with the railway companies for the
transport of bodies from all parts of Austria to Gotha
and Zurich. The special rates chargeable for the
coffin and for mourners are published every month in
thePhcenix. On February 19, 1892, a large number of
members and friends attended the Annual Meeting of
" The Flame." After the usual formal business had
been transacted, Herr Lekisch a member of the
magistracy 4 informed the meeting that the Board of
Health of Lower Austria had, in a note concerning
' Report of the Congress at Gotha. 1886. - Ibid.
3 Ibid. * Or Town Councillor (Magistratsrath).
MODERN LAW. 73
burial regulations, sent from the Health Department to
the Municipality of Vienna, expressed itself in regard
to cremation in the following manner :
"The Board of Health is of opinion that the burning
of bodies, when effectuated in compliance with the
requirements of justice and sanitation, and in accord-
ance with religious considerations and the dictates of
piety, and not as an expensive and exceptional privilege,
but as a measure of as universal application as possible,
meets the necessities of the care of the public health,
and overthrows the many difficulties that burial gives
rise to. It is, therefore, a task that must be undertaken
in the future. The Department leaves it to the discre-
tion of the Municipality of Vienna to make fit use of
this opinion."
This expression of opinion was the first recognition,
on the part of the Government, of a cause which the
Municipality of Vienna had long before made their
own, and which members of the Vienna Town Council
had urged so frequently and with absolutely no results
in the Lower House of Parliament.
In view of this declaration, the Municipality of
Vienna, in its next sitting, February 26, 1892,*
decided to give its serious consideration to the question
of cremation as a part of the much-needed burial
reform. Public attention was thus once more attracted
to cremation, and matters so far progressed that, at the
General Assembly of ;i German-speaking Societies for
the promotion of Burial Reform and Permissive Crema-
tion," 2 Herr Siedeck announced that "The Flame"
1 PIiH-Ht'j; No. 4. April 1892.
- Baden-Baden, September 1892.
74 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
had recently passed a resolution to the effect that the
consent of the Municipality of Vienna to the erection
of a crematorium should be obtained, and. in order to
hasten the establishment of cremation, the building
forthwith begun. Though no law rendering cremation
permissive has yet been passed in Austria. "The
Flame " has now undertaken the task of building a
crematorium, in the hope that the holding of a trial
incineration, largely attended by relatives and friends
of the deceased, may force the hand of the Government
and lead to some legislation on the subject. 1
In regard to the provision to be made by a testator
to insure the cremation of his body at death, the
opinion of Dr. Emil Guttman, Counsellor-at-Law (Hof-
UTid Gericktsadrocat) in Vienna, is of value. Writing
in the Phcenix No. 9 (September 1892), Dr. Guttman
says : ' The law of Austria, unlike that of most Euro-
pean States, which disregards the wishes of the testator,
is administered by a procedure that has the threefold
aim of: i. Determining the legal representatives;
2. Fulfilling the last will, so far as the intention of
the testator can be ascertained ; and 3. Insuring the
payment of all legacies. So far as this procedure pro-
vides for the fulfilment of the express wishes of the
testator, it ought to guarantee the cremation of his or
her body, if desired. Yet it does not necessarily do
so." Dr. Guttman goes on to explain that, although
the law of Austria stipulates that, after the settlement
of the affairs of the deceased, and before the residue of
the estate is handed over to the heirs, the Court that
1 Plurnix, No. 10. October 1892. Also communication from
Heir Siedeck, Vienna.
MODERN LAW. 75
adjudicates must prove, point by point, that the will of
the deceased has been fulfilled, it is nevertheless left to
the discretion of the Court whether or no the disposi-
tions of the will need be literally carried out. This is
especially the case when the fulfilment of the wishes of
the deceased is attended with great difficulty or expense.
In a case where the deceased has stated in his will
that he wishes to be buried in a place remote from that
in which he dies, and his relations bury him before they
are made acquainted with his wishes, the law forbids
the exhuming and removal of his body, on account of
the extraordinary difficulty and outlay attending such a
proceeding. In the same manner, therefore, a body
buried by relatives before the contents of a will became
known to them, could not be exhumed for cremation ;
and even if the legal representatives of the deceased,
in spite of the knowledge of the dispositions of a
will enjoining cremation, should, on account of the
difficulty and cost of transporting the body to a dis-
tant crematorium, have the body buried, they would
probably be within the law, especially as the non-
existence of any statute legalising cremation leaves
it in doubt whether cremation may or may not be
regarded as permissible in the Austrian Empire. But,
though a single testamentary disposition may be un-
availing. Dr. Guttman notes that there are other
methods in Austrian law that may prove more effective.
Testamentary dispositions can assume different forms ;
they may take either as a disadvantageous condition,
in the case of non-fulfilment, or merely as the wish of
the testator the form of a bequest to heirs or. of a
so-called tax, by which certain persons inherit certain
"6 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
dispositionary powers; or again, and this is the most
stringent kind of testamentary disposition, they may
assume the form of a condition, the fulfilment of which
is obligatory on the persons who inherit the disposi-
tionary powers. No form of a testamentary disposition,
unless it be the conditional form, can guarantee the
fulfilment of the testator's wish against all contin-
gencies and differences of opinion. Only the prescribing
of express conditions, upon fulfilment of which alone
the receipt of a legacy absolutely depends, can insure
the carrying out of a testator's instructions, provided of
course that their performance is physically, legally, and
morally possible.
On account of the contradictory aspects of all
Austrian law, it is impossible for any lawyer to
say exactly what testamentary dispositions will be
supported by judicial opinion, and what not. On this
account, therefore, Ur. Guttruan thinks the only method
to be recommended is that of the testator leaving all
or part of his estate to a certain person or persons, upon
the sole condition that they shall cause his body to be
cremated. Then the testator's wishes would have to be
carried out before his bequests could be distributed, and,
as there is no law in Austria forbidding cremation, it
could scarcely be urged that the burning of a body is
an illegal act.
According to Dr. Guttman, it becomes the duty of
all Austrian legal advisers, in drawing up a will enjoin-
ing the cremation of the testator's body, to make the
mode of the disposition of his remains sure by following
the lines laid down in his article. In his opinion, it is
of little use for supporters of cremation to draw up all
MODERN LA.W. 77
sorts of forms, to be filled in by persons desiring to be
cremated, for these, however carefully worded, cannot
insure the carrying out of a testator's wishes. It is
far more necessary, so Dr. Guttman affirms, that the
requirements of each individual case should be inquired
into, and an experienced lawyer entrusted with the
drawing up of a will, taking its special features fully
into account.
On September 21, 1892, in the Burghermaster's
Assembly of the Vb'lkermarkt district of Graz, a peti-
tion was forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior,
praying that the. bodies of all persons dying from
cholera, might be burned. 1
BOHEMIA.
In the sitting of the Municipal Sanitary Council of
Prague, April 25, 1888. the need of adopting the
practice of cremation was discussed. It was proposed
that the Town Council should be requested to set aside,
in its next budget, a sum of money for the purchase
of a site for a crematorium. The proposal was warmly
supported by the members of the Sanitary Council
and referred to a committee for further consideration.
On May 25, 1888, this committee made its report,
in which it stated that, in view of the impossibility
of making any mode of burial innocuous, the committee
was of opinion that it was necessary that the over-
crowding of cemeteries and the filling of the earth
with organic matter should be obviated by the adoption
of permissive cremation, since all objections to such a
1 Ph(rnix, No. 10, October 1892.
78 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
mode of disposing of the dead, as a hindrance to the
researches of justice, might be done away with by
the establishment of a severer system of death registra-
tion. Upon these principles, therefore, the committee
recommended the Sanitary Council to petition the town
authorities to adopt the process. 1
DENMARK.
The Danish Cremation Society was founded in 1881,-
and strove for more than ten years to induce the
Minister of Justice and the Folketing, 3 which, led by
the Minister of Public Worship, made a determined
stand against cremation, to favour the views of its
members. Although the Minister of Public Worship
announced his disapproval in a most decided manner,
and had a great deal of influence in the Folketing,
the Society determined to conduct an experimental
incineration, hoping, by that action, to force legislation
in the matter. In order to accomplish this end, it
was primarily necessary to have a crematorium. The
building of one was decided upon on April 9, 1885,
and, in September 1886, the structure being completed,
it was arranged to hold a trial burning in it. A body
of a suicide, obtained from the anatomy class in the
University of Lund, Sweden, was procured for the
purpose, and the cremation carried out. A repetition
of the experiment, was, however, forbidden by the Min-
ister of Justice, and the Society was warned that, if it
1 1'liti-ui.i; No. 8, August 1892.
- I hid. No. 5, May 1892.
3 Parliament, Lower House.
MODERN LAW. 79
attempted to burn another body, the police would
interfere. In 1888, the courts of law confirmed the
prohibition of the Minister of Justice, and explained
that, even though no law existed forbidding cremation,
burial was the only legal form of disposal of the dead,
and one that could not be dispensed with, except in a
case of urgent necessity. An appeal from this decision
was disallowed. But the permission which neither the
Administration nor the courts of law would grant, was
eventually obtained through the Legislature.
The following are the conditions, approved by the
Minister of Justice, 1 under which the new Danish law
rendering cremation permissive, may be carried out :
" . . . . The existence of a testamentary disposition
in valid form, and of a sufficient legacy to defray the
cost of cremation ; the production of certificates obtained
from the medical officer and from the police authori-
ties, setting forth the undoubted cause of death ; and
the depositing of the ashes in a churchyard or an
officially approved crematorium."
SWEDEN.
In 1890 there were already four cremation societies
in Sweden, containing in all 3050 members, the chief
Society being that at Stockholm.
On the occasion of the first cremation carried out in
Sweden, the following order was published by the
lloyal Captain-General of the Province of Stock-
holm : 2
iij;, No. 5, May 1892.
- " Erde oder Feuer ? " by Wilhelm Schaffer. Darmstadt^ 1890.
80 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
44 Nor, mix r \, 1887.
" When it became known that the Swedish
Cremation Society had erected a crematorium for the
burning of bodies in Hagalund, in the parish, of Solna,
the lloyal Captain-General invited the president of the
Society, Captain and Chevalier E. J. Klingenstierna,
to appear before him this day (November I, 1887), in
order that he might have a personal interview with
him, and that that gentleman might submit to him a
printed copy of the statutes of the Swedish Cremation
Society. Together with the various deeds and formu-
laries concerning the cremation already accomplished,
Mr. Klingenstierna gave the information that notice of
the nature of the first steps taken by the Society had
been sent in to his Majesty, and that his Majesty had
thereupon asked his Ministers of Justice to give him
their opinion on the matter. Upon hearing this, the
Royal Captain of the Province found no immediate
necessity for him, on his part, to take any further
measures in the affair ; only Captain Klingenstierna, by
virtue of his office, 1 must make it known that the
Society can only again take charge of deceased persons
on condition that he shall be able, as heretofore, to
collect and preserve all the deeds relating [to the
decease] and, besides these, he must produce before the
sheriff of the jurisdiction [province or county] of
Haxholm, the medical and police certificates. It will
rest, then, with the sheriff to supply the date of
presentation and to make further entries for preserva-
tion in the sheriff's office.
" MATTHES FALK."
1 As President of the Cremation Society.
MODERN LAW. 81
NORWAY.
Cremation has not been so easily adopted in Norway
as in the neighbouring country of Sweden. In March
1889, a Cremation Society was started in Christiania,
but there is, as yet, no crematorium in that city. 1 On
May 25, 1892, another Society of about in members
was founded in Bergen. This Society announces as its
objects, the establishment of permissive cremation in
Norway, and the erection of a crematory furnace in
Bergen. 2
SWITZERLAND.
In Switzerland, there seems to have been no agitation
in favour of cremation until 1873. In 1874, public
meetings, held at Ziirich, did much to popularise the
idea of cremation, and societies for the promotion of
that mode of disposing of the dead were subsequently
formed in various towns, notably in Zurich, Aaran and
Argovie. 3 The Municipality of Zurich 'greatly favoured
the reform, and, in April 1877, the Zurich Government,
upon the proposal of the Chief Officer of Health, issued
a series of regulations determining the three special
conditions under which the cremation societies of the
Canton might proceed to put the methods advocated by
them into practice. These conditions were :
I. The formally expressed wish of the defunct.
II. The carrying out of a post-mortem by the coroner
1 " Erde odcr Feuer ? " by Wilhelm SchJiffer. Darmstadt.
- Plunnlc. No. 6. June 1892.
; ' La Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c.," p. 44, by Dr. de Pietra
Santa.
F
2 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
of the district and the granting of a certificate attri-
buting death to natural causes.
III. The obtaining of an authorisation from the Chief
of Police, after a preliminary inquiry concerning the
mode of life of the deceased person.
Further than this, a police regulation, drawn up by
the Chief of Police and the representatives of the Cre-
mation Society, enumerated the hygienic, administrative
and legal conditions necessary for the carrying out of
the practice. But, in spite of all these authorisations,
it was not till 1885 that the decision was arrived at
actually to construct a crematory furnace at Zurich.
This edifice was completed in 1888, and the first
cremation took place there January 15, 1889.* At
Berne, the Government has been urgently requested to
follow the example of that of Zurich. 2 But though
cremation societies exist in Berne, Geneva, St. Gallen.
Lausanne, Biel and Basle, none of these towns possess
crematoria. Great efforts are, however, being made in
all of them to arrange for the construction of furnaces.
In Zurich, a movement has been recently set on foot
to make the cremation of bodies of persons dying of
infectious diseases, compulsory. 3
BELGIUM.
In Belgium, the idea of cremation has been well sup-
ported from the first. Municipalities have favoured it.
and the process was early applied to the carcases of
1 For " Instructions for the Conduct of Cremations in Ziirich."
see Appendix.
2 " La Cremation, &c.," by Dr. de Pietra Santa, p. 44.
* Phoenix, No. 8, August 1892-
MODERN LAW. 83
animals. The Government, however, upon the advice
of the Minister of Justice, long since declared that
" before the practice of incineration can be adopted by
the Belgians, there must be an alteration in the existing
legislation which provides for the burial of the dead." 1
No alteration has been made, and the "decree ofPrairial
Year XII.," issued when Belgium belonged to France, is
not only still in force, but on June 17, 1882, it was inter-
preted and confirmed by the circular of the Minister of
the Interior which forbade cremation. 2 On the 2oth of
March 1882, the Municipality of Brussels and a number
of private citizens sent a petition to Parliament de-
manding permissive cremation. No results followed
the presentation of this document, and on January 2nd,
1883, Comte Goblet d'Alviella made a report upon the
petition, and asked that it should be laid before the
Ministry. Since that time, however, all thoughts of
cremation have been in abeyance in Belgium, and
those Belgians who wish to be cremated, are forced to
arrange to have their bodies taken out of the country
for incineration.
HOLLAND.
The Burial Law 'in force in the Netherlands bears
the date of April 10, i869. 3 The first article of this
law, as originally drawn up by Minister Heemskuh in
1867, permitted cremation as an exceptional mode of
burial. But his successor, Minister Foch, allowed him-
1 " Report of Congress at Gotha," 1886.
- Communication from Docteur J. Crocq, Senator and President
of the Cremation Society of Belgium. See Codes Annotes, p. 45,
annotation to Article 77.
3 " Bulletin des Lois," 1869, .p 65.
84 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
self to be intimidated by the representations of Dr.
Westerhoff. and, in spite of the entreaties of Deputy van
K rkvvyk not to undo the well thought out work of his
predecessor, he changed one word in the first article,
and thereby excluded cremation. Minister Foch forgot,
however, to alter the remaining articles ; the result
being that the penalties enumerated by the Law of
April loth, 1869, are only applicable to those persons
who bio-y corpses in contravention of the dispositions of
that law ; as, for example, the burial of bodies in places
other than those set apart for the purpose.
In Holland, cremation is not forbidden by law, and
it would be impossible for a judge to punish, as a
transgressor of the law, any person convicted only of
burning a dead body. Nevertheless, cremation has not
yet been practised there. 1 The Sanitary Code provides
for the burial of all bodies in biers. 2 The Netherlands
Cremation Society, founded at the Hague, December
28th. 1874, was authorised by Royal Decree, September
1st. 1875. It comprises ten local sections in the prin-
cipal cities with 400 members, and a general section for
other cities and towns with 280 members, making in all
680. In response to the agitation promoted by this So-
ciety, the Dutch Government submitted to the Academy
of Sciences this question : " Would the cremation of the
dead put any obstacles in the way of the researches of
medical jurisprudence?" The special commission no-
minated by Professor Donders, President of the Academy
1 Communication, dated November 6th, 1892, from Mr. John J.
Perk, Secretary-General of the Netherlands Cremation Society.
- Cremation, sa raison d'etre, &c.," p. 50.
MODERN LAW. 85
of Sciences, came to the conclusion that the incinera-
tion of human remains, surrounded by necessary safe-
guards, might be adopted without any difficulty. 1 This
opinion was expressed in June 1882, and in July 1886
the general assembly of the Netherlands Society of
Physicians also declared itself in favour of the authori-
sation of cremation. 2 In expectation of the Govern-
mental order permitting the cremation of the dead, the
Netherlands Cremation Society has for some time col-
lected a fund for the erection of furnaces in different
parts of the Kingdom. At the ninth General Assembly
at Leyden, September 27, 1884, the Society took upon
itself, upon consideration of an advance payment of
200 guilders (about 17) the care of the transporta-
tion and incineration at the nearest crematory (that at
Gotha) of the bodies of those members who should
express a desire to be cremated. This decision was
sanctioned by the Royal Decree of January 2, I885- 3
Over and over again the Society has petitioned the
Government to establish permissive cremation, and the
stereotyped response of successive Ministers has always
been : " There is at present no urgency." At last
the Society has determined to wait no longer. In a
General Assembly, held at Utrecht, November 21, 1891,
it was agreed that a crematory furnace, on the Bourry
system, should be built at Hilversum, a town midway
between Amsterdam and Utrecht. 4
1 Report of the Congress at Gotha, 1886.
Prospectus of tbe Netherlands Cremation Society.
3 Prospectus of Netherlands Cremation Society.
4 Communication, dated November 6, 1890, from Mr. John J. Perk.
so THE LAW OF % CREMATION.
SPAIN.
We have it on the authority of the Spanish Consul-
(ieneral in London, that no cremation societies exist
:.i Spain, neither has cremation been legislated for, or
in any way recognised, by the Government of that
country. As early as 1877, however, attempts were
made by scientific men to found a society. Some
pamphlets were written in favour of the practice, and
it was discussed in the Medico-pharmaceutical Academy
of Catalonia, but no definite steps have been as yet
taken to establish the practice. 1
PORTUGAL.
In Portugal, cremation is optional throughout the
Kingdom, and the Municipality of Lisbon has enacted
compulsory cremation in times of epidemic of yellow
fever. 3
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Though in the practical application of the principle of
cremation Germany led the van, and though in regard
to the legalising and proper safeguarding of the prac-
tice, the Government of Italy proved itself more respon-
sive to popular demands than any other Administration,
the citizens of the United States have not lagged far
behind the inhabitants of Germany and Italy in their
adoption of the crematory process. In modern times,
the first cremation of human remains on American soil
1 La Cremation. &C.." by Dr. de Pietra .Santa, p. 51.
- Speech of Dr. Cameron in moving Disposal of the Dead
(Regulation) Bill " in House of Commons. April 30. 1884. See also
" Earth-Burial iincl Cremation," by A. G. Cobb.
LAW. 87
was effected at Washington, Pa., 1 in I8/6. 2 It does not
appear that any law had previously been passed making
cremation legal, though in 1875 the Health authorities
of Massachusetts had taken the votes upon the subject,
of the medical men and sanitarians in their jurisdiction,,
with the following result :
For the adoption of cremation . .61
Against . . . . . .21
For embalming ..... 3
For incineration by chemical processes . I
The building of the Washington Crematorium, was
due entirely to private enterprise. Dr. Le Moyne, the
great advocate of the adoption of incineration, was the
constructor of the furnace. Besides the cremation
already referred to, which took place in 1876, this
furnace was used for the destruction of human bodies
in 1877, 1878, and 1879. Though cremation had not
the status of burial, the authorities did not interfere
with the carrying on of the process. Many cremation
companies were rapidly formed in various cities of the
States, but at first few practical results were achieved.
In September 1874 an article in the American Law
Register, by Marshall D. Ewell of Chicago, contained
the following comments on the celebrated decision of
Mr. Justice Stephen in the case of Reg. v. Price : " The
great learning of the Judge who gave the charge ....
as well as the fact that Lord Justice Fry concurred in
his opinion, will invest it with great authority when-
ever the question shall again come up for decision, as
1 Washington, Pennsylvania, a small town not the city of
Washington, capital of the United States.
- " La Cremation sa raison fl'C-tre," by Dr. Pietra Santo
83 THE LAW Ofc CREMATION.
it unquestionably will, in the not far distant future.
We have read the case carefully several times, and.
while we confess that our personal opinion is very
decidedly in favour of the cremation of dead bodies,
under such statutoiy regulations as may be necessary to
prevent the destruction of the evidence of crime, as
soon as the state of public sentiment will warrant it>
yet we consider the reasoning of the learned judge in
support of his conclusion, that cremation is not illegal,
fery unsatisfactory ; and we are of opinion that the
authorities referred to by him, in his opinion, support
the conclusion that it is the duty of the c-.rccut.oi- <>/
at In r jii't-wi/i, harinij charge of a dead body, <'.;/,f
where a different disposition, is autlwrised by the state /< ,
to bury it and not to burn it, and that such will contin<
to be his duty till public sentiment is so changed * f<>
I/IIHII/II/ mid procure legislation authorising <-r<'iiinti<>ii.
consummation which, in the more thickly settled commu-
nities at least, is most dccoutly to be wished, and must
, i- 1 nt n nl I n be attained."
In August 1884, Dr. Le Moyne's Crematorium at
Washington, Pa., was closed to the general public, but
in November, of the same year, the second crematory
ever built in the United States was opened at Lancaster,
Pa. 1 Following upon this, others rapidly sprung up in
different parts of the country. In spite of the opinion
already cited of the contributor to the American Law
Register regarding the illegality of the act of cremation
in a country where there existed no statutory authorisa-
tion of the practice, the civil authorities manifested no
disposition to prevent the burning of dead bodies.
1 " Earth-l-uriHl and Cremation," by A. G. Cobb.
MODERN ^AW. 89
As early as September 1883, the Grand Jury of New
Orleans had recommended the establishment in that
city of a crematory for the incineration of the bodies of
persons dying of contagious diseases. 1 In June 1886,
a committee on cremation, appointed by the " Society
of Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine " of New-
York City made a report, in which it declared cremation
to be a sanitary necessity. Accompanying the report
was a resolution recommending the passage of a Bill by
the Legislature that would require all persons dying of
infectious diseases to be cremated under the direction
of the municipal authorities. The Bill was to provide
also for the incineration of the remains of paupers and
unidentified persons. Public crematories were deemed
advisable, and recommended. 2 Acting upon this sug-
gestion, the New York State Legislature in 1888
passed a Statute (cap. 441, i), providing that "the
Board of Commissioners of Quarantine shall forthwith
erect and establish upon Swinburne Island, in the
harbour of New York, a crematory of such form and
construction as they may deem advisable. It shall be
lawful for the said Board of Commissioners to cause to
be incinerated in such crematory the bodies of persons
dying at the quarantine hospital from contagious or
infectious diseases ; but they shall not incinerate the
bodies of any persons dying as aforesaid, whose re-
ligious views, as communicated by them while living,
or by their friends within twenty-four hours after their
decease, are opposed to cremation. The bodies of such
persons shall be disposed of as hereinafter provided."
1 " Earth Burial and Cremation," by A. G. Cobb. - Ibid.
SH) THE LAW ^F CREMATION.
Cremation is little more than a matter of business
in New York State : in the beginning the Cremation
Companies were simply registered at Albany in a
manner precisely similar to that employed at the in-
corporation of any ordinary trading company. Vet
incineration cannot possibly be deemed illegal, for the
Penal Code, 305, provides that " a person has the
right to direct the manner in which his body shall be
disposed of after his death ; and also to direct the
manner in which any part of his body which becomes
separated therefrom during his lifetime shall bo dis-
posed of."
In 1886, the University of Pennsylvania erected a
crematory for the incineration of bodies dissected in the
Medical Department of the University, 1 and the Health
Department of Philadelphia now maintains a furnace
for the destruction of the remains of persons dying of
infectious diseases.' 2 (See Appendix.)
MEXICO.
The Mexican Government approves of the practice
of cremation, and has intimated its intention of sub-
stituting it for that of burial. 3
BRAZIL.
Brazil appears to have been the pioneer country of
South America in regard to the re-adoption of the long-
extinct practice of cremation. In the hope of lessening
the mortality that devastates the older quarters of Bio
1 "Earth-Burial and Cremation,' 1 by A. G. Cobb.
2 Article on " Progress of Cremation," in the AVir JVi7- Kreniny
rot, Saturday, April 9, 1892.
3 "Erde o<ler Fcm-r .'" by Willitlni SrhiifTer. Darmstadt, 1890.
MODERN LAW. 91
Janeiro during the visitations of yellow fever, the late
Government of Brazil resolved to erect a crematorium
in the cemetery of St. Francis-Xavier. 1
AEGENTINE REPUBLIC.
In this country also the bodies of persons dying of
infectious diseases are cremated. 2
INDIA.
As stated in Part I., the practice of burning the dead
is still retained in India, with all the attendant rites and
ceremonies with which the traditions of the pre-historic
faiths of the Indian peoples have invested it. The
British Government has wisely refrained from interfering
with the ancient custom, at least as regards the burning
of corpses. But the incineration of the living is a
different matter, and Silti (or suttee) has been forbidden.
Under the government of Lord William Bentinck, a
legislative enactment was promulgated against it. By
this Act, the observance of Sati was declared penal in the
British territories. 3 The preamble of this Regulation,
which embodies the reasons which justified the Govern-
ment in abolishing the ancient practice, runs as follows :
" The practice of Sati, or of burning or burying alive
the widows of Hindus, is revolting to the feelings of
human nature; it is nowhere enjoined by the religion
of the Hindus as an imperative duty ; on the contrary,
a life of purity and retirement on the part of the widow
is more especially and preferably inculcated, and by a
vast majority of that people throughout India the prac-
1 ' La Cremation. &.C.." by Dr. de 1'it-tra Santa, p. 54
- "Erde oder Feuer?" by Wilbelm ticlmffer. Darmstadt, 1890
" Keg. XVII. of 1829.
92 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
tice is not kept up nor observed. In some extensive
districts it does not exist. In those in which it has
been most frequent, it is notorious that, in many
instances, acts of atrocity have been perpetrated, which
have been shocking to the Hindus themselves and in
their eyes unlawful and wicked.
" The measures hitherto adopted to discourage and
prevent such acts have failed of success, and the
Governor-General in Council is deeply impressed with
the conviction that the abuses in question cannot
be effectually put an end to without abolishing the
practice altogether. Actuated by these considerations,
the Governor-General in Council, without intending to
depart from one of the first and most important
principles of the system of British government in India,
that all classes of the people be secure in the observance
of their religious usages so long as that system can be
adhered to without violating the paramount dictates of
justice and humanity lias deemed it right to establish
the following rules, which are hereby enacted to be in
force from the time of their promulgation throughout
the territories immediately subject to the Presidency of
Fort William." *
This statute, therefore, rendered the practice of Sfiti,
or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindus,
illegal and punishable by the criminal courts (sec. ii.),
and eveiy person aiding and abetting the same was
declared liable to punishment. It was further ordained
(sec. iii.) that all zemindars, talookars. and other pro-
prietors of land shall be responsible for the immediate
1 " The Law relating to the Hindu Widow," by Trail okyanatha
Mitra, M.A., D.L.. pp. 94 & 95.
MODERN LAW. 93
communication to the officers of the nearest police
stations of any intended case of Sati, and in case of
neglect they were liable to a fine. After its abolition
in British India, the custom was still observed in the
Native States. When Maharajah Runjeet Sing died in
1839, some of his wives became Satl; and recently,
when Maharajah Jung Bahadur of Nepal died, his wives
became Siiti. Occasional cases of Silti still occur.
JAPAN.
Cremation has long been held in honour by the
Buddhists of Japan, but in 1876 it was prohibited by
the Government out of deference for European ideas.
The prohibition, however, could not stand against the
force of popular usage, and three years later it was
withdrawn. 1 The average number of bodies consumed
annually by fire in Japan is io,ooo. 2
NEW SOUTH WALES.
A Bill to establish and regulate cremation was approved
by the Legislative Council of New South Wales in
1886. but failed to pass the House of Assembly. 3
During the year 1892, however, a movement was
started with the object of inducing the Government to
build a crematorium connected with the Sydney
Quarantine Hospital, and eventually to establish a
public crematorium. 4
1 " La Cremation, &c," by Dr. de Pietra Santa, p. 57.
- " Earth-Burial and Cremation," by A. G. Cobb.
3 "Annual Cyclopedia, 1888." Published by Appleton of New
York.
4 Phanijc, No. 11, November 1892.
PART III.
ENGLISH LAW.
THE legal doubts and difficulties that have ever beset
and still impede the re-introduction of cremation into
Great Britain cannot be better exemplified than by a
short account of the early struggles of the Cremation
Society of England. 1 This Society was founded in 1874
by a number of gentlemen interested in Burial Reform.-
The opinion of an eminent counsel favourable to the
cause of cremation was obtained, and a still more favour-
able opinion was given, unofficially, by Lord Selborne
to a member of the Society's Council. 3 In 1879, a
correspondence was begun between the Secretary of the
Society and the Right Honourable R. A. Cross, Secretary
of State for the Home Department. A deputation,
composed of inhabitants of Woking and neighbourhood,
had waited on the Home Secretary and protested against
the building of a crematorium, then in process of erection,
1 President, Sir Henry Thompson, F.R.C.S. ; Honorary Secre-
tary, J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, Esq., J.P. Offices : 8 New
Cavendish Street, Portland Place, London, W.
2 " Cremation," by Sir H. Thompson and others, p. 50.
3 Ibid. Letter from the Secretary to the Right Hon. R. A. Cross,
Home Secretary, p. 51.
ENGLISH LAW. 95
and this protest led to the interchange of letters
between the Society and the Home Office. In the
course of this correspondence Sir R. A. Cross pointed out
that " the practice of ordinary burial had become inter-
woven with the legislative arrangements of the country,
closely connected with various safeguards respecting
death, with statistics of death, and with the evidence of
death. 1 He also drew attention to the fact that " the
form of certificate produced to the minister is that given
by the registrar, who issues the certificate in exchange
for that of the medical attendant, and thus the statistical
object is secured. Further, the certificate of burial is, in
all legal proceedings, the proper and most economical
form of the evidence of death." He further informed the
promoters of the Cremation Society that he could not
u acquiesce in the continuance of the undertaking of the
Society to carry out the practice of cremation " until
Parliament had authorised such a practice by a " special
or general Act," and that if the undertaking were
persisted in, it would be his duty either to " test its
legality in a court of law or to apply to Parliament for
an Act to prohibit it until Parliament had an oppor-
tunity of considering the whole subject." A deputation
consisting of the President (Sir Henry Thompson), Sir
Spencer Wells, and other members of the Council, only
elicited a suggestion from Sir R. A. Cross that a Bill
might be brought into the House of Lords to determine
the matter on a legal basis and to establish a system of
registration. Meanwhile an inquiry was raised in the
House of Lords, but it led to no practical result. In
1 "Cremation."' Sir H. Thompson and others, p. 53. Letter
of February 21, 1879.
J>6 THK LAW OF CREMATION.
1 880, owing to a change of (Jovernment, the correspond-
ence was resumed with Sir William Harcourt, then
Secretary of State, and an address was accepted at a
meeting of the Public Health Section of the British
Medical Association signed by 143 gentlemen, praying
that the Government would not oppose the practice of
cremation. This address was forwarded to the Home
Secretary, and a simple acknowledgment of its receipt
returned to the senders. 1 In 1882, the Secretary of the
Cremation Society submitted the following question to
the Home Secretary : " Supposing I were to die now,
directing my executors to have my body burnt in our
crematorium at Woking. would *ny executors be liable
to prosecution ? " To this question the following reply
was sent : 2 " Sir William Harcourt can give no opinion
in matters which belong to the jurisdiction of courts of
law." But concerning the practice of disposing of the
dead by burning, Sir William was of opinion " that it
ought not to be sanctioned except under the authority
and regulation of an Act of Parliament," and he stated
further that he " must adhere to the view expressed by
his predecessor in office," in the letter of February 2 1 ,
1879.
In 1882, the case of Williams v. Williams 3 was heard
before Mr. Justice Kay. This case bears so important
a relation to the matter under discussion that it is
necessary to deal with it at some length. Henry
Crookenden, by a codicil to his will, directed his
executors to give his body to his friend, Miss Eliza
1 " Cremation," by Sir H. Thompson & others, pp. 56 & 57.
Letter of Dec. 24, 1880.
- Ibid. p. 58. Letter of February 15, 1882.
3 L. R. 20 Ch. D. p. 659.
ENGLISH LAW. 97
Williams (who was not one of his executors) to be dis-
posed of in the manner described by him in a private
letter addressed to her, in which he stated that he-
wished his body to be burned, when dead, under a
pile of wood. He further directed his executors to
pay her all expenses incurred out of his estate. He
died December 2ist, 1875, and by direction of the
widow and son was buried at Brompton Cemetery, the
executors paying the expenses of the funeral. Miss
Williams made claim as to the disposal of the body,
but not having the codicil and letter at hand, some
dispute as to what actually occurred took place. In
March 1 876, Miss Williams wrote to the Home Secretary,
with copies of the codicil and letter, praying for a
license to remove the body for the purpose either of
having it burnt or placing it in consecrated ground.
The body had been buried, under the rites of the Eoman
Catholic Church, in an unconsecrated part of the
Cemetery. The Under-Secretary of State refused to
allow the body to be burnt, but asked to what burial-
ground it was proposed to remove it, and to this
question Miss Williams, writing from Montgomeryshire,
replied that the body would be removed to the church-
yard of Manafan in Montgomeryshire. On the 23rd of
March i 76, the Home Secretary granted a licence for
the removal of the body from Brompton Cemetery. In
November of the same year Miss Williams informed
the executors that, if opportunity offered, she should
carry out Mr. Crooken den's wishes. In December
the managers of Brompton Cemetery informed the
solicitors of the widow and sons of the granting of
the licence, and they thereupon wrote to Miss Williams
G
98 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
and to the Secretary of State, and on the 2Oth March
1878 the licence was revoked; but meanwhile, on the
1 4th March, Miss Williams had caused the body to be
disinterred, taken to Milan, and there burnt.
Miss Williams thereupon brought this action against
the executors and the widow and sons as residuary
legatees, claiming to be paid the expenses incurred
in carrying out the testator's wishes. It was argued
on her behalf that, though a direction in a codicil
was "not exactly a legacy, it had always been con-
sidered that a man could dispose of his own body."
that "if he directed his executors to bury him in a
particular place or way, they must do so " ; that, " even
if there was no property in a body (Reg. v. Sharpe 1 ),
a direction as to its disposal may be good " ; that
"a testator may leave property in many ways to
objects in which he had no interest, and that in the
present case the testator had directed his executors to pay
these expenses"; that although it "was not the custom
in England to burn bodies, yet there was no law against
doing so, nor was it contra bonos mores ; so that there
was no reason why Miss Williams, having possession of
the body, and having carried out the directions of the
testator, should not be repaid." On behalf of the
executors and the widow and sons, it was argued " that
the executors had a right to the possession of the body
(Reg. v. Fox 2 ), and could recover it from any one else ;
that they had sole discretion as to the funeral " (Stag
v. Punter 3 ), and that " the testator's directions are
frequently disregarded (Dawson v. Small 4 ) ; (Lloyd ??.
1 Dea & Bell, C. C. 160. -2 Q.JB. 246.
3 3 Atk. 119. * L. R, 18 Eq. 114,
ENGLISH LAW. 99
Lloyd x ) ; that " where no living person is entitled to the
benefit of a trust, the executors may perform it or may
disregard it, unless it amounts to a charity "; that " re-
moval from a grave is a misdemeanour " (Rex v. Lynn 2 );
that " a licence to remove for one purpose does not
justify removal for another purpose, and leaves the
removal an indictable offence " ; and that " the testator
did not mean his body to be burned after it had been
buried." It was argued in reply that in Keg. v. Fox
the only question was whether a body could be detained
for debt ; in Reg. v. Sharpe 3 the defendant was a
trespasser; 4 that executors have no property in the body,
and that a man has a right to direct who is to have
the custody of his body.
Mr. Justice Kay in giving judgment said, in con-
clusion :
"I must hold that this action fails entirely: for any one
of the reasons which I have given, the action would, in
my opinion, be altogether unsustainable ; and I dismiss
it with costs." 5
Not long after the hearing this case, the subject of
cremation again came before the Court in connection
with the well-known case of Reg. v. Price, 6 tried at the
Cardiff Assizes before Mr. Justice Stephen in February
1884. The Judge's charge to the Grand Jury in this
case was the turning-point in the history of the
Cremation Society of England, since it was the
occasion of the promoters of the Society taking up the
line of action they have since pursued. In his charge,
1 2 Sim. (N. S.) 255. '-' 2 T. R. 733.
3 Dea & Bell, C. C. 160. 4 " Russell on Crimes," p. 611.
3 See Appendix. 6 Law Rep. 12 Q. B. D., p. 247.
100 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
the learned Judge, after reviewing at considerable
length the authorities on the subject of burial, ex-
pressed his conclusion in these words : " Though I
think that to burn a body decently and inoffensively is
lawful, or at the very least not criminal, it is obvious
that if it is done in such a manner as to be offensive to
others, it is a nuisance, and one of an aggravated kind." 1
It is under the protection of this important exposition
of the law which clearly demonstrates that there is
nothing in English law to render cremation illegal,
that the practice is now carried on ; and although the
system of registering deaths and granting certificates
remains unaltered, it appears that cremation is author-
ised in England as a legal method of disposing of the
dead.
Two months after the date of this trial the Disposal
of the Dead (Regulation Bill) moved by Dr. Cameron,
seconded by Dr. Farquharson, and supported by Sir
Lyon (now Lord) Playfair, was introduced into the
House of Commons.
According to Dr. Cameron, the object of this Bill
was to afford " additional guarantee for the detection of
foul play 'before corpses are permitted to be buried, and
to provide for the regulation of cremation, a practice
which, uncontrolled at present, is fraught with danger
to the community, but which under proper regulations,
. . . presents a chance of effecting a most important
social and sanitary reform." 5 In support of the Bill Dr.
Farquharson and Sir Lyon Playfair both spoke in favour
1 See Appendix.
Dr. Cameron's speech at the House of Commons, April 30, 1884.
ENGLISH LAW. 101
of the crematory process, and pointed out its advantages.
The Bill was, however, opposed by the Government and
the leader of the Opposition, and was thrown out by a
majority of 149 to 79.
In May 1884, came another case that has an important
bearing on this subject, in so much that it decided the
illegality of burning or otherwise disposing of a dead
body with the intention of avoiding an inquest. (Reg.
v. Stevenson and another. 1 )
The defendants were tried and found guilty btfore
Mr. Justice Hawkins, at the Leeds Assizes, upon an
indictment charging them with having burnt the dead
body of a child, with intent to prevent the holding of
an inquest upon it, but sentence was deferred until the
opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeal could be
obtained as to whether it was an indictable offence to
prevent the holding of a coroner's inquest ; and
secondly, whether, under the circumstances of the case,
the coroner had jurisdiction to hold an inquest.
On the arguing of the case before Justices Grove,
Stephen, Williams, Matthew, and Hawkins, on June 28,
1884, the conviction was affirmed, and it is some
satisfaction to the upholders of cremation to know that
it was held that " it is a misdemeanor to burn or other-
wise dispose of a dead body, with intent thereby to
prevent the holding upon such tody of an intended
coroner's inquest, and so to obstruct a coroner in the
execution of his duty, in a case where the inquest is
one which the coroner has jurisdiction to hold." It
was also held that "a coroner has jurisdiction to hold.
1 L. R. 13 Q. B. D. 331.
102 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
and is justified in holding, an inquest if he honestly
believes information which has been given to him to be
true, which, if true, would make it his duty to hold
such inquest."
Soon after the rejection of the Disposal of the Dead
(Regulation Bill) the English Cremation Society issued
a public notice stating that, under certain conditions,
the crematorium could now be used, 1 and from the
2Oth of March 1885 to the end of the year 1891, 177
bodies have undergone the process of incineration at
Woking.
The most prominent objection to the more general
adoption of cremation is that rapid decomposition of
the body removes all traces of poison or violence.
The danger is no doubt a real one, but it is not
entirely removed by burial. Sir Henry Thompson says,
in reference to this question : 2 "It is often stated that
burial ensures the conservation of evidence that poison
has been given, but without large qualification the
statement is very far from true. Soon after burial
distinct traces of most poisons certainly those which
are the most potent, such as morphia, aconite, atropine,
strychnine, prussic acid, &c. are, sooner or later,
decomposed ; or they may become associated with
new septic poisons developed in the body itself, which
complicate the steps of subsequent inqniry, and invali-
date unquestionable evidence which was present for
some days after death, and might have been obtained
while the body was above ground. There remain, then,
only the metallic poisons which can be reckoned on as
1 See Appendix. - " Modern Cremation."
ENGLISH LAW. 103
likely to be detected after exhumation, practically three
in number arsenic, antimony, and mercury. These will
mostly continue for a considerable time in a condition
which permits them to be obtained by analysis from the
tissues of the person poisoned. Nevertheless, exhumation
is at the best a clumsy attempt to rectify culpable want
of care before burial. For it is not too much to say that
the chances in favour of discovering poison will be at
least twenty to one if adequate inquiry be made while
the body is above ground, as compared with the result
of analysis made of those which have once been buried.
Yet what is our position in relation to this inquiry ?
Does the fact just named practically rule our action in
this matter ? By no means. Thousands of bodies are
buried every year in this country even without medical
certificates of any kind. Of course there are numerous
deaths from disease in which no medical advice has been
demanded, because the warning symptoms of danger
have been absent or insufficient ; and for this very
reason an inquiry should be made by some competent
official. And there are perhaps occasionally some in
which the absence of the medical man has been ensured
in furtherance of a sinister design. The proportion of
inquests to deaths is by no means inconsiderable, but
it is certainly less than it ought to be. Of the 522,750
deaths of 1885, no less than 27,798, or 5.3 percent, were
certified after inquest; but no less than 18,146, or 3.5
per cent, were buried without medical certificate or any
inquiry whatever. And in the year 1886 these un-
certified deaths amounted to 18,322. While it must be
confessed that there is a very large number of cases in-
104 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
sufficiently defined by certificate and unsatisfactorily ac-
counted for. Since the date of the first edition a little
more attention appears to have been given to this matter,
for in the latest report that is, of the deaths in 1889,
amounting to 518,353 the causes of 29,079, or 5 '6 per
cent., were certified after inquest; and 15,100 deaths, or
2 -9 per cent., were not certified ; an improvement of about
& half per cent. 1 But in Scotland the uncertified deaths
form a far larger proportion to the certified than they
do in England. Thus, in the year 1888, the latest issue,
the uncertified deaths in Edinburgh amounted to no less
than lO'i per cent, of the entire number. Among the
rural population, it was far larger, reaching from 14 to
over 40 per cent, in the remoter districts. 2
" Few persons probably are aware of the infinitesimal
relation which exhumation for legal purposes bears by
comparison with the enormous opportunities offered for
the commission of undiscoverable crime, due to our im-
perfect arrangements for inquiry into the cause of death
in all ordinary cases. It is not too much to say that in
.a very large proportion of these the registration is
merely an empty form.
" ' To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel,' as a
metaphor, inadequately represents the inconsistent con-
duct of those who continue to disregard the facilities care-
1 Registrar-General's Report of Births, Deaths, and Marriages,
the 52nd, for the year 1889, p. xviii. (Eyre & Spotti&woode, 1890).
2 Registrar-General's Report of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in
Scotland for the year 1888, p. Ivi. (Neill & Co., Edinburgh, 1890 .
For an account of the laxity of usage in certifying death in Scot-
land, see a pamphlet by Dr. Charles Cameron, LL. D., M.P., entitled
"The Modern Cremation Movement" (Alex. Gardner, Paisley and
London, 1888). The whole work is an admirable and very forcible
statement of the case in favour of cremation.
ENGLISH LAW. 105
lessly permitted for criminal poisoning, and magnify the
slender detective resources afforded by exhumation.
Dr. Danford Thomas the well-known coroner for Central
Middlesex, informs me that during the last seven
years he has held about 10,000 inquests in that district,
and only three exhumations have been ordered during
the same period.
" But at my suggestion, Dr. Danford Thomas has been
good enough to organise a systematic inquiry, extending
throughout England and Wales, designed to obtain the
results of exhumation for the last twenty years or there-
abouts. There are 3 34 coroners in England and Wales.
of whom 317, embracing all the important districts,
have responded to a series of questions sent out to each
for the purpose. Of this number, sixty-two had been
directed to perform exhumation, and the total number
of exhumations was 102. From these data it may be
estimated that the mean number of exhumations made
in a year throughout England and Wales is only five,
and less than one yearly for poison ! The number of
inquests during 1886 was 30,548, showing as an average
one exhumation to every 6,1 oo inquests
' Whether cremation be adopted, or the practice of
burial alone be continued, in either case it is equally
desirable to make a far more searching inquiry than we
do at present in all cases of death."
The excellent regulations laid down by the Cremation
Society of England are, as far as that Society is con-
cerned, a great safeguard ; but as the practice becomes
more general, the passing of a Bill such as that brought
in by Dr. Cameron, Lord Play fair, and Dr. Farquh arson
for the regulation of cremation and other modes of dis-
106 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
posal of the dead, will become more and more pressing,
and cannot long be delayed.
It is to be hoped that when a Bill is again presented
it will deal more fully with the question of certificates
of death than did the former one. By section 4 of that
Bill it was provided that it should not be lawful to bury
the dead body of a person until a certificate of registra-
tion had been issued in accordance with the provisions
of the Registration Acts ; by section 5 it was provided
that where it was sought to register a death without
the production of a medical certificate, in terms of the
Registration Acts, the Registrar should delay issuing a
certificate, and give notice to the Medical Officer of
Health, who should proceed to ascertain the cause
of death, and that his certificate, if granted, should
be deemed a medical certificate within the meaning
of the Acts. It also provided that if the Medical
Officer was obstructed in proceeding to ascertain the
cause of death, or was unable for any reason to ascer-
tain the same, he should immediately give notice to
the Coroner, who should proceed to hold an inquest. As
this would throw an additional burden on the Medical
Officer, and would not improbably lead to the passing of
a subsequent Bill providing, as in France and certain
parts of Germany, that in all cases of death the
certificate shall be granted by a Medical Officer duly
appointed for that purpose, 1 it is to be hoped that
any future Bill that is promoted will provide for the ap-
pointment of a qualified medical officer in each
district whose duty it shall be personally to view the
1 In France, Mtdecin Vtrificattur, or 3/edecin Atsermente : see p. 46.
In Germany, see p. 139.
ENGLISH LAW. 107
corpse, and certify as to the cause of death in every
case.
The following excellent suggestions are made by Sir
Henry Thompson : l
" (i) No body to be buried, burned, or otherwise dis-
posed of without a medical certificate of death, signed,
after personal knowledge and observation, or by inform-
ation obtained after investigation made by a qualified
medical man.
" (2) A qualified medical man should be appointed as
official certifier in every parish, or district of neighbour-
ing parishes, whose duty it will be to examine in all
cases of death and report the cause in writing,
together with such other details as may be deemed
necessary.
" (3) If the circumstances of death obviously de-
mand a coroner's inquest, the case is to be transferred to
his court and the cause determined, with or without
autopsy. If there appears to be no ground for holding
an inquest, and an autopsy be necessary to the furnish-
ing of a certificate, the official certifier will make it, and
state the result in his report.
" (4) No person or company should be henceforth
permitted to construct or use an apparatus for burning
human bodies without obtaining a licence from the Home
Secretary or other authority as determined.
" (5) No crematory should be so employed unless
the site, construction, and system of management have
been approved, after survey, by an officer appointed by
Government for the purpose. But the licence to con-
struct or use a crematory should not be withheld if
1 " Modern Cremation,' 1 by Sir Henry Thompson.
108 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
guarantees are given that the conditions required are
or shall be complied with. All such crematories to be
subject at all times to inspection by an officer appointed
by the Government.
" (6) The burning of a human body otherwise than
in an officially recognised crematory shall be illegal and
punishable by penalty.
" (7) No human body shall be burned unless the
official examiner who signs the certificate of death
shall, in consequence of application made, add the
words : " Cremation permitted." And this he will be
bound to do if, after due inquiry, with or without
autopsy or coroner's inquest, he is satisfied and can
certify that the deceased has died from natural causes,
and not from ill-treatment, poison, or violence."
The before- mentioned Bill 1 further provided for
the payment of a fee of five shillings to the Medical
Officer from the person requiring the death to be regis-
tered.
And this leads naturally to the consideration of
another set of fees viz., Burial Fees.
It not infrequently happens that the relatives of
deceased persons, whose bodies have been cremated,
desire to bury the urn containing the ashes in a
particular cemetery, but although the burial service
may have been already read, either at the house of the
deceased previous to the cremation or at the chapel
attached to the crematorium, and although it is un-
necessary to bury the urn more than a few inches
below the surface, it has been the custom to charge
1 See p. 100
ENGLISH LAW. 10S
burial fees as if the grave had been opened for the
burial of a body contained in a coffin. Some provision
for the burial of urns containing the ashes of deceased
persons should certainly be added. 1
The Select Committee of the House of Commons
(1882) on Ecclesiastical and Mortuary Fees, recom-
mended " that no incumbent appointed in future should
be allowed to demand any ecclesiastical fee on account
of the use of a brick grave or a leaden coffin, or on
account of any monument or memorial inscription
erected or placed in the parish churchyard, or in a
parochial cemetery, subject always to his income being
supplemented by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in
proper cases."
There is again a kindred subject which might well
be included in the Bill when re-introduced viz., the
position of an executor to a will containing a direction
to cremate the body of a testator. As the law now
stands, an executor is not obliged to follow a direction
by will as to the disposition of the body of a testator
there being no property in a dead body, 2 but
only a right of possession and power of disposition
vested in the executors. 3 It is scarcely necessary to
point out that the present position of the law on this
subject leads naturally to results like those that
occurred in the cases already quoted, and places ex-
ecutors in the painful position of either carrying out
a system of disposing of the dead to which they may
be from religious or other reasons opposed, or refusing
1 See Appendix, pp. 143, 144, and 150, 151.
- Reg. v. Scott and Williams v. Williams. 3 Reg. r. Sharp e.
110 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
the last request of a testator whose wishes they desire
to fulfil.
In Italy, France, and the United States, the difficulty
has been solved by giving to all persons, of full age and
sound mind, the absolute right to determine the manner
in which their bodies shall be disposed of after death j 1
provided, of course, that the regulations in force in the
different countries are complied with. Until the law
that gives to executors the complete power of disposition
of the body has been altered, testators in this country
will always experience considerable difficulty in insur-
ing the cremation of their bodies at death, if indeed
they can ever provide with certainty that their wishes
shall be complied with. The embalming 2 and burial of
the remains of Garibaldi, 3 in spite of his reiterated wish
to be cremated, is a notable instance of the difficulty
in question, but it is not an extreme or isolated case.
Such cases have probably occurred over and over again
in England during the last few years, and they must
<xmtinue to occur here and in all countries where abso-
lute disposition of the body is vested in executors.
An article by a Viennese lawyer has already been
cited* in which it is pointed out that, in spite of the
fact that Austrian law nominally gives to all testators
1 See under headings " France," " Italy," and " United States of
America," in Part II., pages 44, 54, and 55.
- The Secretary of the Milan Cremation Society, when sent by
the Italian Minister of the Interior to Caprera to conduct the
cremation of Garibaldi, arrived in time to be present at the em-
balming of the General's body, which had already been begun by
Professor Albauese.
3 See under heading " Italy," in Part II., pp. 51 and 52.
4 See under heading "Austria," Dr. Emil Guttman's opinion,
pp. 74 and 75.
ENGLISH LAW. Ill
power to direct the disposition of their own bodies,
the discretionary power vested in officials, who stand
in the place of executors in that country, leaves it
always very uncertain that their wishes will be
carried out. The suggestion made by Dr. Emil Gutt-
man in his article in PJuenix of September 1892, in
regard to insuring cremation in accordance with the
existent form of Austrian law, somewhat resembles
a plan adopted by the author in 1890. A testator
being exceedingly anxious to insure cremation, a sepa-
rate executor was appointed by codicil, there being
already an existing will, for the purpose of carrying out
an agreement to cremate already entered into between
the testator and the Cremation Society of England, with
which Society a sum of money had been deposited to cover
the expenses of the funeral and cremation. This executor
was appointed for the period of one month after the death,
this being considered a sufficient time to allow the re-
moval and cremation to take place, or for such period,
if less than one month, as should elapse until the cre-
mation had been actually accomplished in accordance
with the directions contained in the codicil. The
codicil further directed that the trusts and provisions
of the will and any previous codicil should be subject
to the provisions of the codicil, and that, in particular,
the appointment of executors made by the will should
not take effect during the existence- of the limited
executorship, but should take effect immediately upon
the expiration of such executorship. A copy of this
codicil was deposited with the Cremation Society, to-
gether with the Society's forms, duly filled up, and a sum,
sufficient to cover undertaker's charges and travelling
112 THE LAW OF CREMATION.
expenses, was left with the Society to the use of the
executor.
By these means the necessity of disturbing the pro-
visions of the existing will was avoided, and the
executors, whom the testator wished to carry out its
provisions, remained as originally appointed.
It is difficult to understand why English law should
deprive testators of the power of disposing of their own
bodies. The ancient Roman Law recognised the right
of all persons, in a position to dispose of their worldly
belongings by will, to determine the character of their
own obsequies, and did not permit any violation of
their wishes.
In the case of hereditary sepulchres, under the Roman
Law, every representative of a family could claim the
right of burial therein, but surviving members could
do nothing contrary to the will of a testator. 1 The
latter might have specially forbidden his representa-
tives to bury him in the hereditary sepulchre and
they were then obliged to conform to his wish,
under penalty of exposing themselves to an action
sepulchri violati. Further, if the testator had directed
that the right to bury him was vested in only one of
his representatives, that direction had to be observed ;
they were, however, forbidden to divide this right
upon their own initiative, in order to bestow it upon
only one of them. They received the right as it was and
as delivered to them by the testator, and could neither
dispose of it among themselves nor transmit it to
strangers. The duty of burying a deceased person fell
1 " Le Droit Fuiu-raire :\ Rom< ," by Henri Daniel Lacombe,
Docteur en clroit.
ENGLISH LAW. 113
by law upon the beneficiaries (under the will), and they
all had to contribute pro redd to the expenses ; but this
general rule underwent an exception when the defunct
had specially designated some person to fulfil the duty.
This specially designated person might have, as his
trust, either to arrange the funeral or erect the tomb.
Under these circumstances it was this person alone
who was entitled to act, and any one who hindered the
action, under any pretext whatsoever, was in the wrong
(non rede facere).
APPENDIX.
I.
MR. JUSTICE KAY'S JUDGMENT
In the Case of Williams v. Williams, 20 Ch. Div. 659.
<c I DO not delay giving judgment, as from the time
when I learned the facts of the case my opinion upon
it has not been altered." His Lordship then stated the
facts of the case down to the funeral, and continued :
" Several legal points have been raised, on which I
have not felt a moment's doubt, and which I will dispose
of in the first instance. It is quite clearly the law of
this country that there can be no property in the dead
body of a human being. That was declared to be the
law in the case of Reg. v. Sharpe, and as the decision
is useful for other reasons, I will refer to the case more
at length. It was an indictment for unlawfully digging
up and taking the body of a deceased person out of a
grave. It seems that the defendant's family had be-
longed to a congregation of Dissenters, and his mother
with some other of his relatives had been buried in one
grave in the burying-ground of the congregation ; that
his father had recently died, and that the defendant
prevailed on the person to whom the key of the burying-
ground was entrusted to allow him to cause the grave to
116 APPENDIX.
be opened, under the pretext that he wished to bury his
father in the same grave, that he caused the remains of
the coffin of his mother with the corpse to be placed in
a shell and carried some miles away towards the church-
yard where he intended to bury his father's corpse with
the remains of his mother. These acts were done with-
out the knowledge or consent of the congregation to
whom the burying-ground belonged, or of the trustees
having the legal estate therein. The person having the
keys of the ground was induced to admit the defendant
into the ground and to the grave by reason of the pre-
text that he intended to bury his father there. The
jury found that this was only a pretext, and that his
real intention was from the beginning to remove his
mother's corpse ; that he acted throughout without the
intention of disrespect to any one, being actuated by
motives of affection towards his mother, and of religious
duty. Mr. Justice Erie delivered the judgment of
the Court, which consisted besides of Pollock, C.B..
Willes, J., Bramwell, B., and Watson, B." His Lord-
ship then read the judgment, in which Erie, J., after
stating the facts said : l " ' Neither authority nor principle
would justify the position that the wrongful removal
of a corpse was no misdemeanour if the motive for the
act deserved approbation. A purpose of anatomical
science would fall within that category. Neither does
our law recognise the right of any one child to the
corpse of its parent, as claimed by the defendant. Our
law recognises no property in a corpse, and the protection
of the grave at common law, as contradistinguished
from the ecclesiastical protection to consecrated ground,
1 Dca & Bell, C. C. 163.
APPENDIX. 117
depends upon this form of indictment ; and there is no
authority for saying that relationship will justify the
taking of a corpse away from the grave where it ha
been buried. We have been unwilling to affirm the con-
viction on account of our respect for the motives of the
defendant, but we have felt it our duty to do so, rather
than lay down a rule which might lessen the only pro-
tection the law affords in respect of the burials of Dis-
senters. The result is that the conviction will stand,
and the judge states that the sentence should be a
nominal fine of one shilling.' That judgment entirely
justifies my statement that the law of this country re-
cognises no property in a corpse.
" The second point of law depends upon the rights of
executors with respect to burial. They are stated thus
in Williams on Executors : l ' It is now proposed to
consider the duties of an executor or administrator.
And first he must bury the deceased in a manner suit-
able to the estate he leaves behind him ; and the reference
is to the high authority of Mr. Justice Blackstone, who
states the proposition in the same words. 2 It has been
argued that this only applies to the expenses of the
burial ; but I do not agree with that contention. It
means, and I understand the law of this country to be, that
primd facie the executors are entitled to the possession
of and are responsible for the burial of a dead body ; and
if any further authority be wanted it is to be found in
the case of Reg. v. Fox, 3 where a gaoler had refused
to deliver up to the executors the body of a person who
died while a prisoner, unless they would satisfy certain
claims made by the gaoler against the deceased. The
1 Sixth ed. p. 906. * 2 HI. Com. 508. 3 2 Q. B. 246.
113 APPENDIX.
Court issued a mandamus, and Lord Chief Justice
Denman said this : ' I think this is a case in which
we ought not to wait for a return but that the man-
damus should be peremptory in the first instance. If
Scott has any answer to give, he can do so, not by way
of return, but in showing cause why an attachment
should not issue.' In that decision Williams, Coleridge,
and Wightman, J.J., concurred, and it is founded on
Reg. v. Scott, 1 where a similar event had occurred ; and
Mr. Justice Maule said that the notion of a gaoler being
authorised to detain a dead body on account of pecuniary
claims was a mistake, and that he would be liable to
prosecution. That case shows not merely that a gaoler
may not detain the dead body, but that although there
is no property in a dead body, the executors have such
a right of possession that they may obtain a peremptory
mandamus against the gaoler, who was lawfully in
possession of the body of the man while alive, to have
the dead body delivered up to them. Accordingly, the
law in this country is clear, that after the death of a
man, his executors have a right to the custody and pos-
session of his body (although they have no property in
it) until it is properly buried. It follows that a man
cannot by will dispose of his dead body. If there be
no property in a dead body, it is impossible that by
will or any other instrument the body can be disposed
of. I asked for any authority in conflict with these cases,
but none was produced. I have referred to the books
of the greatest authority on the question, and I believe
there is no authority in the least degree in conflict with
these cases.
1 2 Q. B. 248, N.
APPENDIX. 11
" It follows that the direction in this codicil to the
executors, to deliver over the body to Miss Williams, who
is not one of the executors, is a direction which in point
of law could not be enforced and was void. She had no
right of property in the body under that direction, nor
could she enforce the delivery of the body by the
executors. I should have therefore no hesitation, if the
case stood there, in saying that this direction contained
in the codicil was a direction which could not be
enforced at law, and was therefore void. Of course the
purpose named in the letters cannot make it better or
worse. If the purpose had merely been for burial in a
particular cemetery, which would be entirely according to
the law of this country, that would not make the direc-
tion to deliver the body to some one who was not an exe-
cutor any more legal or enforceable, but the purpose
confessedly was to have the body burnt, and thereupon
arises a very considerable question whether that is .or not
a lawful purpose according to the law of this country.
That is a question which I am not going to decide.
' But there are two other points, either of which it
seems to me would be equally fatal to this claim. The
body was buried by the family with the assent of the
executors. The testator was a member of the Roman
Catholic communion, and I am told that when bodies
are buried in ground which is not altogether conse-
crated, ceremonies take place at the grave which have
the effect of blessing the grave ; at any rate, the priest,
as I understand, pronounces a blessing on the grave, and
some consecrated earth is thrown in. All that I under-
stand was done at this funeral, and the funeral was
perfectly regular, formal, and proper according to the
120 APPENDIX.
rites of the Church of Rome. Now, Miss Williams at
and before this funeral expressed her wish to carry out
the desires of the testator. The evidence is that neither
the family nor the executors would assent, and accord-
ingly the funeral took place. Afterwards, in March
1876, she applied to the Secretary of State." (His
Lordship then stated the facts as to her application.)
" I wish to preface all I am going to say on this part of
the case by the statement, that in my view this lady
considered that she was under a paramount obligation,
by reason of the duties which she had undertaken to the
testator, to carry out this wish of his if by any means she
could, and I should absolve her, so far as I can form any
opinion on the matter, of any intention to do that which
was illegal or improper, or in any way contra bonos mores.
But I observe that by the terms of the codicil the
testator certainly contemplated that the cremation
should take place before burial, because he directs that
the body should be delivered to her three days after
death and that then the costs which she incurred should
be repaid to her on production of the vouchers within
three months of his death. There can be no kind of doubt,
therefore, that what he contemplated was not cremation
after interment, bat cremation and not interment."
His Lordship then read the answer of the Under
Secretary of State, and observed that his meaning
clearly was that no licence would be given to remove the
body for the purpose of cremation, and that a licence
would only be given for the purpose of burying the body
in consecrated ground, if the ground was pointed out and
approved of. His Lordship then read the reply of Miss
Williams, and said that it clearly meant that she had
APPENDIX. 121
given up the notion of cremation, and would adopt the
other alternative, and thereupon the licence was given,
which of course proceeded on the supposition that the
only purpose for which she intended to remove the
body was that of burying it in consecrated ground at
Manafan. His Lordship then read her letter to the
executors, and said that if that had been brought to
the attention of the Home Secretary before the body
was removed, no doubt the licence would have been re-
voked ; and moreover, if the executors had applied in
this Court for an injunction, this Court would have
stopped the removal of the body. His Lordship then
proceeded :
" It has been argued that the removal for the purpose
which this lady certainly represented to the Secretary of
State that she had abandoned, was a misdemeanour, and
there is language in the judgment of Chief Justice Erie
in the case of Reg. v. Sharpe 1 which might justify an
argument to that effect. That, however, is a point
which I am not going to decide. It is enough for me to
say that the removal for the purpose of cremation and
the cremation were illegal acts. If that alone were the
question to be decided, it would be impossible for this
lady to recover against the estate money for doing that
which, if I am right, was an illegal act/' His Lordship
then dealt with other points of the case not affecting
the present subject, and concluded :
" I must hold that this action fails entirely : for any
one of the reasons which I have given, the action
would, in my opinion, be altogether unsustainable ; and
I dismiss it with costs."
' Dea & Bell, C. C. 160.
II.
MR. JUSTICE STEPHEN ON THE LAW
OF CREMATION.
Charge to the Grand Jury at the Crown Court,
Cardiff, in February 1884.
GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY, There are a con-
siderable number of cases on the calendar, but, with
one exception, they are of the most ordinary kind, and
the circumstances attending them are of such a usual
character that I shall not weary you with dwelling
upon them at all. One of the cases to be brought
before you is so singular in its character, and involves
a legal question of so much novelty and of such general
interest, that I propose to state at some length what I
believe to be the law upon the matter. I have given
this subject all the consideration I could, and I am
permitted to say that, although I alone am responsible
for what I am about to read to you, Lord Justice Fry
takes the same view of the subject as I do, and for the
same reasons.
William Price is charged with a misdemeanour
under the following circumstances : He had in
his house a child five months old, of which be is
said to be the father. The child died. Mr. Price
did not register its death. The coroner accordingly
gave him notice on a Saturday that unless he sent a
APPENDIX. 123
medical certificate of the cause of death, he (the
coroner) would hold an inquest on the body on the
following Monday. Mr. Price on the Sunday after-
noon took the body of the child to an open space, put
it into a ten-gallon cask of petroleum, and set the
petroleum on fire. A crowd collected; the body of
the child, which was burning, was covered with earth
and the flames extinguished, and Mr. Price was brought
before the magistrates and committed for trial. He
will be indicted before you on a charge which in
different forms imputes to him as criminal two parts
of what he is said to have done first, in having
prevented the holding of an inquest on the body;
and secondly, in his having attempted to burn the
child's body. With respect to the prevention of the
inquest, the law is that it is a misdemeanour to pre-
vent the holding of an inquest, which ought to be
held, by disposing of the body. It is essential to this
offence that the inquest which it is proposed to hold
is one which ought to be held. The coroner has not an
absolute right to hold inquests in every case in which
he chooses to do so. It would be intolerable if he
had power to intrude without adequate cause upon
the privacy of a family in distress, and to interfere
in their arrangements for a funeral. Nothing can
justify such an interference, except a reasonable
suspicion that there may have been something peculiar
in the death, and that it may have been due to other
causes than common illness. In such cases the
coroner not only may, but ought, to hold an inquest,
and to prevent him from doing so by disposing of the
body in any way for an inquest must be held on the
view of the body is a misdemeanour. The depo-
sitions in the present case do not very clearly show
124 APPENDIX.
why the coroner considered an inquest necessary. If
you think that the conduct of Dr. Price was such as
to give him fair grounds' for holding one, you ought
to find a true bill, for beyond all question he did as
much as in him lay to dispose of the body in such
a manner as to make an inquest impossible. The
other part charged as criminal is the attempt made
by Dr. Price to burn his child's body, and this raises,
in a form which makes it my duty to direct you upon
it, a question which has been several times discussed,
and which has attracted some public attention, though,
so far as I know, no legal decision upon it has ever
been given the question, namely, whether it is a
misdemeanour at common law to burn a dead body
instead of burying it. As there is no direct authority
upon the question, I have found it necessary, in order
to form an opinion, to examine several branches of the
law which bear upon it more or less remotely, in
order to ascertain the principles on which it depends.
The practice of burning dead bodies prevailed to a
considerable extent under the Romans, as it does to
this day among the Hindoos, though it is said that
the practice of burial is both older and more general.
It appears to have been discontinued in this country
and in other parts of Europe when Christianity was
fully established, as the destruction of the body by
fire was considered, for reasons to which I need not
refer here, to be opposed to Christian sentiment ; but
this change took place so long ago, and the substitu-
tion of burial for burning was so complete, that the
burning of the dead has never been formally forbidden,
or even mentioned or referred to, so far as I know,
in any part of our law. The subject of burial was
formerly and for many centuries a branch of the
APPENDIX. 125
ecclesiastical or canon law. Among the English
writers on this subject little is to be found relating to
burial. The subject was much more elaborately and
systematically studied in Roman Catholic countries
than in England, because the law itself prevailed
much more extensively in those countries. In the
" Jus Ecclesiasticum " of Van Espen, a great authority
on the subject, there is an elaborate discourse, filling
twenty-two folio pages in double column, on the
subject of burial, in which every branch of the subject
is systematically arranged and discussed, with
references to numerous authorities. The only
importance of it is that it shares the view of the
Canonists on the subject, which view had great in-
fluence on our own ecclesiastical lawyers, though only
a small part of the canon law itself was ever intro-
duced into this country. Without giving specific
reference, I may say that the whole of the title in
Van Espen regards the participation in funeral rites
as a privilege to which, subject to certain conditions,
all the members of the Church were entitled, and the
deprivation of which was a kind of posthumous
punishment analogous to the excommunication of the
living. The great question with which the writer
occupies himself is In what cases ought burial to be
denied ? The general principle is that those who are
not worthy of Church privileges in life are also to be
excluded from them in death. As to the manner in
which the dead bodies of persons deprived of burial
were to be disposed of, Van Espen says only that
although in some instances the civil power may have
entirely forbidden burial, whereby bodies may remain
unburied or exposed to the sight of all, to be devoured
by beasts or destroyed by the weather (he considers
12(5 APPENDIX.
the dissection of criminals as a case of this kind), the
Church has never made such a provision, and has
never prohibited the covering of dead corpses with
the earth. This way of looking at the subject seems
to explain how the law came to be silent on excep-
tional ways of disposing of dead bodies. The question
was in what cases burial must be refused. As for
the way of disposing of bodies to which it was refused,
the matter escaped attention, being probably regarded
as a matter which affected those only who were so
unfortunate as to have charge of such corpses. The
famous judgment of Lord Stowell in the case of iron
coffins (Gilbert v. Buzzard, 2 Haggard, Consistory
Reports, 333), which constitutes an elaborate treatise
on burial, proceeds upon the same principles. The
law presumes that every one will wish that the bodies
of those in whom he was interested in their lifetime
should have Christian burial. The probability of a
man entertaining and acting upon a different view is
not considered. These considerations explain the
reason why the law is silent as to the practice of
burning the dead. Before I come to consider its
legality directly, it will be well to examine some
analogous topics which throw light upon it. There
is one practice which has an analogy to funereal
burning, inasmuch as it constitutes an exceptional
method of dealing with dead bodies. I refer to
anatomy. Anatomy was practised in England as far
back as the very beginning of the seventeenth
century. It continued to be practised, so far as I
know, without any interference on the part of the
Legislature, down to the year 1832, in which year was
passed the Act for regulating the Schools of
Anatomy. This Act recites " the importance of
APPENDIX. 127
anatomy, and that the legal supply of human bodies
for such anatomical study is insufficient fully to
provide the means of such knowledge.' It then
makes provision for the supply of such bodies by
enabling any executor or other party having lawful
possession of the body of any deceased person to permit
the body to be dissected except in certain cases. The
effect of this has been that the bodies of persons dying
in various public institutions, whose relatives were
unknown, were so dissected. The Act establishes
other requisitions not material to the present question,
and enacts that after examination the bodies shall be
decently interred. This Act appears to me to prove
clearly that Parliament regarded anatomy as a legal
practice ; and, further, that it considered that there
was such a thing as a ' legal supply of human bodies,'
though that supply was insufficient for the purpose.
This is inconsistent with the opinion that it is an
absolute duty on the part of persons in charge of
dead bodies to bury them, and this conclusion is rather
strengthened than otherwise by the provision in sec. 1 3
of the Act : ' The party removing the body shall
provide for its decent burial after examination.' This
seems to imply that, apart from the Act the obligation
to bury would not exist, and it is remarkable that the
words are not, as in the earlier section, ' executor or
other party,' which seems to point to the inference
that the executor stood in a different position as to
burial from the party having ' lawful possession,' and
has a wider discretion on the matter. I come now to
a series of cases more clearly connected with the
present case. A.S is well known, the great demand
for bodies for anatomical purposes not only led in
some cases to murders the object of which was to sell
123 APPENDIX.
the bodies of the murdered persons, but also to
robberies of churchyards by what were commonly
called "resurrection men." This practice prevailed
for a considerable length of time, as appears from the
case of R. r. Lynn (2 T. R. 738) decided in 1788,
forty-four years before the anatomy Act. In that case
it was held to be a misdemeanour to disinter a body
for the purpose of dissection, the Court saying that
common decency required that the practice should be
put a stop to, that the offence was cognisable in a
criminal court as being highly indecent and contra
bonos mores, at the bare idea alone of which nature
revolted. Many also said that " it had been the
regular practice of the Old Bailey in modern times
to try charges of this nature." It is to be observed
in reference to this case that the act done would have
been a peculiarly indecent theft if it had not been for
the technical reason that a dead body is not the subject
of property. A case, however, has been carried a step
further in modern times. It was held in Reg. v. Sharpe
(i Dea. ct Bell, 160) to be a misdemeanour to dis-
inter a body at all without lawful authority, even
when the motive of the offender was pious and
laudable, the case being one in which the son dis-
interred his mother in order to bury her in his father's
grave, but he got access to her grave and opened it by
false pretence. The law to be extracted from these
authorities seems to me to be this : the practice of
anatomy is lawful and useful, though it may involve
an unusual means of disposing of dead bodies ; but
to open a grave and disinter a dead body without
authority is a misdemeanour even if it is done for a
laudable purpose. These cases, for the reasons I have
given, have some analogy to the case of burning a dead
APPENDIX. 12&
body, but they are remote from it. They certainly
do not in themselves warrant the proposition that to
burn a dead body is in itself a misdemeanour. There
are two other cases which come rather nearer to the
point. They are R. v. Van, 2 Den. 325, and R. v.
Stewart, 12 A. E. 773-779. Each of these cases
lays down in unqualified terms that it is the duty
of certain specified persons to bury in particular cases.
The case of R. v. Stewart lays down the following
principles : " Every person dying in this country,
and not within certain exclusions laid down by the
ecclesiastical law, has a right to Christian burial, and
that implies the right to be carried from the place
where his body lies to the parish cemetery." It adds :
" The individual under whose roof a poor person dies
is bound (i.e., if no one else is so bound, as appears from
the rest of the case) to carry the body, decently covered,
to the place of burial. He cannot keep him unburied,
nor do anything which prevents Christian burial. He
cannot therefore, cast him out, so as to expose the body
to violation, or to offend the feelings or endanger the
health of the living ; for those reasons he cannot carry
him uncovered to the grave." In the case of R. v.
Van the Court held : " That a man is bound to give
Christian burial to his deceased child if he has the
means of doing so ; but he is not liable to be indicted
for a nuisance if he has not the means of providing
burial for it." These cases are the nearest approach
which I have been able to find to an authority directly
upon the present point ; for if there is an absolute
duty upon a man having the means to bury his child,
and if it is a duty to give every corpse Christian burial,
the duty must be violated by burning it. I do not
think, however, that the cases really mean to lay
I
130 APPENDIX.
down any such rule. The question of burning was
not before the Court in either case. In R. v. Stewart
the question was whether the duty of burial lay upon
the parish officers or on some other person. In R. v.
Van the question was whether a man who has not the
means to bury his child was bound to incur a debt in
order to do so. In neither case can the Court have
intended to express themselves with complete verbal
accuracy, for in the case of R. v. Stewart the Court
speaks of the " right " of a dead body, which is
obviously a popular form of expression, a corpse
not being capable of rights ; and in both cases the
expression Christian burial is used, which is obviously
inapplicable to persons who are not Christians Jews,
for instance, Mahommedans, or Hindoos. To this I
may add that the attention of neither Court was called
to the subject of anatomy already referred to.
Skeletons and anatomical preparations could not be
innocently obtained if the language of the cases re-
ferred to was construed, as it was intended to be,
severely and literally accurate. There is only one
other case to be mentioned. This is the case of
Williams v. Williams, which was decided two years
ago by Mr. Justice Kay in the Chancery Division of
the High Court, and is reported in the L. R. 20 Ch.
Div. 659. In this case one H. Crookenden directed
his friend, Eliza Williams, to burn his body, and
directed his executors to pay her expenses. The
executors buried the body. Miss Williams got leave
from the Secretary of State to disinter it, in order, as
she said, to be buried elsewhere. Having obtained
possession of it by misrepresentation, she burnt it,
and sued the executors for her expenses. I need not
trace out all the points in the case, as it avowedly
APPENDIX. 131
leaves the question now before us undecided. The
purpose was, says Mr. Justice Kay, " confessedly to
have the body buried, and thereupon arises a very
considerable question whether that is or is not a law-
ful purpose according to the law of this country.
That is a question which I am not going to decide."
He held that in the particular case the removal of the
body and its burning were both illegal according to
the decision of R. v. Sharpe, already referred to.
" Giving the lady credit," he said, " for the best of
motives, there can be no kind of doubt that the act
of removing the body by that licence, and then burn-
ing it. was as distinct a fraud on that licence as any-
thing could possibly be." This was enough for the
particular case, and the learned judge accordingly
expressed no opinion on the question on which it now
becomes my duty to direct you. It arises in the
present case in a perfectly clear and simple form, un-
embarassed by any consideration as applied to the
other cases to which I have referred. There is no
question here of the gross illegality which marked the
conduct of those described as resurrection men, of
the artifices not indeed criminal, but certainly dis-
ingenuous by which the possession of the body was
obtained in the cases of R. v. Sharpe and Williams v.
Williams. Dr. Price had lawful possession of the
child's body, and it was certainly not only his right-
but his duty to dispose of it by burying, or in any
other manner not in itself illegal. Here I must con-
sider the question whether to burn a dead body instead
of burying it is in itself an illegal act. After full
consideration, I am of opinion that a person who burns
instead of burying a dead body does not commit a
criminal act unless he does it in such a manner as to
132 APPENDIX.
amount to a public nuisance at common law The
reason for this opinion is, that, upon the fullest ex-
amination of the authorities, I have, as the present
review of them shows, been unable to discover any
authority for the proposition that it is a misdemeanour
to burn a dead body, and in the absence of such
authority I feel that I have no right to declare it to be
one. There are some instances, no doubt, in which
courts of justice have declared acts to be misdemeanours
which had never previously been decided to be so ;
but I think it would be found that in eveiy such
case the act involved great public mischief or moral
scandal. It is not my place to ofler any opinion of
the comparative methods of burning and burying
corpses, but before I could hold that it must be a
misdemeanour to burn a dead body I must be satisfied
not only that some people, or even many people, object
to the practice, but that it is on plain, undeniable
grounds highly mischievous, or grossly scandalous;
even then I should pause long before I held it to be
a misdemeanour, but I cannot even take the first step.
Sir Thomas Browne finishes his famous essay on Urn
Burial with a quotation from Lucan, which in eight
Latin words translated by eight English words seems
to sum up the matter : ' Tabesne cadavera solvat an
rogus baud refert' (' Whether decay or fire destroys
corpses matters not'). The difference between the
two pi'ocesses is, the one is quick, the other slow.
Each is so horrible that every earthly imagination
would turn away from its details, but one or the other
is inevitable,. and each may be concealed from obser-
vation by proper precautions. There are, no doubt,
religious considerations and feelings connected with
the subject which every one would wish to treat with
APPENDIX. 133
respect and tenderness, and I suppose there is no
doubt that as a matter of historical fact the disuse
of burning bodies was due to the force of religious
sentiments. I do not think, however, that it can be
said that every practice which startles and jars upon
the religious sentiments of the majority of the popula-
tion is for that reason a misdemeanour at common
law. The statement of such a proposition is a sufficient
refutation of it, but nothing short of this will support
the conclusion that to burn a dead body must be a mis-
demeanour. As for the public interest in the matter,
burning, on the one hand, effectively prevents the
bodies of the dead from poisoning the living ; on the
other hand, it might, no doubt, destroy the evidences
of crime. These, however, are matters for the
Legislature and not for me. The great leading rule
of criminal law, is that nothing is a crime unless it
is plainly forbidden by law. This rule is, no doubt,
subject to exceptions, but they are rare, narrow, and
to be administered with the greatest reluctance, and
only upon the strongest reasons. This brings me to
the last observation I have to make. Though I think
that to burn a body decently and inoffensively is law-
ful, or at the very least not criminal, it is obvious that
if it is done in such a manner as to be offensive to others
it is a nuisance, and one of an aggravated kind. A
common nuisance is an act which obstructs or causes
inconvenience or damage to the public in the exercise
of right common to all her Majesty's subjects. To
burn a dead oody in such a place or in such a manner
as to annoy persons passing along public roads, or
other places where they have a right to go, is beyond
all doubt a nuisance, as nothing more offensive, both
to sight and smell, can be imagined. The depositions
i::i APPENDIX.
in this case do not state very distinctly the nature of
the place where the act was done ; but if you think,
upon inquiry, that there is evidence of its having
been done in such a situation and manner as to be
offensive to any considerable number of persons, you
should find a true bill. This must depend upon details
on which it would be improper, and indeed impossible,
to address you. I must conclude with a few words
explanatory of the reasons which have led me to
address you at so much length. The novelty of the
matter, and the interest which many persons take in
it, are a reason for going into it fully. The difficulty
which a petty jury would find is avoided by my
addressing myself to you rather than to them. The
fact also that if I am wrong my error is in favour
of the defendant, is another reason for stating my
views fully to you, for if he should be acquitted upon
my direction, there would be no means of carrying
the ca^e to the Court for Crown Cases Reserved."
III.
GOTHA.
Description of Crematorium and Regulations jor
the Conduct of Cremations.
THE Crematorium, which is constructed after the
design of Herr Siemens, Engineer of Dresden (" Re-
generatM-System " with gas furnace), stands in the
new Cemetery at Gotha. All the apparatus is situated
underground, beneath the chapel floor, and is so
arranged that the coffins can be lowered gradually
into the receiving-chamber during the reading of
the burial service, and mechanically passed on into
the furnace itself. From December 14, 1878, until
January 1893, 1156 bodies were cremated there.
On March 4, 1877, the first police regulations
authorising the cremation of the bodies of persons
dying within the jurisdiction of the town of Gotha,
were sanctioned by the Grand Ducal State Ministry.
These regulations were followed by others, issued on
June 2, 1 88 1, which provided (i) that in every case
where cremation was desired a special authorisation
in writing should be obtained of the local police
authorities ; (2) that incineration should only be
carried out when the deceased had expressed the wish
to be cremated, or when those who had the conduct
of the funeral desired it ; and (3) that no cremation
136 APPENDIX.
should be proceeded with until the usual certificate
required in the case of burial had been obtained.
On account of the omission of the charges for dig-
ging and maintenance of graves, the cost of cremation
at Gotha is very little more than that of burial in the
same place. The fees are :
For use of the apparatus . . 16 mk.
For firing . . . 24 to 30 mk.
For engineer and stoker . \ . 14 mk.
Tax assessed by town authorities
(for strangers) ... 5 mk.
Further expenses vary according to the style of
funeral and mode of ceremonial adopted. The aver-
age cost of a cremation, apart from fees connected
with any religious ceremony, but inclusive of the ex-
penses of transport from the railway station to the
crematorium, and fees to attendants, is 100 mk.
For persons dying within the jurisdiction of the
town of Gotha, the funeral service is performed, up
to the moment of the descent of the coffin into the
receiving-chamber of the furnace, in a precisely
similar manner to that practised at ordinary burials.
The funeral services for persons brought from other
places to Gotha can be arranged for by those who
have charge of the funeral.
The size of a coffin in which the remains of a per-
son to be cremated are brought to Gotha must not
exceed
2*25 metres in length.
o*75 height.
0-72 width.
The coffin should be constructed of light wood and the
lid made as low as possible. If, in the case of the
transport of a body from a distance, the authorities
APPENDIX. 137
of the place of decease require the coffin to be made
of metal, only the thinnest tin or zinc is suitable.
Should other metal be used, the body must be trans-
ferred on arrival to a wooden coffin. But out of
respect for the dead and in deference to religious
sentiment, it is requested that this necessity shall be
as far as possible avoided.
After cremation has taken place the ashes are
returned to the persons who have the conduct of the
funeral, or, if these desire it, they are placed in
the columbarium in an urn made at their expense.
The size of the urn must not exceed
o'8o metres in height, and
0*40 ,, width.
The charge for placing an urn in a niche in the
columbarium for a period of thirty years is 45 mk.
This charge does not vary, as no extra payment is ex-
acted of foreigners. At the expiration of thirty years,
the ashes will be buried in the portion of the cemetery
reserved for the purpose.
The Town Councillor superintending the cremations
carried out at Gotha (at the present time Herr
Liebetrau) requests that any person intending to
conduct a cremation at Gotha shall forward to him in
advance a sufficient sum to cover all expenses. The
amount considered necessary to meet all charges that
can possibly be incurred is 170 mk. when the usual
religious ceremony is desired, and 130 mk. when no
service is required. The unexpended balance of the
sum deposited in advance will be returned as soon as
possible to the person who makes the payment. Tin
cases for the transport of ashes, and urns of different
sizes for their preservation, are kept ready at the
crematorium.
138 APPENDIX.
It is the desire of the Town Councillor that the
following points shall be particularly noted by persons
not residing in Gotha :
1 i ) Bodies of persons dying without the jurisdiction
of Gotha must not be despatched to that place until
the Town Councillor lias received the official cer-
tificates of the cause of death. Provided that
i mk. 20 pf. is sent to defray the cost of the tele-
gram, permission to send on the body will be tele-
graphed to the person who makes the application.
(2) The body intended for cremation must be
accompanied by a written railway-pass, issued by the
competent authorities.
(3) The bodies of persons dying at u distance and
brought by rail to Gotha will, if notice of their coming
be received the day before their arrival, be met at the
station by the hearse and be taken therein to the
cemetery, the cremation taking place at noon on
the following day. 1
1 Prospectns of the Gotba Crematorium, issued June 1881.
with notes of subsequent arrangements, supplied by Herr
Liebetrau, the Town Councillor superintending the conduct
of cremation at Gotha.
IV.
CREMATION IN HEIDELBERG.
THE cremation establishment in the cemetery at Heidel-
berg was opened on the 23rd of December 1891. It
may be used by residents as well as non-residents, but
its use is dependent upon certain police regulations
being fulfilled, of which we give the principal ones,
together with the charges. The Heidelberg Cemetery
Commission keeps forms for the attestations required
under 2,1-2, which are sent by return to interested
parties ; with regard to 2, 4, it should be noted that
the additional words on the pass for the body " for
cremation " are insufficient.
I. Extract from the Local Police Regulations. 1
2. The cremation of a body may only take place
after the written authorisation of the district officer,
representing the local police authorities, has been ob-
tained, without prejudice to the general regulations
relating to the previous inspection of the body by the
Medical Officer 2 and the transport of the body.
The following documents are required for the
1 Reprinted from Plicenia-, No. 2, February 1892.
2 Official Medical Examiner appointed to inquire into the
cause of death in all cases.
140 APPENDIX.
application for the authorisation which is to be sent
to the President of the Cemetery Commission, or made
verbally :
1. An attestation delivered by the competent
authorities to the effect that the entry has
been made in the official register of deaths
( 55 ff. of the Imperial Law of the 6th of
February 1875) ; for persons dying out of
the German Empire, a certificate of death
officially authenticated.
2. (a) A medical report on the decease for the
particular case, written by a recognised doctor
and officially authenticated.
(b) A certificate delivered by the sanitary
officer of the place of death, or by the Grand
Ducal District Medical Officer for Heidelberg,
stating that the inspection of the body con-
ducted by him has removed all suspicion of
violent death. And
(c) If an autopsy has taken place, also a re-
port made and legalised in the same manner.
In all these documents (a, 6, c) the cause of death
must be stated as clearly as possible
3. A legalised statement containing the proof that
the deceased
(a) Has expressed the wish to be cremated ;
or
(b) In the case of incapacitated persons or
of persons under eighteen years, that those
upon whom the duties of conducting the funeral
devolve, wish for the cremation.
In the cases referred to under No. 3 (b) the
authorisation for cremating can only be granted if
following upon a previous autopsy by a Government
APPENDIX. 141
doctor, a certificate is produced to the effect that all
suspicion of violent death has been removed.
4. In the case of persons having died in foreign
parts an additional attestation stating that the
proposed cremation of the body was notified to
the police authorities of the place of death.
3. The Cemetery Commissioners communicate
the application, with all the documents, together with
their own opinion, to the District Ofiicer, who before
giving his decision must ascertain from the Grand
Ducal District Medical Ofiicer whether the cause of
death as stated in the documents is clearly a perfectly
natural one.
If in the opinion of the Grand Ducal Medical Officer
there is any doubt on that point, then the District
Ofiicer may leave it to the relatives of the deceased to
have the autopsy effected by the Official Doctor, for
the purpose of removing the suspicion, and to lay
before him the result.
If the result of the autopsy, according to the Grand
Ducal Medical Officer's opinion, does not completely
remove the doubt as to the cause of death, then the
permission for carrying out the cremation shall be
declined by the District Officer.
4. If there exists any suspicion of violent death
(including suicide and accidents) the mode of pro-
cedure is subject to the regulations observed in cases
of violent death. The cremation under such circum-
stances cannot take place.
5. If the authorisation is granted, the District
Official delivers a written certificate to the relatives
who have made the application, and informs the
Grand Ducal Medical Officer and the Cemetery Com-
missioners of the fact that he has done so.
14-2 APPENDIX.
6. The bodies of persons who have died in foreign
parts that are to be sent here for cremation, can
only be transferred after the official authorisation for
cremation required under 2 et aeq. of these regula-
tions has been granted.
8. With regard to the cremation itself, the follow-
ing rules are to be observed :
(a) The size of the coffin which must be made of
soft wood and must not be provided with any
metallic ornaments, is not to exceed the follow-
ing dimensions :
Length . . 2 '2 5 metres.
Width . . 0-75
Height . . 0-72
9. The ashes, which, according to the wish of
the mourners, are placed in closed wooden cases, in
receptacles of burned clay, or in soldered tin boxes,
may either be buried in the cemetery or be kept above
ground in the same place, or be taken care of by the
mourners.
II. Cremation Charges. 1
The following charges for cremation, together with
the additional expenses, have been fixed by the Town
Councillors :
The transfer of a body from the railway M.
station to the crematorium . . . 30
If the body is brought to the town mortuary
for any length of time this tax is raised by 20
The cremation of a body, with all the arrange-
ments necessary for the purpose, up to the
handing over of the ashes or the burying
of the same in the public cemetery re-
served for that purpose . . . .25
1 Reprinted from Ph'cnix, No. i, March 1892.
APPENDIX. 143
M.
Each cremation directly following . . ,10
In this case the expenses for burying are
divided.
A small case of wood ..... 1.50
A small capsule of tin . . . . .1.50
A simple sarcophagus of burned clay
An ornamented sarcophagus of burned clay . 10
One made of majolica . . . . 15
Cemetery charges. For the reception of
ashes, family graves of i'2o m. long by
o'8o m. are granted at the following rates :
(a) In the first or second row, one grave 50
Each additional grave . . .40
(b) In the other rows, one grave . . 40
Each additional grave . . -3
Further, the rules (a) to (h) are applicable to
graves for ashes.
In each family grave (i) the remains of four persons
may be buried within forty years, under the rules
stated in (i) ; and in the family graves of the class
(a) the remains of ten persons.
In a family grave of the class (a) already occupied,
the cremated remains of eight persons more may be
buried within the same period ; but if this is done,
the grave cannot be preserved for the burial of an-
other body.
Also for the graves for ashes in family tombs the
duration of the period of consecration is fifteen years.
USE OF THE CEMETERY.
(a) For burying non-residents (see 23 of the
regulations for bodies and burials). M.
For adults ... 50
For children under 1 5 years . . .25
144 APPENDIX.
M.
(b) For burying the cremated remains of
non-residents . . . . -25
For each additional person . . 2 5
In the case of the burial of the ashes of a
non-resident shareholder, or his wife, or his
children, in an urn-niche in the cremation hall,
this charge is not made.
The burial of ashes for one person in
a family tomb ..... 5
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LIQUIDATION OF THE
BUILDING EXPENSES OF THE CREMATION
ESTABLISHMENT.
The following amounts are not paid into the ceme-
tery account, but into the sinking fund, out of which a
number of shares, determined by ballot, corresponding
to the amount accruing from this source, are yearly-
paid off. After the complete liquidation these charges
are discontinued.
1 . For each burial : M.
(a) For residents . . . . .20
(b) Non-residents . . . . .40
The Town Council is empowered in the case
of persons of small means to remit the payment
of these charges upon stated grounds.
2. For the right of using an urn-niche
twenty years ...... 40
To shareholders, or their wives or children,
they are given free as long as there are niches
remaining unoccupied.
3. For a marble tablet with screws . 1 5
APPENDIX. 145
III. Hints to Persons intending to hold a
Cremation at Heidelberg. 1
It is advisable to draw the attention of those who
wish to carry out cremation to the following points in
particular :
1. The application, together with a certificate as
prescribed under 2 of the local police regulations,
should be to the President of the Cemetery Commis-
sion at the Town Hall of the place.
2. Immediately after the death of the person to be
cremated has taken place or, still better, before the
forms used for the certificates should be obtained. The
latter may be obtained at all Town Hall offices in the
towns of Baden, or from the representatives of the
different cremation associations in the towns out of
Baden, or from the Cemetery Commission and the
Free Association for Cremation in Heidelberg.
(Address, Town Councillor Limbach.)
3. Together with the required form, application
should at once be made to the doctor who has attended
the deceased for an account of the illness, and to the
Medical Officer of the district for inspection of the
body before it is dressed, and for obtaining the
required certificates.
4. The death certificate, which, in the case of the
holding of a religious ceremony, should be given in
duplicate, and the attestation for the notice given
the district office for the proposed cremation in
Heidelberg, should in no case be omitted from the
papers.
1 Reprinted from Phoenix No. 4, April 1892.
K
146 APPENDIX.
5. Bodies can be brought here only if the authori-
sation for cremation has been granted. Telegraphic-
reply Ls given if the sum of i.2om. for the telegram
is sent together with the application.
6. The transfer should be arranged in such way
that the body may arrive in the forenoon in order
that the cremation may take place on the same day.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CONDUCT OF
CREMATIONS IN ZURICH. 1
I. Information.
INFORMATION of every cremation intended to be
carried out in Zurich must be given to the Secretary
of the Town Cemetery Commission (Town Hall,
Zurich).
This official, upon ascertaining as far as possible
the wishes of the relatives, fixes the time of the
funeral.
II. Documents to be presented.
Simultaneously with the information, the following
deeds must be laid before the Cemetery Commission :
1. An officially authenticated deed, in which the
deceased distinctly expresses his desire to be cremated.
Exception to this rule may be made when three
persons solemnly assert that the deceased had ex-
pressed to them the wish to be cremated. This
assertion can be made either before the Secretary of
the Cemetery Commission, or in a written declaration
in an officially authenticated deed.
2. For persons dying in the Canton of Zurich, a
certificate of the Official Medical Examiner of the
1 Reprinted from Ph<cnir, No. 8, August 1892.
148 APPENDIX.
district declaring that there is no obstacle in the
way of cremation.
Before the Medical Examiner can make this de-
claration, there must be submitted to him (a) the
official funeral certificate ; (6) an account of the ill-
ness [preceding death] by the doctor in attendance.
If this account leaves any doubt as to the cause of
death, the Medical Examiner can himself conduct an
inquest, and, if necessary, insist on a post-mortem
examination.
For persons dyiny vnthoid the canton of Zurich, a
deposition of the local authorities of the place of
decease to the effect that there is no reason why a
cremation should not be proceeded with.
Minors and lunatics come under No. i of these
instructions. At the deaths of such persons, their
mode of entombment is determined by those who
have the conduct of their funerals.
Membership of the Zurich Cremation Society alone
does not furnish sufficient proof of the will of the de-
ceased. In order to ensure cremation, it is of the
highest importance that there should be an authen-
ticated testamentary request, and only under these
circumstances is the intervention of the society for
the purpose of carrying out the cremation per-
missible.
III. The Funeral Commissioner.
To provide for and superintend cremations, the
Society has appointed a Cremation Commissioner
(at the present time, Hermann Brunner, Zurich),
who, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Ceme-
tery Commission, imparts all necessary information
and conducts cremations on behalf of this Society.
APPENDIX. 149
IV. Size cmd Material of the Coffin.
The size of the coffin must not exceed the following
dimensions : Length, 2 meters ; width 070 meters ;
height, 0*45 meters. In order that the lid shall not
be too high, it is necessary that the body of the
coffin should be rather broad.
Bodies will be burnt only in wooden coffins. For
bodies brought from without Ziirich, the inner coffin
must be of wood (deal, or, better still, poplar). It is
necessary to have wooden nails instead of iron ones,
and no metal attachments.
The body should not be embedded in ashes or coals,
but in sawdust or shavings.
Bodies brought from a great distance from Zurich
should be embalmed.
The embedding of bodies in any but suitable coffins
cannot be undertaken.
We refuse all responsibility in regard to the con-
duct of a cremation when the conditions, herein set
forth for the construction of coffins and embedding of
bodies, are not fully complied with.
V. Transport to the Cemetery.
For the transport of a body from the residence of
the deceased, or from the railway station to the central
cemetery, the relatives must make arrangements with
a burial society. The transport to the crematorium
is charged for through the Zurich Burial Society, at
the rate fixed for interments.
150 APPENDIX.
VI. Funeral Ceremonies.
When the relatives desire a ceremony in the
crematorium, they must themselves provide for the
conduct of it, and the Cremation Commissioner must
communicate with the Secretary of the Cemetery
Commission.
VII. Conduct of the Cremation.
The cremation, as well as the disposal of and de-
livery of the ashes, takes place under the direction of
the Commissioner of the Cremation Society, or one
of the members of the Society's commission.
Upon the arrival of the funeral procession in the
crematorium, the coffin is placed on a table before the
receiving-chamber, and by means of a mechanical
contrivance is passed thence into the receiving-cham-
ber, whereupon the incineration immediately begins.
During the incineration the mourners are allowed
to remain within the crematorium.
The watching of the cremation through the opening
provided for that purpose, or through the opening in
the door of the furnace, can only be allowed by agree-
ment between the nearest relatives of the deceased
and the superintendent of the cremation.
VIII. Disposal of tJie Ashes.
It will be the rule to take the ashes from the
furnace upon the morning following the cremation,
and to place them in the urns provided for the pur-
pose, which shall be closed and soldered.
The urns can be made to any design chosen by the
relatives of the deceased.
APPENDIX. 151
Urns, to be deposited in niches in the crematorium,
must not exceed the following dimensions : Length,
0-45 meters ; width, 0-32 meters ; height, 0.27 meters ;
The Cremation Society keeps a stock of urns of this
kind, as well as cases for the transport of ashes to
distant parts.
IX. Preservation and Destination of Ashes.
Ashes to remain in Zurich can be disposed of in the
following ways .
1. In niches in the interior of the crematorium for
a period of twenty years. After the expiration of
this period, the relatives are at liberty to take the
urns into their own keeping.
2. In various urn-cemeteries for the period of
twenty years.
3. In a private grave in the central cemetery. In
exceptional cases the ashes can, by the specific request
of the next of kin and with the consent of the Ceme-
tery Commission, be deposited in other cemeteries in
closed and sealed urns.
X. Inscriptions.
In the case where an urn occupies a niche in the
crematorium, the inscription, after consultation about
the wording with the relatives, will be designed after
the patterns of writing and arrangement exhibited
by the Cremation Society, at the cost of the heirs.
Members of the Zurich Cremation Society have
both tablet and inscription provided gratis.
APPENDIX.
XI. Fees.
Francs.
Cremation fees to be paid down :
(a) Cremation including use of the appa-
ratus for
1. Members .90
2. Non-members dying in the canton of
Zurich . . . . . .110
3. Non-members dying in other parts of
Switzerland . . . . .130
4. Non-members dying abroad . . .180
(6) For an urn-niche in the interior of the
crematorium, in accordance with the
regulations, for a period of twenty years 10
(c) For use of a plot (i metre x 40 metres) in
the cemetery of the crematorium, for
twenty years . , .'...- 50
(d) For those dying in foreign parts, various
extra charges are fixed by the Cemetery
Commission in accordance with the regu-
lations of the Town Council.
XI I. Admittance to the Crematorium.
To non-members admittance is permitted in the
afternoons, on presentation of an entrance-card and
payment of i franc per person.
Members of the Cremation Society have, on pro-
duction of their cards of membership, free entry for
themselves and any accompanying friends.
The nearest relatives of those persons whose ashes
rest in the crematorium are given several cards en-
titling them to free admission.
APPENDIX. 153
XIII. Membership*
A member of the Cremation Society can be a person
of any trade or profession who makes a declaration in
writing of his entering the Society, and who either
gives, on joining, a donation of not less than 30 francs,
or who pays an annual subscription of not less than
2 francs.
On behalf of the Committee of the Cremation
Society :
The President : Dr. AB. HEIM, Prof.
The Secretary : Dr. ENG. CUETI.
ZUBICH, March 1890.
V.
REGULATIONS
OF THE UNITED STATES CREMATION COMPANY (LIMITED),
GOVERNING INCINERATION.
I. APPLICATIONS for incineration must be made at
the office of the Company, No. 62 East Howston
Street, New York City.
II. Each application must be made by the person
having charge of the disposal of the body, or his re-
presentative ; a blank form prepared by the Company
must be filled out and filed in the office of the Com-
pany.
III. On the filling out of said application blank,
payment of the incineration fee, and presentation of
the physician's certificate, stating time, place, and
cause of death, an order directing the incineration
will be given the applicant. To this order the under-
taker in charge of the body must have attached the
customary certificate of the Board of Health, and such
other permits as may be pre-requisite to a lawful in-
terment in the State of New York and the township
and country where the Crematory is located.
Upon the arrival at the appointed hour of the
remains at the Crematory, this order, with the said
certificate and permits attached, must be delivered to
APPENDIX. 155
the Superintendent. This rule is imperative, and
unless the order is accompanied by the necessary
certificate and permits in due form, the incineration
will not be allowed to take place.
IV. Every incineration shall be attended by some
relative of the deceased, or representative of the
family.
V. The price of incineration is $35, always payable
in advance.
VI. The body may be conveyed to the Crematory
in such a manner as the friends of the deceased may
select. Where desired, the Company will convey the
body to the Crematory, at an expense not exceeding
the usual charge for like service.
VII. No special preparation of the body or clothing
is necessary. The body is always incinerated in the
clothing as received.
VIII. It is expected that the funeral services will
terminate prior to the removal of the body to the
Crematory ; but where desired, ceremonies or services
may be held at the Crematory in connection with the
incineration, without any extra charge.
IX. The coffin in which the body is carried to the
Crematory is never allowed to be removed from the
building, but is burned after the incineration.
X. In every instance of death from contagious
disease the coffin will be burned with the body, and
no exposure of the body will be permitted.
XI. Incineration may be as private as the friends
of the deceased desire. On the day following the
incineration the ashes will be deliverable at the office
of the Company, in a receptacle provided by it free of
cost.
XII. On one day's notice, bodies coming from a
150 APPENDIX.
distance will, on their arrival in New York or Jersey
City, be received by the Company's undertaker, who
will procure, where the relatives desire it, the neces-
sary permits and take complete charge of all arrange-
ments.
Further information can be obtained on application,
personally or by letter, at the Company's office in
New York City.
VI.
Official Instructions issued by the Cremation Society of
England. Method of Procedure in Investigating
the Cause of Death in France.
I.
THE Cremation Society of England was formed to objects of
promote the objects set forth in the following de- S<
claration :
" We disapprove the present custom of burying the dead,
and desire to substitute some mode which shall rapidly
resolve the body into its component elements by a process
which cannot offend the living, and shall render the remains
absolutely innocuous. Until some better method is devised,
we desire to adopt that usually known as cremation. "
The conditions of membership are :
I. Adhesion by signature to the above declaration.
II. The payment of an annual subscription of one
guinea, or a single payment of ten guineas.
II.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. The crematorium, which
is the only one in use in England, is situated in the
parish of St. John's, two and a quarter miles from
Woking station on the main line of the London and
South-Western Railway, which is in communication
158
APPENDIX.
Conditions
on which
cremation
may be
performed.
with all the rail way systems having termini in London.
In the event of a body having to be brought from a
distance, any of the companies will provide a special
carriage on the usual notice being given, and convey
direct to Woking, where the use of a hearse can be
obtained for conveyance to the crematorium.
The buildings comprise a handsome chapel, com-
municating with which are the crematorium and
comfortable waiting and retiring rooms. The lodge
at the entrance to the grounds is occupied by the
Society's attendant, who will show inquirers over the
premises daily between ten and five, unless a crema-
tion is proceeding or about to take place.
The arrangements for cremating a body are avail-
able to the public on the following conditions :
r. An application in writing must be made by the executor
or nearest friend of the deceased unless it has been
made by the deceased person himself during life
stating that it was the wish of the deceased to be
cremated after death, or that he entertained no
objection thereto.
2. Two certificates from duly qualified medical men are
required relative to the cause of death, one at least
of whom must have attended the deceased. These
the Society obtain direct, and it is therefore neces-
sary, in making application for cremation, that their
names and addresses be given in full.
These must satisfy the Council of the Society, or
their representative, and in some rare or doubtful case
an autopsy might be desirable.
III.
DIRECTIONS FOR ARRANGING CREMATION. Imme-
diately on death, notice thereof, with the names and
APPENDIX. 159
addresses of the two medical men, should be sent to
the office of the Society [8 New Cavendish Street,
Portland Place, W.], the address of which can be
found in the London Directory, or a letter or telegram
addressed to the Cremation Society, London, W., will
be at once forwarded to the office by the postal
authorities, after which the local undertaker should
be instructed to supply a suitable shell the best
material being light pine.
It cannot be too clearly understood that it is most NO heavy
undesirable to encase the body in a heavy or costly used.
coffin ; a light pine shell is the best receptacle for the
purpose of cremation. There is no reason why for
the funeral service a simple shell should not suf-
fice, and it may be covered with cloth at very small
expense, if preferred. When, however,, it is intended
to hold a funeral service in public and with some
degree of ceremony, before cremation, a more ornate
coffin may be used if desired, but it should contain
the shell described, which can be afterwards removed.
Upon receiving notice of the death, the application- Form of
form is sent to be filled in by the executor or the ap
nearest relative of deceased, and this should be re"
turned to the Society with the sum of 6, the charge
for the cremation, services of attendant, use of chapel
and waiting-room, as well as a simple urn for the pre-
servation of the ashes. At the same time the applicant
must state if it be desired that the local clergyman
(who has kindly consented to act when desired) should
officiate at the funeral service in the chapel, as, in the
event of his services being required, a fee of one
guinea must be paid to him direct at the time. Any
other person appointed by the friends may take the
service if preferred.
160 APPENDIX.
The medical In the meantime, our form of medical certificate
forms.
has been sent to the medical attendant of the deceased,
who, after filling in and signing it, must forward it
to the other medical practitioner, and each receives
express instructions in relation to his duty. If the
latter is also satisfied that the statements made relative
to the cause of death are correct, and that there are
no circumstances likely to render exhumation of the
body necessary, he will certify to that effect.
The cremation, if the death has occurred in London
or the suburbs, usually takes place on the third day
after the day on which notice is given at the Society's
oflice. If the remains are lying in the country, the
cremation would take place a day later.
The most convenient times for cremation are as
follow :
Train leave Waterloo. Hour for Cremation.
9.30 A.M II A.M.
11.45 A - M l -3 P - M -
2.45 P.M 4.15 P.M.
Upon the arrival of the body at the crematorium, if
there is a funeral service, it is at once proceeded with,
at the conclusion of which the undertaker and his
assistants convey the remains into the crematorium,
where they may be followed by one friend of the de-
No inspee- ceased ; but no inspection of the process is on any
process account permitted. The operation usually occupies
about one hour and a half to two hours, at the con-
clusion of which the ashes are gathered together by
the Society's officer and placed in an urn for preserva-
tion. Scrupulous care is taken to maintain them in-
tact and pure for this purpose.
The urn The urn containing the ashes may be left in one of
destination, the niches in the chapel for one calendar month from
APPENDIX. 161
the date of the cremation, free of charge, to enable the
friends to secure a suitable permanent resting-place ;
if it be left beyond that time, a fee of five shillings per
month is required, but the Society will not be respon-
sible for it beyond one year from the date of cremation,
unless special arrangements for permanent deposit
there are made.
For this purpose the Society has provided orna-
mental stone niches, constructed within the building,
which can be acquired, according to their size, as a
" single tomb " or " family vault," and is about to pro-
vide increased space, for the purpose of preserving the
ashes.
The price charged for these niches can be obtained
on inquiry at the office.
For those who desire the ashes to be buried in the
grounds of the crematorium a special portion has
been railed off and cultivated, in which an urn can be May be
buried for the fee of one guinea, within a given space, grounds?
and preserved intact.
'\V.
This form is prepared to enable those who prefer Form for
cremation to burial to record in precise terms their desire lo^W
wishes and directions in relation thereto.
This form should be signed, dated, and witnessed
in duplicate. One copy should be deposited with the
signer's executor or next of kin, and the other sent
to the Secretary of the Cremation Society of Eng-
land, by whom it will be preserved and regarded as
confidential.
162 APPENDIX.
/ In ri-liy u-press to my sun-Ivors my earnest desire that on my
decease my binli/ x/ml/ be cremated according to the system em-
ployed by the Cremation Society of England, and under tin
arrangement* made by t/ie Society for the purpose.
Signal tire
Date.
Wttnttted l/'i
-Signature.
Address .
Dale.
N.B. It should be borne in mind that the above is only u
request, and cannot be enforced against any perxon. It is there-
fore very necessary that the executor or executors should,
at the same time, express their willingness to carry these
instructions out.
V.
Payment Attention is called to the following " Minute of
t'o'cnfurc 6 Council " which has been recently passed :
cremation
after death. "in the event of any person desiring, during life, to be
cremated at death, the Society is prepared to accept a donation
from him or her, of ten guineas, undertaking in consideration
thereof to perform the cremation, provided all the conditions
set forth in the forms issued by the Society are complied
with."
In consideration of the above payment the Crema-
tion Society undertakes on the decease of a sub-
scriber also to send an agent when required, without
further charge, to the family residence, if within
twenty miles of Charing Cross, for the purpose of
supplying information and making all the necessary
arrangements. By this means survivors, who may
APPENDIX. 163
naturally anticipate considerable difficulty in comply-
ing with the request on the part of the deceased to
be cremated, may be spared all trouble and anxiety
as to the manner of carrying it into execution. When
the distance is more than twenty miles, information
will be supplied by letter, or an agent sent for a very
moderate charge.
All necessary forms, ready for filing up, can be
obtained on application at the Society's offices, ^Vb. 8
Cavendish Street, Portland Place, W.
J. C. SWINBURNE-HANHAM,
Hon. Sec.
January 1891.
164 APPENDIX.
FORMS NECESSARY TO BE DULY FILLED
UP WHENEVER CREMATION IS
DESIRED.
FORM No. 1.
APPLICATION FROM EXECUTOR OR THE NEAREST
RELATIVE OF DECEASED.
I, (.Mime) _
(Addres*}_
( Occupation) hereby request
the Cremation Society of England to undertake the crema-
tion of the body of _
and I certify that the deceased expressed no objection
(orally or in writing) to being cremated after death.
Medical certificates of the cause of death are or will be
forwarded.
(Signature)
IMPORTANT. This form, when filled in, is to be returned
to the Office of the Cremation Society, the address of the
medical man who has attended the deceased being required
as soon as possible.
jfotc. When no medical certificate is enclosed, an autopsy
must be made and certified by a medical officer appointed
by the Society, and at the expense of the applicant or of
the estate of the deceased.
APPENDIX.
1C5
'3J3i[ uSis [JIM.
,
^nupua^iv [coipaK
oc
V
^ -s
c .**
BJ
i 1
^
s g
Q r>
C
s
v 3
g
o 3
" -8
^ <i
S
W -s
g
H Js
CQ Jq
f
<
<j4 W
S
"2 ^
o g
rt fl
3
1
O ^)
6 H 2
s
c
2 ^
^ 1-
5
"\ 1
1
-5
73 :^' i .i; s "<
cs < a, ^ N ^
"ho
W O 2Q _
T3
2
to "c. ^
03
"*** * ""C
^ fe ^ ^>
p 1 i 1 1
PH j 3 3 a
o s M
fi H
ssion or Occu^
'. last saw 1:
; of death ^
Time from
attack till
death.
* * L.
I'l
1 H ?. 1 f ? ^
s
"**
^* f *^j ^^ ' ^3 ^
o 1 t
'C ^
49
1 1
^2 H . >S
2 -
x
.^ ^t
cS
*r
t s
B I i
9
.-i
JZ
3
3
'o
ll
b/i -^ ^
S ~ *
a
=
^ <
*
2
H
;?
166
APPENDIX.
SJ.HI uiis HIM
CU
B
o
^0
s
-
I
'c
'5.
s
o
K
E
^
I
^^
a
Q
i
1
I
hi
C
2
I/.
I
S
0)
's
O
1
O
B
1
$
JS
1
i
"
c
*
'o
O
cs
H
^s
c
^.^
3
^
^-'
I
8
B
1
^r
T3
ii
8
(D
V
w
jt
"
s
.=
<B
.3
*
_~
a>
7-
M
o"
1
cremat
B
8
1
V
I
O
G
G
o
.^
-
a
O
o
a
J9
T3
O
o
g O
*i
3
CD
X
""
c:-
O
.S
S
a>
B
u
^.
'S
I
t.
1
x
j=
X
HH
deceas
circuno
circun
i
H
,_;
g
*"*
g
i
6
a
H
B
S *
1
'i? ^
s ^
&
1 s
S s
^ bo
>* C
^ -a g
1
1
'I s
CM t-
o .5
^
^a be
v
t>c '55
T in
p0
' cS
aj _^
J
o
5 5 s
jsj
5
-^ o
c 1
55
" X
^j -w
s i
s;-
'5
> ' > 1
* * A 1
5 I
s
CO O
"
c?
> E^
O
Al'PENDIX. 167
ESTIMATE OF EXPENSES
Connected with the conveyance of a body from London
that is to say, from any part not distant more
than four miles from Charing Cross to the
Crematory, Woking.
d -
For a pine shell with ordinary lining . i 10 o
N.B. More expensive shells and coffins can
be provided, but the Society strongly recom-
mends the simplest form for the purpose of
cremation only.
When required for service in church also, it
may be covered in black, or colour, from two
guineas upwards. An ornate coffin may be em-
ployed for this purpose, provided the body
occupies a shell, to be removed for cremation
afterwards.
Delivery of shell at residence within limit
named, with attendants . . . 0150
Hearse, driver, and man in charge from
the residence to Woking, about thirty
miles . . . . . . 5 10 o
Men's attendance at residence, to place
body in hearse, if required . . 0150
N.B. If the shell is sent and the body is
removed to the hearse at the same time, this
charge is not incurred.
-8 10 o
168 APPENDIX.
-
If the hearse and horses are sent by rail
which saves much time, and is often
t-onvenient for those who desire to
attend including one man besides
the driver, an extra guinea is incurred i i
For each additional man to the above
named for removing the body at
Woking,as may be necessary, whether
sent by road or rail . . . .015
N.B. The above-named terras are those
charged by well-known firms of undertakers at
the West End of London.
OFFICES OF THE CREMATION SOCIETY
OF JEXGLAXD,
8 New Cavendish Street, Portland Place.
API'ENDIX.
THE FORMS ADOPTED IN FRANCE,
And invariably filled up by the officers appointed, in
every case of death occurring either in Paris or
in the Departments before burial or cremation is
permitted.
Form No. i is sent by the municipal authority to
the official medical examiner, requiring him to verify
the fact of the cause of death.
Form No. 2 is the certificate which, after examina-
tion of the body, the medical examiner leaves with
the family, who send it to the municipal authority.
Permission to bury can then be obtained.
Form No. 3 is the record which is made by the
medical examiner and preserved by the authorities.
170
APPENDIX.
8
O
g
H
55 .2
T3
>
w
tf
C
S of
-O
ta
S
Rj
D
02 4
-1
Qd
22 ft
'O
4
g
H H
o
5
O
>jr <u
HD
_c
^3
M o ~ 5
- 1 ^ H S
i 1 l "
serait d
sise
E
^
H
'2
*
si
S
"
i S
"c **
55 H g OQ
o c
5-3 *
J 5 ?3
o
:
V
-" i 1 s
^1 III?
u. 2 w - ^ g I
pi s Ji "S
o a ' * a. e 1
fe S \ B s5*1
Ms 5 o *
K-. M . O C
i
E
a
c
_s
i
S
4
S
1
i
>
i
i
i
>
p
i
2
I
t
E
te maison, de se fain
d'en indiquer les can;
__iL_ . a
D " 02
S
- J W S
PH PH W ^
a
^
W -3 5 g
o
^ S "I
p'i
H
S
^^ oQ rt o
"ik *^
& J *"^
C
h ~
W S
a j
a
'T
S -g JS
?"C-2 t
-fai s
> >
O w
c
W <
<
t3
Jj
H
"
03
<!
,j
-S
H
M
<
1
. 02
a
<ri
u
3
Q
PREFECTURE
SEINE
SECRETARIAT Gl
DIRECTION
(leg
ifFAIRES MUNI
o
ft
1.
S
Verification de
MANDAT DE ^
N nu CAIJXET_
L
APPENDIX.
171
s
*. s
t &
g> .
s
1 1
-* 45 03 OS
NU y, .
_> C t3 C
^ -" C o> 9
r^ *^ (3
.5P
5 a
c 9 ** c
C5 O S
1 1 F *
<D O
,_, pj Cj g
T3 ^ "pn
g O H
2 *v E*
S *
&s
C O T3
S o <u
a
"s
'C
^
.. S o
QJ T3 4)
C -
1 5 B
! si
o 25
' H
I 1 !
a>
S
! j i
^&
^
t2 ""
h &
= M
O 03 ^
0} c2 05
.S 8 - ^
I | s
o .a 2
t c3 03 g ..
a
S
o
|
-ce
\a>
a>
s,
2 a
PI as y
c S "
B S
^ ^ -3
M OJ *QJ
P-i 02 O
N
i
s
172
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX. 173
FORM No. 3.
REPUBLIQUE F K A N g A I S E, SECR , TARIAT
LIBERTE, fGALITE, FRATERNITE. GfiNfiRAL
PREFECTURE DE LA SEINE. Service de la
Statistique
VILLE DE PARIS.-MAIRIE DU micipale
_ ARRONDISSEMENT.
D E C E S
NOTICE STATIST1QUE IMPERSONNELLE
A remplir en meme temps que le certifteat de visite, eta H DE L'ACTE :
d^poser a la Mairie.
NOTA. Le medecin de 1'Etat civil peut biffer les mots con-
traires au cas qu'il a sous les yeux, ou ecrire oui ou faire une
croix apres le mot conforme. II est prie d'ecrire le nom de la
profession exercee, en faisant suivre ce nom d'un o, s'il s'agit
d'un ouvrier, ou d'un p, s'il s'agit d'un patron, et aussi de
mettre an a; a la suite des questions auxquelles il ne peut
repondre. Le degro de salubrite est apprecie et non demande.
Mois d_ i88_
ADULTES ET ENPANTS AGES DE 5 ANS ET AU-DESSUS.
Sexe du decode
Cf-lihataire
Marie
Date ou duree du mariage
Veuf et depuis quand ?.
Age de
Departement d .
Date du deces : le du mois d
<u /Quartier
S I Rue
etage.
Q ^Salubre insalubre.
174 APPENDIX.
/Nombre d'enfants morts et vi-
vants issus du manage.
a
Q
Nombre d'enfants siiivants .
w / Oncle et niece
,!, g a, ! Tante et neveu_
fee a ' J Cousins germains
o V Issus de cousins germaine
DudecedejP atron
ouvrier
J . De 1'upouz survivant
E
I ouvrier_
Du pere (patron, ouvrier)
1 De la mere (patronne, ouvriere)
,-*- (interne .
( extern e
un lycee
3 * un college
*~< J **
I une ('cole communale
iune ecole libre ._
Addresse de 1'institution :
Rue
Vaccine ; non vaccine
ENFANTS AU-DESSOU8 DE 5 AXS.
Sexe du decede _
Legitime ___ illegitime.
Reconnu /par le pere
(par la mere _
Non reconnu ___
Age de _
No a -
Departement d
Date du deces ; le du mois de
o /Quartier
| I Rue n"
Stage.
ft VSalubre - insalubre
APPENDIX.
175
V
T3
o> g
o 5
cc;
o> a
'in "
Au sem
Au biberon
Par allaiteinent mixte.
Pa la mere
Dans la famille par une
nourrice
Hors de la famille
Enfant garde dans la famille .
La creche
La salle d'asile
La garderie ou ecole enfantine .
Adresse de la residence hors de la famille
Eue_ _n
Profession ] Du P^ re (patron, ouvrier)^
I De la mere (pat ne , ouv re )
Age ( Du pere
I De la mere
Degre
de
parente
Oncle et niece_
Tante et neveu
Vaccine _
Issus de cousins germains.
non
Le decedc etait-il premier ne ? * .
MOBT-N3 ET EKFANTS MORTS A VANE LA DECLARATION
LE NAISSANCE.
Sexe-
6tat civil : legitime
Date de 1'accouchement : le-
as /Quartier
1 ] Rue
-illegitime _
-du mois d
I
Salubre.
_insalubre_
-I Artificiel.
vAvec seigle ergote
* Ce renseignemcnt ne doit etrc demaud<5 que pout les cnfants au-dessous
d'un an.
176 APPENDIX.
Mi-re: primipare plnripare
I Dans le famille
g | Chez urn! sage-femme.
"^ JH j Chez un medecin
.2 | |Autre: (Hopital, prison,
hotel meuble, voie pub-
I
H
lique, etc.)-
Duree de la gestation
A respire pendant
N'a pas respire.
'C'^ <3~
I Encore vivant.
Decede
Mort-ne
[Encore vivante.
Fille -, Decedee
/Vivant
g e e 3 / I lvalu
^ .2 * v g -2 I Garcon J D-'cedi'
( Mort-ne .
Fille -j Decedee
( Mort nee
f Du pere (patron, ouvrier)
P P '
Ape (Da pere
g
De la mere.
^ Oncle et niece
Tante et neveu
_
1 Cousins germains ___
J [parente ( Issus de cousins ge rmains.
Duree du mariage (en aniK-es)
Y a-t-il eu un f Nom et sexe
accoucheur (Domicile -
Maladie cause de mort_
Correspondant au numero_ de la nomenclature (Voyez
au verso).
f aign
Cette maladie a-t-elle etc | chronique
APPENDIX. 177
Accidents terminaux
Y a-t-il eu opC-ration chirurgicale ? .
Nom et domicile du medecin traitant
Le traitement a-t-il etc effectue par le service des secours
domicile ? :
Fait a Paris, le 18 , i\
heure du
Cachet de la Mairie Le medecin de Vfitat civil.
OVu:
Le Maire du e arrondissement,
The following schedule gives a very complete list of tue
various maladies or injuries among which the cause of
death may in almost any case be found ; the number cor-
responding thereto is employed to denote it in the record .
Form No. 3 :
NOMENCLATURE DES CAUSES DE
MALADIES GENEKALES.
N i. MALADIES PIDMIQUES.
1. Fievre typho'ide.
2. Typhus.
3. Scorbut.
4. Variole.
5. Rougeole.
6. Scarlatine.
7. Coqueluche.
8. Diphterie et croup.
9. Grippe.
10. Suette miliaire
1 1. Cholura asiatique.
12 Cholera nostras.
13 Autres.
178 APPENDIX.
N I. AUTRES MALADIES GJ5XJ5RALES.
14. Infection purulente et septicemie.
15. Morve.
1 6. Farcin.
17. Pustule maligne et cliarbon.
1 8. Rage.
19. Fievre intermittente.
20. Cachexie palustre.
21. Pellagre.
Ja. des poumons.
b. des m<5ninges.
c. du peritoine.
j d. d'autres organes.
'e. generalisee.
23. Scrofule.
24. Syphilis.
a. de la bouche.
1. de 1'estomac, du foie.
c. des intestins, du rectum.
25. Cancer -i
d. de 1'uterus.
e. du sein.
/. de la peau.
autres.
26. Rhumatisme.
27. Goutte.
28. Diabete (sucre).
2q. Goitre exopbtalmique.
30. Maladie bronzee d'Addison.
31. Leucemie.
32. Anemie, chlorose.
33. Autres maladies generates.
34. Alcoolisme (aigu ou chronique).
35. Intoxications professionnelles.
36. Absorption de gaz deleteres (suicide excepte).
37. Autres empoisonnements (suicide excepte).
APPENDIX. 179
MALADIES LOCALES.
N 3. MALADIES DU SYSTEME XERVEUX ET DBS
ORGANES DBS SENS.
38. Encephalite.
39. Meningite simple.
40. Ataxie locomotrice progressive.
41. Atrophie musculaire progressive.
42. Congestion et hemorrhagie cerebrales.
43. Kamollissement cerebral.
44. Paralysies sans cause indiquee.
45. Paralysie generale.
46. Autres formes de 1'alienation mentale.
47. Epilepsie.
48. Eclampsie (non puerperale).
49. Convulsions des enfants.
50. Tetanos.
51. Choree.
52. Autres maladies du systeme nerveux.
53. Maladies des yeux.
54. Maladies des oreilles.
N 4. MALADIES DE L'APPAREIL CIRCULATOIRE.
55. Pericardite.
56. Endocardifce.
57. Maladies organiq-ues du coeur.
58. Angine de poitrine.
59. Affection des arteres, atherome, gangrene, seche,
anevrisme, etc.
60. Embolie.
61. Varices, ul ceres variqueux, hemorrho'ides.
62. Plebite et autres affections des veines.
63. Lymphangite.
64. Autres affections du systeme lymphatique.
65. Hemorrhagies.
66. Autres affections de 1'appareil circulatoire.
N 5. MALADIES DE L'APPAREIL EESPIRATOIRE.
67. Maladies des fosses nasales.
68. Affection du larynx ou du corps tbyro'ide.
180 APPENDIX.
6g. Bronchite aigue.
70. Bronchite chronique.
71. Broncho-pneumonic.
72. Pneumonic.
73. Pleuresie.
74. Congestion et apoplexie pulmonaires.
75. Gangrene du poumon.
76. Asthme.
77. Autres.
N 6. MALADIES DE L'APPAREIL DIGESTIF.
78. Affections de la bouche et de I'arri&re-bouche.
79. Affections du pharynx et de 1'oesophage.
, i Ulcere de 1'estomac.
go. ) Affections de , , ,, .
I . J. Autres affections de 1 estomac (cancer
e * j 1'estomac
excepte).
Diarrhee infantile, athrepsie.
Diarrhee et entente.
Affections de / Dysenteric.
1'intestin "i Parasites intestinaux.
I Hernies, obstructions intestinales.
' Autres affections de 1'intestin.
)/ Ictere grave.
I Tumeurs hydatiqnes.
Affections du ,,. .
-.Cirrhose.
Calculs biliaires.
y _. ^Autres affections du foie.
93. Peritonite inflammatoire (puerperale exceptee).
94. Autres affections de 1'appareil digestif.
95. Phlegmon de la fosse iliaque.
N 7. MALADIES DE L'APPAREIL GfiNITO-URINAIBE ET DE
SES ANNEXES.
96. Nephrite.
97. Maladie de Bright.
98. Perinephrite et abces perinephrique.
99. Calculs renaux.
100. Autres maladies des reins et annexes.
101. Calculs vesicaux.
1 02. Maladies de la vessie.
103. Maladies de 1'uretre (abct-s urineux, etc.).
104. Maladies de la prostate.
APPENDIX. 181
105. Maladies du testicule.
1 06. Metro-peritonite.
107. Abces du bassin.
108. Hematocele peri-uterine.
109. 1 j Metrite.
no. I Maladies del Hemorrhagies (non puerperales).
in. j" 1'uterus I Tumeurs (non cancereuses).
112. J I Autres maladies.
113. Kystes et autres tnmeurs de 1'ovaire.
1 14. Autres maladies des organes genitaux.
115. Maladies non puerperales de la mamelle (cancer excepte).
N 8. AFFECTIONS PUERPERALES.
1 1 6. Accidents de la grossesse.
117. Hemorrhagie puerperale.
118. Autres accidents de 1'accouchement.
119. Septicemie puerperale.
1 20. Metroperitonite puerperale.
121. Eclampsie puerperale.
122. Phlegmatia alba dolens puerperale.
123. Autres accidents puerperaux. Mort subite.
124. Maladies de la mamelle puerperales.
N 9. MALADIES DE LA PEAU ET DU TISSU CELLULAIRE.
125. firysipele.
126. Gangrene.
127. Anthrax.
128. Phlegmon, abces chaud.
129. Autres maladies de la peau et de ses annexes (cancer
excepte).
N IO. MALADIES DES ORGASE8 DE LA LOCOMOTION.
130. Maladie de Pott.
131. Abces froid et par congestion.
132. Fractures.
133. Autres affections des os.
134. Luxations.
135. Tumeurs blanches.
136. Autres maladies des articulations.
137. Amputation.
138. Autres affections des organes de la locomotion.
182 APPENDIX.
N II. NOUVEAU-NfiS DE O A. 8 JOUB8.
139. Dcbilite congenitale, ictere et sclereme.
140. Vices de conformation.
141. Dt-faut de soins.
142. Autres.
N 12. -VIELLESSE.
143. Dobilitu senile.
N 13. MORTS V1OLENTES.
'a. Par le poison.
b. Par asphyxie.
c. Par strangulation.
d. Par submersion.
144. Suicide J e. Par armes a feu.
/. Par instruments trenchants.
g. Par precipitation.
ft. ficrasement.
?'. Autres.
145. Traumatisme accidentel.
146. Brulure.
147. Isolation et congelation.
148. Inanition.
149. Autres.
INDEX.
AFRICA, 9. (See Egypt)
AMERICA, ancient, 28-31 ; modern see United States, Mexico,
Brazil and Argentine Republic
ANCIENT LAW, 1-34
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, 90
AKYANS, beliefs and customs of, 1-5, 11-13, 24
ASHES, protection and conservation of, 47, 51, 56, 69, 79, 108, 109,
137, 142, 143, 150, 155, 159, 160
ASIA see China, Persia, Inaia, Israel, Islam, Christendom
ASSYRIANS, 5 (foot-note')
AUSTRALIA see New South Wales
AUSTRIA, 71-77
BADEN, 68
BELGIUM, 82-83
BIBLE, references to cremation in, 31
BILL, Disposal of Dead Regulation, 100, 102
BODY, no property in, 98, 99, 116, 118, 109 ; right of possession of
98, 116, 117, 109; duty of burying, 117, 127, 129; right to cus-
tody of, 1 1 8
BOHEMIA, 77-78
BRAHMANIC LAW, i, 12
BRAZIL, 90
BRITAIN, mortuary customs in, 2
BUDDHISM, influence of, i, u
BURNING a body, when a misdemeanour, 100, 101, 123, 132, 133
184 INDEX.
CARTHAGINIANS, 2
OASES cited, Dawson r. Small, 98 ; Gilbert v. Buzzard, 126 ; Lloyd
'. Lloyd, 99 ; Reg. v. Fox, 90, 117 ; Rexr. Lynn, 99, 128 ; Reg.
'-. Price, 99, 122-134; Reg. v. Scott, 118; Reg. v. Sharpe,
98, 99, 115, 121, 128, 131 ; Reg. v. Stevenson and another, 101,
102 ; R. v. Stewart, 129, 130 ; R. v. Van, 129, 130 ; Stag .
Punter, 98; Williams v. Williams, 96-99, 115-121, 130, 131
CERTIFICATES of death, 95, 106, 107, 108 ; necessity of, for burial,
95i IO 3 IO 4> 1 06 ; for cremation, 104, 105, 106, 107 ; medical,
46, 47, 48, 55, 123, 140, 141, 145, 79, 81, 95, 103, 106, 107, 108,
115; civil, 46, 136, 79, 82, 138, 139, 140, 145, 147, 148, 154
CIIILPERIC III., prohibition of cremation by, 34
CHINA, 3, ii
CHRISTENDOM, 32-34
CHRISTIANS, embalmed, 33 ; cremated, 33
CORONER, jurisdiction of, 101, 123
CREMATION, origin of, i, 2 ; suppression of, 34, 124 ; re-introduc-
tion of, 35 ; regulation of, 44-47, 50, 54-57, 59, 61, 62, 79, 80, 81,
^9 93 ; necessity of regulating in England, 96, 100, 102, 103,
104; suggestions for new regulations, 105-110; inquiry into, in
House of Lords, 95 ; compulsory, 39, 40, 82, 86, 91
CREMATION SOCIETY OF ENGLAND, foundation of, 94 ; correspond-
ence with Home Office, 94-96 ; deputation to Home Secretary,
95 ; opening of crematorium, 102
CYRUS, attempts to cremate Croesus, 8, 10
DARIUS, favourable to cremation, 9-11
DEATH, registration of, 95, 103-108, 169-182
DENMARK, 78, 79
DRUIDS, mortuary customs of, 2
EGYPT, 3, 33, 34
ETHIOPIANS, 3
EXECUTORS, power of disposition of body, 74-77, 98, 117, 119,
110-113 ; right to the possession of body, 98, 117, 118 ; duties
as to burying, 117
EXHUMATION as evidence of crime, 41, 42, 102-105 ; when a misde-
meanour, 128; results of, 104, 105
INDEX. 185
FRANCE, 35-48 ; regulations for conduct of cremations in, 45-47
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR, cremation on battlefields, 39
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, 62, 63
GAUL, mortuary customs in, 2, 34
GERMANS, 2
GERMANY, 2, 57-71
GOTH A, 57, 58; description of apparatus at, 135; regulations for
conduct of cremations at, 135-138
GOTHS, 2
GREKCE, 23, 24
HAMBURG, 56-61 ; crematorium at, limitations of its use, 60
HEIDELBERG, establishment of crematorium at, 68 ; regulations for
conduct of cremation in, 139-146
HINDU LAWS AND CUSTOMS, 11, 12
HOLLAND, 83, 85
INDIA, ancient, 11-23 ; modern, 9>-92
INDIANS, American, mortuary customs of, 28-32
INQUESTS, avoidance of, 101, 123, 124 ; number of, in comparison
with that of exhumations, 104, 105
ISLAM, 32
ISRAEL, 31, 32
ITALIAN BURIAL LAW, 54
ITALIAN POLICE REGULATIONS for conduct of cremations, 54-57
ITALY, 49-57
JAPAN, 92
JEWS, influence of Mazdeism, 32
JUSTINIAN, Twelve Tables of, 26, 27
LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES, disposition of body by, 36,46, 55, 57, 75,
76, 89, 116, 129, 130, 131, 154
LYCURGUS, laws of, 24
LYONS, cremation in, 48
186 INDEX.
MAHOMMEDANS, 32
MANES, worship of, 28
MANU, laws of, 12, 17-19
MAZDEISM or MAOISM, 3-11
MEDES, laws of, 12, 17, 18, 19
MEDIA. 5 8
MEXICO, 90
MODERN LAW, foreign. 35-93 : English, 94-113
NAPOLEON, mode of burial prescribed by, 38, 39
NETHERLANDS see Holland
NEW SOUTH WALES, 93
PARTS, cremation in, 47
PARSIS, 4 (foot-note}, 7
PEPIN-LE-BREF publishes edict against cremation, 34
PERSIA. 3-11
PORTUGAL, 86
PROPERTY IN A BODY, 98, 115, 116, 117, u 8
PRUSSIA, 6 1, 62
PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, opposition to cremation of, 62, 63, 64, 65
REGISTRATION of death, 61, 78, 95, 100, 103, 104, 105
RELIGION, influence on cremation, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7. 8, n, 13, 24, 25, 32,
33. 34, "4
RIG-VEDA, 5, 12, 14, 15, 22
ROMAN LAW, 25-27, 112, 113
ROME, 24-28; cremation under Romans, 124
SAT/ or SUTTEE, 18-23, 91-92
SAXONY, 58
SCANDINAVIANS, mortuary customs of, 2
SLAVS, mortuary customs of, 2
SPAIN, 86
SPARTANS, 24
SWEDEN, 79-80
SWITZERLAND, 81-82
SYLLA, action of, in regard to cremation, 24
INDEX. 187
TALMUD, 31
TESTATOR, disposition of body by, 44, 54, 55, 57, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79,
81, 90, 99, 118, 1 10, in, 112, 113, 136, 140, 147, 162
TRANSPORT OF BODIES, 46, 47, 53, 55, 60, 72, 83, 138, 145, 149, 154,
167, 168
UNITED STATES, 86-89 ; Cremation Company, Limited. Rules, 154
VENDIDAD, laws of, 5, 6, 10
VISHNU, Institutes of, 1 6
WURTEMBERG, 66-68
ZEND-AVESTA, 3-11
ZOROASTER, 3, n
ZURICH, 8 1 ; action of government of, 81, 82 ; regulations for con-
duct of cremations in, 147-153
I'KINTED BY BALLANTYNB, HANSON AND CO.
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY
305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 9!
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388
Return this material to the library from which It was borrowed.
UCLAYRLILL
DUE?4fcf 1 82006