The cremation of the dead / considered from an aesthetic, sanitary, religious, historical, medico-legal, and economical standpoint

The exterior view shows a handsome Romanesque structure of one story and a basement. The main height is 16 feet, which rises in four gables on the sides. A dome, 35 feet in circumference, attains a height of 65 feet. The drawing of the first floor shows an auditorium of octagon form. Back of the two rear niches are dressing-rooms for clergymen. Two handsome altars on which to hold religious services will front from these niches. Two rooms in the lower end of the building, on either side of the approach, are reserved for toilet rooms, one for ladies, and the other for gentlemen. In the center of the upper end of the auditorium is placed a catafalque, resting on an elevator. After a body has been properly prepared, it will be placed on this catafalque. When the religious services are concluded, the body will be lowered to the basement, and the opening in the floor closed with a slide trap.

The plan of the basement shows the same divisions as are made on the main floor. On the left-hand side is a retiring-room. The front is divided into four rooms. An ice cellar, a frigidarium, which is calculated as a place in which to preserve bodies for several days; a calidarium, a heated room in which bodies can be placed for several days, to insure against cremation while in a state of trance; and a drug room, where restoratives will be kept. The right-hand wing is designed for a preparing room, from which the body is taken directly to one of the furnaces. The furnaces, of which there will be two, are not yet definitely designed. It is supposed, however, that they will be after the plan of the apparatuses at Lancaster, in Pennsylvania.

In the rear of the building it is proposed to build an addition, in the form of a three-quarter circle, which will be styled the columbarium. On the inside this will be divided by three corridors, and the walls divided into compartments for containing urns. There will be room in this limited space of 40 × 30 feet, it is estimated, for holding the remains of 8000 bodies.

The building is designed to be built of Ionia red sandstone. Two immense flue chimneys, one for ventilation, the other for the furnaces, rising to a height of 75 feet, will give character to the building. The front will be set off with a handsome porch supported by Roman pillars and approached by a half-circle road-bed, over which the hearse and carriages can drive up to the main entrance.

The Michigan Cremation Association was organized at Detroit on the 31st of March, 1886. Dr. H. Erichsen was chosen temporary chairman, and Mr. A. N. Low secretary of the meeting. The documents of incorporation were signed. On motion of Dr. J. H. Carstens, a board of directors was elected. At the close of the meeting the directors met, and elected the following officers: President, James F. Noyes, M.D.; vice-president, Hugo Erichsen, M.D.; secretary, Mr. A. N. Low; treasurer, Mr. M. W. Field. The treasurer furnished a $10,000 bond, as required by the original agreement.

The subject of cremation was first agitated at Baltimore, Md., in the winter of 1884, by Dr. G. W. Lehmann and Mr. J. R. Rennous, who were also the originators of the cremation company in that city. In 1884, two public meetings were held; but they were poorly attended, and the prospects gloomy in the extreme. But the two advocates of incineration worked steadily on until their efforts were crowned with success. The Cremation Cemetery Company of Baltimore City was incorporated on the 30th of March, 1885, with a capital stock of $15,000, divided into 600 shares of the par value of $25 per share. At a meeting of the stockholders the following officers were elected: B. F. Horwitz, president; J. R. Rennous, secretary; J. W. Middendorf, treasurer. The founders of the organization were obliged to call it “Cremation Cemetery Co.,” to comply with the general laws of Maryland in obtaining the charter. $9000 worth of stock has already been taken up, and the company expects to make such headway that it will be able to build soon.

When the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Cremation Society was founded in the middle of October, 1885, with Mr. John Pamperin as president, it resolved upon a full investigation of the subject of incineration and appointed a committee to get reports from other societies. This committee having performed its work, a meeting of the committee was held at the residence of Mr. Gustav Carl, and these reports read, arranged, and discussed. The report from Detroit was particularly exhaustive. Davenport also furnished a report. The cremation society there had sent a representative to Lancaster, Pa., who had examined the cremation furnace there and had prepared a report, of which La Crosse was given the benefit. The result of the conference was that a resolution was adopted calling for a meeting of stockholders at an early date for permanent organization. The La Crosse Cremation Association filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of state on the 26th of November, 1885. The purpose of the association is to dispose of human bodies after death, by cremation, and it shall continue its business for 20 years, unless the holders of two-thirds of the stock consent to the dissolution of the association. Mr. J. Pamperin is the president, Mr. G. Carl, secretary, and Mr. J. Ulrich the treasurer of the association. A person wishing to become a member of this association may subscribe for one or more shares of $25 each (not exceeding 50 shares) of the capital stock of the association, which is limited to $8000. The shares so subscribed shall be paid in instalments. The first instalment must be paid at the time of subscription, and the balance in instalments, as called for by the directors, within one year thereafter; but none shall be called for until three months after the other. If any of the subscribers should die before the projected crematorium has been erected, and the deceased should have expressed a wish to have his body cremated, and provision is made by him or his family for the expenses incident thereto, the officers of the society shall see that his will in this respect be carried out at the nearest convenient crematory.

The Kentucky Cremation Society, at Louisville, which was organized in the fall of 1886, has been steadily growing, and now counts about 70 members. The subscribed capital is sufficient to buy a lot and commence building, and the society therefore hopes to have a crematory ready during next year.

A license was issued on Jan. 2, 1886, to William Christian, of the Chicago Tribune, Elmer Atkinson, a lawyer, and David Hamilton, a real estate dealer, to build a crematory for the incineration of human bodies, near Chicago, Illinois. The capital of the company which they have organized, and which is called the “Chicago and Cook County Cremation Company,” is $40,000.

On April 6, 1886, Dr. O. W. Carlson read a paper advocating cremation, before the Academy of Medicine, at Milwaukee, Wis. At the close of the address the subject was discussed at some length by those present, and some very interesting facts were brought out. A proposition was made that the Academy of Medicine found a cremation society at Milwaukee, and, though no action in the matter was taken at the time, it is probable that steps will be taken by the members with that object in view.

Lately a cremation society was organized at Milwaukee, that has already secured a desirable site upon a local cemetery, and intends to erect a crematorium as soon as the necessary funds are obtained.

It is proposed to build a crematory at Toronto, Canada. The pastors of the leading churches, upon being interviewed, almost unanimously expressed their opposition to cremation.

The newspapers state that a crematory will be erected at Atlanta, Ga.

This volume would not be complete without the mention of the Modern Crematist, a monthly journal devoted to the interests of incineration, and published by Dr. M. L. Davis of Lancaster, Pa. The Neue Flamme, a worthy German contemporary, is published at Berlin.

My native country was always eager to embrace deserving reforms; there is no reason why it should not adopt the superior system of incineration. Nay, I think it will become the standard-bearer of this sanitary reformation, and march in the avant-guard of this signal progress. The subject of incineration is already awakening much interest among us, as is evinced by a recent sermon of that eminent New York divine, Rev. Heber Newton, who spoke strongly in favor of the substitution of cremation for sepulture. He said the mode of disposing of the dead human body was only a form, and that mode was best which was best for the living. In England, only a few years ago, a dignitary of the national church dared to assert that cremation endangered the belief in the life to come. He knew, or ought to have known, that the same process of combustion is surely carried on, whether in the ground or in the crematory, and that if dissolution of the body imperiled the true doctrine of resurrection, then that doctrine was long ago hopelessly lost. These words from the lips of a famous American preacher are certainly proof that the antagonism of the clergy to cremation is waning.

There are other signs of approaching day. I refer to the constant discussion of incineration in the columns of the daily press, and to the fact that cremation was lately brought to the attention of the American Medical Association, while it met at St. Louis, Mo., on the 6th of May. The report of a special committee, appointed the year before, was read by its chairman, Dr. J. M. Keller, of Arkansas. The committee moved to amend the original resolution so as to read:—

Resolved, That cremation or incineration of the dead has become a sanitary necessity in populous cities, and that the Association advises its adoption.

The Association adopted the amendment by a vote of 159 to 106.

Cremation was also endorsed by the American Public Health Association at its last meeting.

I rejoice at the thought that most writers on the momentous subject of incineration were medical men. Who, indeed, would be better qualified for such a task than the man who may daily witness the pernicious effect which the dead exercise over the living.

Those who are friends of the reform should come out openly in its favor. Crematists who are on the fence, or who, perhaps, hide back of it, might just as well keep out of the combat between cremation and interment altogether; we have no use for them. If you believe in cremation, candidly say so, and tell your friends why you believe in it. Moral cowards do a just cause more harm than good. Those who have tried to propagate the idea of cremation in an underhand way have invariably failed; the public must be brought face to face with the question: cremation or burial? To spread the reform in this country, I hope to see, before long, the birth of an American cremation association, to be composed of delegates from the various cremation societies of the United States. There is already a sufficient number of societies for the formation of a vigorous organization of the kind, that would undoubtedly aid greatly the progress of the reform.

This, then, finishes what I had to say about a hygienic reform that will be the leading one in the latter part of the nineteenth century. There will be a long and warm controversy before the people will generally abandon a custom of such antiquity as earth-burial; but cremation will supersede it in the end. The present style of burial does not do any one any good. On the contrary, it destroys hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives every year. A good many deaths due to graveyard gases or water contamination by cemetery effluvia escape observation, since the real cause of the decease is seldom suspected. Incineration, however, does nobody any harm, and is in accord with the humane and progressive spirit of the age. Disadvantages it has none; and with the many arguments in its favor, it cannot fail to come out of the battle between torch and spade victorious in every respect. Moreover, it has the generous support of the scientists, physicians, and sanitarians of the times, which alone assures success.

I close this volume with a prediction which will soon be realized, namely, that cremation will make more progress in the United States than in any other country of the world. Indeed, the progression will be so rapid that old Europe will open its eyes wide in blank astonishment, and wonder how it is possible. When we Americans once perceive the advantages and superiority of a reformation, we do not hesitate long to adopt it; and the time will come when incineration will be customary in the Union, and interment obsolete.