CREMATION, the burning of human corpses. This method of disposal of the dead was the general practice of the ancient world, with the important exceptions of Egypt, where bodies were embalmed, Judaea, where they were buried in sepulchres, and China, where they were buried in the earth. Cremation is still prac tised over a great part of Asia and America, but not always in the same form. Thus, the ashes may be stored in urns, or buried in the earth, or thrown to the wind, or (as among the Digger Indians) smeared with gum on the heads of the mourners.
There can be little doubt that the practice of cremation in modern Europe was at first stopped, and has since been prevented in great measure, by the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body; partly also by the notion that the Christian's body was redeemed and purified. It is, however, in the ultimate resort, really a sanitary one. The objectionable results of pit-burial and burial in churches and churchyards, made cemeteries necessary. But cemeteries are equally liable to overcrowding, and are often nearer to inhabited houses than the old churchyards.
In 1874, a congress called to consider the matter at Milan resolved to petition the Chamber of Deputies for a clause in the new sanitary code, permitting cremation under the supervision of the syndics of the commune. It was Sir Henry Thompson, how ever, who first brought the question prominently before the Eng lish public. Thompson's problem was—"Given a dead body, to resolve it into carbonic acid, water and ammonia, rapidly, safely and not unpleasantly." In a reverberating furnace used by him a body, weighing 144lb., was reduced in so minutes to about 41b. of lime dust. The noxious gases, which were undoubtedly produced during the first five minutes of combustion, passed through a flue into a second furnace and were entirely consumed. In the ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace (which was adapted by Reclam in Germany for cremation, and also by Sir Henry Thomp son) only the hot-blast was used, the body supplying hydrogen and carbon ; or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated air was sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat or wood—the brick or iron-cased chamber being thus heated to a high degree before cremation begins.
Steps were at once taken (1874) to form an English society to promote the practice of cremation. On account of difficulties and prejudices the council of the society was unable to purchase a freehold until 1878, when an acre was obtained at Woking, not far distant from the cemetery. The next important development was an application to the council in 1882 to undertake the crema tion of two deceased persons who had left express instructions to that effect. The Home Secretary was applied to, and refused. In 1883 a cremation was performed in Wales by a man on the body of his child, and legal proceedings were taken against him. Mr. Justice Stephen, in Feb. 1884, delivered his well-known judgment at the assizes there, declaring cremation to be a legal procedure, provided no nuisance were caused thereby to others. The council of the society at once publicly offered to perform cremation, laying down strict rules for careful enquiry into the cause of death in every case. They stated that they were fully aware that the chief practical objection to cremation was that it removed traces of poison or violence which might have caused death and adopted a system of very stringent enquiry. At present two death certifi cates signed by independent medical practitioners are required in England before cremation can be carried out.
On March 26, 1885, the first cremation at Woking took place, the subject being a lady. In i888 it became necessary, nearly 200 bodies having been by this date cremated, to build a large hall for religious service, as well as waiting-rooms, in connection with the crematorium there. The number of cremations slowly increased year by year, and the total at the end of 190o was 1,824. Many were persons of distinction.
The Cremation act 1902 (2 ed. VII. ch. 8) and the regulations made thereunder by the Home Secretary have laid down a code of laws applicable and binding where cremation is resorted to.
Undoubtedly in populous communities and in crowded districts the burial of dead bodies may be dangerous to the living, particu larly in the case of deaths from contagious disease. In a report by Edwin Chadwick (London, 1843) the existence of such a danger was strikingly demonstrated, and intramural interments were in consequence made illegal. All decaying animal remains emit gases which, ultimately, become converted into vegetable growth of some kind—trees, crops, garden produce, grass, etc. It may be taken as certain that the gaseous products arising from a cremated body—amounting, although invisible, to no less than 97% of its weight, 3% only remaining as solids, in the form of a pure white ash—become in the course of a few hours integral and active elements in some form of vegetable life. The result of this reasoning has been that, by slow degrees, crematoria have been constructed at many of the populous cities in Great Britain and abroad (see Statistics below).
The subject of employing cremation for the bodies of those who die of contagious disease is important. Such diseases include small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, enteric, relaps ing and puerperal fevers, the annual number of deaths from which in the United Kingdom in 1926 was upwards of 94,00o. In cre mation complete disinfection takes place by means of the high temperature to which the body is exposed. At the present day it is compulsory to report any case in the foregoing list of diseases to the local medical officer of health; and it is customary to dis infect the rooms, clothes and furniture used by the patient ; but in case of death, the body, which is the source and origin of the evil, and loaded with infectious germs, is left with all the danger attached to its preservation in that condition, when buried in a fit or unfit soil or situation.
The process of preparing a body for cremation requires a brief notice. The plan generally adopted is to place it (in the usual shroud) in a light pine shell, discarding all heavy oak or other coffin, and to introduce it into the furnace in that manner. Thus there is no handling or exposure of the body after it reaches the crematorium. The type of furnace in general use is on the rever beratory principle, the body being consumed in a separate cham ber heated to over 2,00o° by a coke fire. In a few instances a furnace burning ordinary illuminating gas is used.