Among the practical methods of cremation which have recently been attempted, we may mention. in the first place, the experiments of Dr. Polli at the Milan gas-works, and those of prof. Brunetti, who exhibited an apparatus at the Vienna exhibition of 1873, and states his results in La Circula•lone de Clidateri, Padua, 1873. Polli obtained complete incineration or calcination of the bodies of dogs by the use of coal-gas mixed with atmospheric air, applied to a cylindrical retort of refracting, clay, so as to consume the gaseous products of combustion. The process was complete in two hours, and the ashes weighed about 5 per cent of the weight before cremation. Brunetti used an oblong furnace of retracting brick with side-doors to regulate the draught, and a cast iron dome above with movable shutters. The body was placed on a metallic plate sus pended on wire. The gas generated escapes by the shutters, and in two hours carbon ization is complete. The heat i4 then raised and concentrated, and at the end of four hours the operation is over; 180 lbs. of wood costing 2s. 4d. sterling was burned: In the reverberating furnace used by sir Henry Thompson, a body, weighing 144 lbs. was reduced in 50 minutes to about 4 lbs. of line-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 brdinary Siemens regen
erative furnace (which has been adapted by Becalm in Germany for cremation, and also by sir Henry Thompson) only the hot-blast is used, the body supplying hydrogen and carbon, or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated air is sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat, or wood, the brick or iron-eased chamber being thus heated to a high degree before cremation begins. In one arrangement both gas and air are at a white heat before they meet and burst into flame in the furnace. The advantage of the Siemens furnace and gas producer (which would cost about '0,000 in construction) are that the heat of the expended fuel is nearly all retained by the regenerators, and that the gas retort admits of the production being stopped without much loss. Some difficulty has been felt about keeping the ashes free from foreign material. The Greeks used a shroud of asbestos, the Egyptians one of amianth. Mr, Eassie suggests a zinc coffin—that metal being metal being volatile. It is also suggested that the ashes might be deposited in urns, and these placed in a colunibarium, which might be in the church or at home. (The substance of the foregoing is from Encyclo ptadia Britannica, ninth edition.)