THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON OREGON, JANUARY 18, 1900.
ly on the soil and temperature. In structure, one story high, thirty
that deprived of this body and' will always ask, what is a spirit? the Arctic regions decomposition feet long, twenty-five wide, divided
robbed o" its senses, this soul will It is, you say, a substance depnved is imperceptibly slow; in dry, tor- into two rooms, a reception room
be able to live, to enjoy, to suffer, of expansion, incorruptible, and rid sands dessication takes the twenty feet square, including walls,
be sensitive of enjoyment or of rig- which has nothing in common with place of putrelaction, and a kind of and a furnace room twenty feet >y
orous torments. Upon such a tie- matter. But if this is true how natural mummification takes place, ten feet, including walls I rema­
sue of conjectural absurdities the came your soul into existence how in low, damp, or wet soils, in tern-, tion is performed in a clay retort,
wonderful opinion of the immor- did it grow? how did it strengthen. perate tones, decay may be com- such as is used in the manufacture
how weaken itself, get out of order, plete in one to one and one-hall of illuminating gas, but of a some-
tality of the soul - ..........
is built.
IM ask what ground we have for and grow old with your body? In vears giving off deleterious gases what different shape, heated to a
supposing that the soul is immor- reply to all these questions, you, say for that length of time, with per- red heat before the body is intro-
.
1 •
tai they reply, it is because man t that they are mysteries; but if they
haps the seeds of contagious dis­ duced, which work requires about
by his nature desires to be immor- are mysteries, you understand no-
eases. In dry, high, and airy soils twenty-four hours. The body is
thing
about
them.
If
you
do
not
tai nr to live for ever. But I re- ......o —
-
the process is much slower and less placed in an iron crib made in the
join it you desire anything very understand anything about them,
shape of a coffin, with small round
1°
2
non
xrr»i,
rvoKitivelv
affirm a any­
n y dangerous.
how
can
you
positively
much, is it sufficient to conclude
What is decomposition of the hu­ rods, with feet three or four inches
thing
about
them?
In
order
to
that this desire will be fulfilled?
man body ? What are its products? long to keep it up off the bottom of
believe
or
to
affirm
anything,
it
is
the retort. These, feet are inserted
By what strange logic do they de­
What its dangers?
necessary
at
least
to
know
what
cide that a thing can not fail to
An English writer has defined into a flat strip of iron two inches
that
consists
of
which
we
believe
happen because they ardently de­
the human body, chemically, as 45 wide and a quarter inch thick,
and
which
we
affirm.
To
believe
sire it to happen? Man’s childish
pounds of carbon and nitrogen dis- turned up at the ends so that the
in
the
existence
of
your
immaterial
desires of the imagination, are they
solved in 5 | pailfuls of water. Oxy-|crib with the body will slide into
soul,
is
to
say
that
you
are
persuad­
the measure of reality? Impious
gen, though the principal of life, is I the retort easily. In addition to
ed
of
the
existence
of
a
thing
of
people, you say, deprived of the
also the great destroyer; the mo- ; the ordinary burial garments, the
which
it
is
impossible
for
you
to
flattering hopes of another life, de­
ment life ceases, our carbon by its I body is covered with a cloth wet
form
any
true
idea;
it
is
to
believe
sire to be annihilated. Well, have
agency is converted into carbonic with a saturated solution of sul-
in
words
without
attaching
any
they not just as much right to con­
acid, which escapes into the air, or phate of aluminum (common alum),
sense
to
them;
to
affirm
that
the
clude by this desire that they will
is taken up by the roots of plants, which, even when burned, retains
thing
is
as
you
claim,
is
the
highest
be annihilated, as you to conclude
according to the mode of sepulture;! its form and prevents any part of
folly
or
assumption.—[Superstition
that you will exist forever because
our oxygen combines with some of the corpse from being seen until the
in
All
Ages.
the hydrogen of decomposition, bony skeleton begins to crumble
you desire it?
forming ammonia, which escapes in | down. During the cremat ion there
Man dies entirely. Nothing is
Cremation.
more evident to him who is not de­
a similar way; the water, which 1 is no odor or smoke from the con­
lirious. The human body, after
forms about two-thirds of our i surning body, as the furnace is a
by d r . SAMUEL KNEELAND.
death, is but a mass, incapable of
weight, escapes by evaporation, self-consumer of smoke and other
producing any movements the
We are resolved, therefore into gas-1 vaporable matter. 1 he time requir­
The four principal ways of dis­ es, and the only dust which is left ed to complete the operation is
union of which constitutes life.
We no longer see circulation, res­ posing of the dead have been: first, behind is the four or five pounds of about two hours, hut improvements
piration, digestion, speech or reflec­ mummification; second, burning; lime salts which constitute our iu the process will doubtless short-
tion. It is claimed then that the third, interment; fourth, aerial ex­ bones. Nature provides sufficient en the time. A very small por-
soul has separated itself from the posure. Of the first, practiced chief­ animate and inanimate agents for tiou of the remains is ashes, but
body. But to say that this soul, ly by the ancient Egyptians, and of the removal of decaying animal . the mass is in ihe form of calcined
which is unknown, is the principle the fourth, practiced by many sav­ substances in the air, on the bones in small fragments, very
of life, is saying nothing, unless age tribes, I need say nothing at ground, or just beneath its ourface, I white, odorless, deprived of animal
that an unknown force is the
this time.
and the more speedy in the hot and raatter, aud may be preserved any
visible principle of imperceptible
In most nations, sayage and civ­ damp climates, where the results of length of time without change,
movements.
Nothing is more ilized, from time immemorial, it decomposition are the most delete-
This building, with its applianc-
natural and more simple than to has been the custom to inter the rious, provided man in his folly es, cost about $1500. A plainer
believe that the dead man lives no bodies of the dead iu the ground or does not interfere with her process- one, equally efficient, could now,
more, nothing more absurd than to to seal them up more or less tightly es. Man by his mode of interring *. at the reduced cost of labor and
believe that the dead man is still in tombs. Though these may an­ human bodies, contrives to prolong i materials, be built for $1000. An
swer all sanitary purposes, and ful­ as much as possible the decay of impression prevails that this crem-
living.
« •
« « «
We ridicule the simplicity of fill all the sacred obligations of the his deceased brethren, thereby
in­ atory was erected for public accom­
some nations whose fashion is to living to the departed, in scattered creasing to the utmost the possibil­ modation, aud that the owner of it
populations, they are attended with ity of poisoning the water in the follows cremation as a business for
bury provisions with the dead
under the idea that this food might dauger, always increasing in popu­ neighborhood of living beings. Air fee9. This is a mistake. It was
be useful aud necessary to them in lous communities.
and surface burial permit free ac­ built for the use of the present
This
danger
has
practically
been
another life. Is it more ridiculous
cess to the myriads of minute liv­ owner and friends in the vicinity
or more absurd to believe that men recognized by the fact that ceme­ ing creatures whose office it is to who concur with him in this re­
will eat after death than to imagine teries have generally been placed convert into their own harmless form. No fees have ever been
that they will think; that they will without the limits of thickly popu­ substance the bodies of dead ani­ charged nor ever will be while in
When persons, mals and men.
have agreeable or disagreeable lated districts.
no w».« -----
his possession.
ideas; that they will enjoy; that dead from infectious diseases, are
In the grave of six feet or more' A not unimportant item in this
they will suffer; that they will be buried in graves, they leave behind in depth,
■
*
. « / I it I »» n r n i o
r r £ > flt.
liti
1 *1 *0 0 I i l 1 VY11 V I111 1 ( ) O
process I is o f the
great diminution 111
in
light . and
air are in r great
conscious of sorrow or joy when the them to the public, as residuary measure excluded, and there is no the expense of funerals. The aver­
organs which produce sensations or legatees, a fearful amount of dan­
access to the insects from whose age expenditure for each body bur­
ideas are dissolved and reduced to ger; and faithfully and impartially
eggs emerge the grubs or worms, ied is $100, the average cost for
dust? To claim that the souls o is the deadly legacy divided among from whose jaws popular belief ex­ crematiou is $20; the aggregate
I TO 111 W I1U B C
L in n u n v “
I
-------
-O O
D
men will be happy or unhappy all dwelling within a circle of one pects rapid and total destruction of saving in the United States from
after the death of the body, is to to three thousand feet of such the body. The truth is that the the adoption of this system would
pretend that man will be able to graves. Earth will, to a certain* devouring worm is a myth as much « annually amount to millions of
see without eyes, to hear withou extent, deodorize, but cannot des­ without foundation as the “dust” dollars. The expense of cremation
ears, to taste without a palate, to troy or impede the escape of minute iuto which we are supposed to be jg less than that of an ordinar)
smell without a nose, and to feel poisonous germs.
resolved, and the results of decora- ' burial case.
The danger from this source has
without hands and without skin.
position are horrible enough with- , Cremation is certainly not bar-
Nations who believe themselves never been fully appreciated by the
out adding any • imaginary sensa- barous, for it never entered, never
very rational, adopt, nevertheless, public, entirely ignorant of the pro­
tional accessories.
could enter, into the heads of a bar-
cess of decomposition, and the pro­
such ideas.
The modern process of cremation barous people. It is not burning,
The dogma of the immortality of ducts thereof. Of course the decay 1 is performed as follows: The crem- there is no pile of wood or other
the soul assumes that the soul is a of the body committed to the 1 atory at Washington, Pa., is a brick ' combustibles, no visible flame, no
simple substance, a spirit; but 1 grave depends as to rapidity entire-
w
-
w
. ------ -