[173] 'Cremation.' H. S. King & Co., London. 2nd ed. 1_s._
[174] Since the publication of Sir Henry Thompson's work, and the reports of the active propaganda which is being carried on abroad, a great number of articles, favourable or well inclined to the practice, have appeared in the public press: for instance, in the 'Daily News,' 'Telegraph,' 'Standard,' 'Morning Advertiser,' 'Globe,' 'Saturday Review,' 'Court Journal,' and numerous illustrated and other papers. The 'British Medical Journal,' 'Lancet,' 'Medical Press and Circular,' 'Medical Record,' 'Sanitary Record,' 'Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette,' &c., have also borne witness to its value as a sanitary measure. Both Church and Nonconformist journals have moreover written in its favour, and several able articles have appeared in the periodicals, for example, in the 'Dublin University Magazine' and 'Westminster Review.' Most valuable assistance, demanding special notice, has also been rendered to cremation by that highly scientific periodical, 'Iron.' The process has also been made the subject of discussion in various debating societies, and in May 1874 the Cambridge University Union adopted a motion by 101 votes to 42 in favour of introducing it into England.
The Cremation Society of London, which is intended as a parent society with which others in any part of the land can be affiliated, was founded on January 13, 1874, by some of our most representative men, and shortly after a declaration[175] was issued to the public which had the effect of proving to the founders of the Society how very prevalent and how widely spread was the antipathy to the present mode of burial. The aim of the Society is to promote the substitution of cremation for burial, by diffusing information on the subject, by co-operating with foreign Societies, and by raising funds to obtain an apparatus of the most approved kind, together with a suitable site, so that, for those who desire the performance of cremation after death, ample means should be available for the purpose. The letters of adhesion to the scheme which have been already received have come from every class of society, from Peers to the humblest commoners.
[175] '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.'