The English and the German machinery for the reduction of the body to ashes vary in a few particulars, but the general construction is the same, as will have been perceived. In one Dresden arrangement the body is lowered into a receiver below, and the idea of interment is thus in a manner preserved.[202] In the English arrangement this is otherwise, and the coffin is made to gradually slide into the receiver, like a ship launched into water. The anguish induced by the moment of departure is in this way somewhat ameliorated, as there is no noise of lowering-machinery to grate upon the ear. At certain appointed words in our beautiful funeral service--for instance, 'ashes to ashes'--a curtain might be partially withdrawn, and the body, encased in a suitable shell, would gravitate slowly into the chamber of the apparatus, which would then immediately close noiselessly; to be opened only after the due reduction of the body. The utmost privacy would be insured, and no strange eyes could gaze upon it[203] during the period of incineration. The funeral service could also be made to occupy the whole of the time necessary for sublimation if it were so desired, or a eulogy or other reference to the departed might form the subject of a discourse. The ashes could afterwards be collected, and reverentially placed in an urn,[204] or other suitable receptacle, and conveyed to their last resting-place. Plate III. represents a view of a mortuary chapel, such as would probably be required in a Christian cemetery; and the scene there represented will serve to show how completely decorous the procedure would be.[205] And one may here remark that the great advances made by science can nowhere better be evidenced than by a comparison between the modern and ancient systems of cremation. However well disguised in beautiful language--as, for instance, by Bulwer in the 'Last Days of Pompeii'--the barbarity of the method practised in classical times will be sensibly felt in the background.
[203] At the cremation of the body of an English lady at Dresden in October last, arrangements were made for observing the progress of combustion, and this was permitted under the peculiar circumstances. It is not however intended anywhere to practise even a partial exposure, nor would the English pattern of cinerator permit it. When the time needful for reduction has been accurately calculated, such exposure will be unnecessary. With the improved apparatus half an hour will probably be sufficient.