AXD

387

of tbe plague burial-grounds at Eyam resulted in an immediate outbreak of
disease/—North American J&tttfjr, Ao, 3, TW. 1&5.

In an address before the Chicago Medical Society, in advocacy of
cremation. Dr. Charles ~W. Purdy made some striking comparisons
to show what a burden is laid upon society by the burial of the
dead:—

RELICS.

'One and one-fourth times more
money is expended annually in funerals
in the United States than the Govern-
merit expends for public-school purposes. Funerals
cost this country ia 1880 enough money to pay the
liabilities of all the commercial failures in the United States during the same
year, and give each bankrupt a capital of #3,630 with which to resume
business. Funerals cost annually more money than the value of the combined
gold and silver yield of the United States in the year 1880! These figures
do not include the sums invested in burial-grounds and expended in tombs
and monuments, nor the loss from depreciation of property in the vkiahy
of cemeteries.'