[1] Jevons, _Introd. to the History of Religion_, p. 394.
[2] _Sacred Books of the East_, xxxi.
[3] _Personality, Human and Divine_ (cheap edition), p. 36.
[4] Ib. p. 38.
[5] _Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit_, p. 85. Zahn's reasoned
argument stands in contrast to the blind reliance on tradition shown
by Macdonald, _The Symbol of the Apostles_, and the fanciful
reconstruction of the primitive creed by Baeumer, Harnack or Seeberg.
[6] McGiffert, on the other hand, argues that the Roman Creed was
composed to meet the errors of Marcion, p. 58 ff. He omits, however,
to mention this, which is Zahn's strongest argument.
[7] It is probable that "one" has dropped out of the first clause.
Zahn acutely suggests that it was omitted in the time of Zephyrinus
to counteract Monarchian teaching such as the formula: "believe in
one God, Jesus Christ."
[8] _Anecdota Maredsolana_, iii. iii. p. 199.
[9] Dorholt has shown that Petavius (d. 1652) was the first to remark
that the so-called Constantinopolitan form was quoted by Epiphanius
before the Council met, but was not able to explain the fact.
[10] Burn, "Note on the Old Latin text," _Journal of Theol. Studies._
[11] e.g. Cod. Escurial J.c. 12, _saec._ x. xi. In Cod. Matritensis,
p. 21 (1872), _saec._ x. xi., and Cod. Matritensis 10041 (begun in
the year A.D. 948), the words are omitted under the heading council of
Constantinople but inserted under the heading council of Toledo, in
the former MS., above the line and in a later hand, which shows
conclusively how the interpolation crept in.
[12] The first person who doubted the authorship seems to have been
Joachim Camerarius, 1551, who was so fiercely attacked in consequence
that he omitted the passage from his Latin edition. _Zeitschrift fur
K.G._ x. (1889), p. 497.
[13] In response to an invitation issued by the archbishop of
Canterbury, acting on a resolution of the Lambeth Conference of 1908,
a committee of eminent scholars met in April and May 1909 for the
purpose of preparing a new translation. Their report, issued on the
18th of October, stated that they had "endeavoured to represent the
Latin original more exactly in a large number of cases." The general
effect of the new version is to make the creed more comprehensible,
e.g. by the substitution of "infinite" and "reasoning" for such
archaisms as "incomprehensible" and "reasonable." The sense of the
damnatory clauses has, however, not been weakened. [Ed.]
[14] Illingworth, _Personality, Human and Divine_, p. 40.
[15] _The Christian Creed and the Creeds of Christendom_, p. 181.
[16] Gibson, _The Thirty-nine Articles_, p. 2.
CREEK (Mid. Eng. _crike_ or _creke_, common to many N. European
languages), a small inlet on a low coast, an inlet in a river formed by
the mouth of a small stream, a shallow narrow harbour for small vessels.
In America and Australia especially there are many long streams which
can be everywhere forded and sometimes dry up, and are navigable only at
their tidal estuaries, mere brooks in width which are of great economic
importance. They form complete river-systems, and are the only supply of
surface water over many thousand square miles. They are at some seasons
a mere chain of "water-holes," but occasionally they are strongly
flooded. Since exploration began at the coast and advanced inland, it is
probable that the explorers, advancing up the narrow inlets or "creeks,"
used the same word for the streams which flowed into these as they
followed their courses upward into the country. The early settlers would
use the same word for that portion of the stream which flowed through
their own land, and in Australia particularly the word has the same
local meaning as brook in England. On a map the whole system is called a
river, e.g. the river Wakefield in South Australia gives its name to
Port Wakefield, but the stream is always locally called "the creek."
CREEK or MUSKOGEE (MUSCOGEE) INDIANS (Algonquin _maskoki_, "creeks," in
reference to the many creeks and rivulets running through their
country), a confederacy of North American Indians, who formerly occupied
most of Alabama and Georgia. The confederacy seems to have been in
existence in 1540, and then included the Muskogee, the ruling tribe,
whose language was generally spoken, the Alabama, the Hichiti, Koasati
and others of the Muskogean stock, with the Yuchi and the Natchez, a
large number of Shawano and the Seminoles of Florida as a branch. The
Creeks were agriculturists living in villages of log houses. They were
brave fighters, but during the 18th century only had one struggle, of
little importance, with the settlers. The Creek War of 1813-14 was,
however, serious. The confederacy was completely defeated in three
hard-fought battles, and the peace treaty which followed involved the
cession to the United States government of most of the Creek country. In
the Civil War the Creeks were divided in their allegiance and suffered
heavily in the campaigns. The so-called Creek nation is now settled in
Oklahoma, but independent government virtually ceased in 1906. In 1904
they numbered some 16,000, some two-thirds being of pure or mixed Creek
blood.
CREETOWN, a seaport of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 991. It
is situated near the head of Wigtown Bay, 18 m. W. of Castle Douglas,
but 23-1/2 m. by the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railway. The granite
quarries in the vicinity constitute the leading industry, the stone for
the Liverpool docks and other public works having been obtained from
them. The village dates from 1785, and it became a burgh of barony in
1792. Sir Walter Scott laid part of the scene of _Guy Mannering_ in this
neighbourhood. Dr Thomas Brown, the metaphysician (1778-1820), was a
native of the parish (Kirkmabreck) in which Creetown lies.
CREEVEY, THOMAS (1768-1838), English politician, son of William Creevey,
a Liverpool merchant, was born in that city in March 1768. He went to
Queen's College, Cambridge, and graduated as seventh wrangler in 1789.
The same year he became a student at the Inner Temple, and was called to
the bar in 1794. In 1802 he entered parliament through the duke of
Norfolk's nomination as member for Thetford, and married a widow with
six children, Mrs Ord, who had a life interest in a comfortable income.
Creevey was a Whig and a follower of Fox, and his active intellect and
social qualities procured him a considerable intimacy with the leaders
of this political circle. In 1806, when the brief "All the Talents"
ministry was formed, he was given the office of secretary to the Board
of Control; in 1830, when next his party came into power, Creevey, who
had lost his seat in parliament, was appointed by Lord Grey treasurer of
the ordnance; and subsequently Lord Melbourne made him treasurer of
Greenwich hospital. After 1818, when his wife died, he had very slender
means of his own, but he was popular with his friends and was well
looked after by them; Greville, writing of him in 1829, remarks that
"old Creevey is a living proof that a man may be perfectly happy and
exceedingly poor. I think he is the only man I know in society who
possesses nothing." He died in February 1838. He is remembered through
the _Creevey Papers_, published in 1903 under the editorship of Sir
Herbert Maxwell, which, consisting partly of Creevey's own journals and
partly of correspondence, give a lively and valuable picture of the
political and social life of the late Georgian era, and are
characterized by an almost Pepysian outspokenness. They are a useful
addition and correction to the _Croker Papers_, written from a Tory
point of view. For thirty-six years Creevey had kept a "copious diary,"
and had preserved a vast miscellaneous correspondence with such people
as Lord Brougham, and his step-daughter, Elizabeth Ord, had assisted
him, by keeping his letters to her, in compiling material avowedly for a
collection of Creevey Papers in the future. At his death it was found
that he had left his mistress, with whom he had lived for four years,
his sole executrix and legatee, and Greville notes in his _Memoirs_ the
anxiety of Brougham and others to get the papers into their hands and
suppress them. The diary, mentioned above, did not survive, perhaps
through Brougham's success, and the papers from which Sir Herbert
Maxwell made his selection came into his hands from Mrs Blackett Ord,
whose husband was the grandson of Creevey's eldest step-daughter.
CREFELD, or KREFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province,
on the left side of and 3 m. distant from the Rhine, 32 m. N.W. from
Cologne, and 15 m. N.W. from Dusseldorf, with which it is connected by a
light electric railway. Pop. (1875) 62,905; (1905) 110,410. The town is
one of the finest in the Rhine provinces, being well and regularly
built, and possessing several handsome squares and attractive public
gardens. A striking point about the inner town is that it forms a large
rectangle, enclosed by four wide boulevards or "walls." This feature,
rare in German towns, is due to the fact that Crefeld was always an
"open place," and that therefore the circular form of a fortress town
could be dispensed with. It has six Roman Catholic and four Evangelical
churches (of which the Gothic Friedenskirche with a lofty spire, and the
modern church of St Joseph, in the Romanesque style, are alone worth
special mention); there are also a Mennonite and an Old Catholic church.
The town hall, decorated with frescoes by P. Janssen (b. 1844), and the
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum are the most noteworthy secular buildings. In the
promenades are monuments to Moltke, Bismarck and Karl Wilhelm, the
composer of the _Wacht am Rhein_. Among the schools and scientific
institutions of the town the most important is the higher grade
technical school for the study of the textile industries, which is
attended by students from all parts of the world. Connected with this
are subsidiary schools, notably one for dyeing and finishing.
Crefeld is the most important seat of the silk and velvet manufactures
in Germany, and in this industry the larger part of the population of
town and neighbourhood is employed. There are upwards of 12,000 silk
power-looms in operation, and the value of the annual output in this
branch alone is estimated at L3,000,000. A special feature is the
manufacture of silk for covering umbrellas; while of its velvet
manufacture that of velvet ribbon is the chief. The other industries of
the town, notably dyeing, stuff-printing and stamping, are very
considerable, and there are also engineering and machine shops,
chemical, cellulose, soap, and other factories, breweries, distilleries
and tanneries. The surrounding fertile district is almost entirely laid
out in market gardens. Crefeld is an important railway centre, and has
direct communication with Cologne, Rheydt, Munchen-Gladbach and Holland
(via Zevenaar).
Crefeld is first mentioned in records of the 12th century. From the
emperor Charles IV. it received market rights in 1361 and the status of
a town in 1373. It belonged to the counts of Mors, and was annexed to
Prussia, with the countship, in 1702. It remained a place of little
importance until the 17th century, when religious persecution drove to
it a number of Calvinists and Separatists from Julich and Berg (followed
later by Mennonites), who introduced the manufacture of linen. The
number of such immigrants still further increased in the 18th century,
when, the silk industry having been introduced from Holland, the town
rapidly developed. The French occupation in 1795 and the resulting
restriction of trade weighed for a while heavily upon the new industry;
but with the termination of the war and the re-establishment of Prussian
rule the old prosperity returned.
CREIGHTON, MANDELL (1843-1901), English historian and bishop of London,
was born at Carlisle on the 5th of July 1843, being the eldest son of
Robert Creighton, a well-to-do upholsterer of that city. He was educated
at Durham grammar school and at Merton College, Oxford, where he was
elected to a postmastership in 1862. He obtained a first-class in
_literae humaniores_, and a second in law and modern history in 1866. In
the same year he became tutor and fellow of Merton. He was ordained
deacon, on his fellowship, in 1870, and priest in 1873; in 1872 he had
married Louise, daughter of Robert von Glehn, a London merchant (herself
a writer of several successful books of history). Meanwhile he had
published several small historical works; but his college and university
duties left little time for writing, and in 1875 he accepted the
vicarage of Embleton, a parish on the coast of Northumberland, near
Dunstanburgh, with an ancient and beautiful church and a fortified
parsonage house, and within reach of the fine library in Bamburgh Keep.
Here he remained for nearly ten years, acquiring that experience of
parochial work which afterwards stood him in good stead, taking private
pupils, studying and writing, as well as taking an active part in
diocesan business. Here too he planned and wrote the first two volumes
of his chief historical work, the _History of the Papacy_; and it was in
part this which led to his being elected in 1884 to the newly-founded
Dixie professorship of ecclesiastical history at Cambridge, where he
went into residence early in 1885. At Cambridge his influence at once
made itself felt, especially in the reorganization of the historical
school. His lectures and conversation classes were extraordinarily good,
possessing as he did the rare gift of kindling the enthusiasm without
curbing the individuality of his pupils. In 1886 he combined with other
leading historians to found the _English Historical Review_, of which he
was editor for five years. Meanwhile the vacations were spent at
Worcester, where he had been nominated a canon residentiary in 1885. In
1891 he was made canon of Windsor; but he never went into residence,
being appointed in the same year to the see of Peterborough. He threw
himself with characteristic energy into his new work, visiting,
preaching and lecturing in every part of his diocese. He also found time
to preach and lecture elsewhere, and to deliver remarkable speeches at
social functions; he worked hard with Archbishop Benson on the Parish
Councils Bill (1894); he became the first president of the Church
Historical Society (1894), and continued in that office till his death;
he took part in the Laud Commemoration (1895); he represented the
English Church at the coronation of the tsar (1896). He even found time
for academical work, delivering the Hulsean lectures (1893-1894) and the
Rede lecture (1894) at Cambridge, and the Romanes lecture at Oxford
(1896).
In 1897, on the translation of Dr Temple to Canterbury, Bishop Creighton
was transferred to London. During Dr Temple's episcopate ritual
irregularities of all kinds had grown up, which left a very difficult
task to his successor, more especially in view of the growing public
agitation on the subject, of which he had to bear the brunt. As was only
natural, his studied fairness did not satisfy partisans on either side;
and his efforts towards conciliation laid him open to much
misunderstanding. His administration, none the less, did much to preserve
peace. He strained every nerve to induce his clergy to accept his ruling
on the questions of the reservation of the Sacrament and of the
ceremonial use of incense in accordance with the archbishop's judgment in
the Lincoln case; but when, during his last illness, a prosecutor brought
proceedings against the clergy of five recalcitrant churches, the bishop,
on the advice of his archdeacons, interposed his veto. One other effort
on behalf of peace may be mentioned. In accordance with a vote of the
diocesan conference, the bishop arranged the "Round Table Conference"
between representative members of various parties, held at Fulham in
October 1900, on "the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist and its expression
in ritual," and a report of its proceedings was published with a preface
by him. The true work of his episcopate was, however, positive, not
negative. He was an excellent administrator; and his wide knowledge,
broad sympathies, and sound common sense, though they placed him outside
the point of view common to most of his clergy, made him an invaluable
guide in correcting their too often indiscreet zeal. He fully realized
the special position of the English Church in Christendom, and firmly
maintained its essential teaching. Yet he was no narrow Anglican. His
love for the English Church never blinded him to its faults, and no man
was less insular than he. As he was a historian before he became a
bishop, so it was his historical sense which determined his general
attitude as a bishop. It was this, together with a certain native taste
for ecclesiastical pomp, which made him--while condemning the
unhistorical extravagances of the ultra-ritualists--himself a ritualist.
He was the first bishop of London, since the Reformation, to
"pontificate" in a mitre as well as the cope, and though no man could
have been less essentially "sacerdotal" he was always careful of correct
ceremonial usage. His interests and his sympathies, however, extended far
beyond the limits of the church. He took a foremost part in almost every
good work in his diocese, social or educational, political or religious;
while he found time also to cultivate friendly relations with thinking
men and women of all schools, and to help all and sundry who came to him
for advice and assistance. It was this multiplicity of activities and
interests that proved fatal to him. By degrees the work, and especially
the routine work, began to tell on him. He fell seriously ill in the late
summer of 1900, and died on the 14th of January 1901. He was buried in St
Paul's cathedral, where a statue surmounts his tomb.
He was a man of striking presence and distinguished by a fine courtesy
of manner. His irrepressible and often daring humour, together with his
frank distaste for much conventional religious phraseology, was a
stumbling-block to some pious people. But beneath it all lay a deep
seriousness of purpose and a firm faith in what to him were the
fundamental truths of religion.
Bishop Creighton's principal published works are: _History of the Papacy
during the Period of the Reformation_ (5 vols., 1882-1897, new ed.);
_History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_ (6
vols., 1897); _The Early Renaissance in England_ (1895); _Cardinal
Wolsey_ (1895); _Life of Simon de Montfort_ (1876, new ed. 1895); _Queen
Elizabeth_ (1896). He also edited the series of _Epochs of English
History_, for which he wrote "The Age of Elizabeth" (13th ed., 1897);
_Historical Lectures and Addresses by Mandell Creighton, &c._, edited by
Mrs Creighton, were published in 1903.
See _Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, &c._, by his wife (2
vols., 1904); and the article "Creighton and Stubbs" in _Church
Quarterly Review_ for Oct. 1905.
CREIL, a town of northern France, in the department of Oise, 32 m. N. of
Paris on the Northern railway, on which it is an important junction.
Pop. (1906) 9234. The town is situated on the Oise, on which it has a
busy port. The manufacture of machinery, heavy iron goods and nails, and
copper and iron founding, are important industries, and there are
important metallurgical and engineering works at Montataire, about 2 m.
distant; bricks and tiles and glass are also manufactured, and the
Northern railway has workshops here. The church (12th to 15th centuries)
is in the Gothic style. There are some traces of a castle in which
Charles VI. resided during the period of his madness. Creil played a
part of some importance in the wars of the 14th, 15th and 16th
centuries.
CRELL (or KRELL), NICHOLAS (c. 1551-1601), chancellor of the elector of
Saxony, was born at Leipzig, and educated at the university of his native
town. About 1580 he entered the service of Christian, the eldest son of
Augustus I., elector of Saxony, and when Christian succeeded his father
as elector in 1586, became his most influential counsellor. Crell's
religious views were Calvinistic or Crypto-Calvinistic, and both before
and after his appointment as chancellor in 1589 he sought to substitute
his own form of faith for the Lutheranism which was the accepted religion
of electoral Saxony. Calvinists were appointed to many important
ecclesiastical and educational offices; a translation of the Bible with
Calvinistic annotations was brought out; and other measures were taken by
Crell to attain his end. In foreign politics, also, he sought to change
the traditional policy of Saxony, acting in unison with John Casimir,
administrator of the Rhenish Palatinate, and promising assistance to
Henry IV. of France. These proceedings, coupled with the jealousy felt at
Crell's high position and autocratic conduct, made the chancellor very
unpopular, and when the elector died in October 1591 he was deprived of
his offices and thrown into prison by order of Frederick William, duke of
Saxe-Altenburg, the regent for the young elector Christian II. His trial
was delayed until 1595, and then, owing partly to the interference of the
imperial court of justice (_Reichskammergericht_), dragged on for six
years. At length it was referred by the emperor Rudolph II. to a court
of appeal at Prague, and sentence of death was passed. This was carried
out at Dresden on the 9th of October 1601.
See A. V. Richard, _Der kurfurstliche sachsische Kanzler Dr Nicolaus
Krell_ (Frankfort, 1860); B. Bohnenstadt, _Das Prozessverfahren gegen
den kursachsischen Kanzler Dr Nikolaus Krell_ (Halle, 1901); F.
Brandes, _Der Kanzler Krell, ein Opfer des Orthodoxismus_ (Leipzig,
1873); and E. L. T. Henke, _Caspar Peucer und Nicolaus Krell_
(Marburg, 1865).
CREMA, a town and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of
Cremona, 26 m. N.E. by rail from the town of Cremona. Pop. (1901) town,
8027; commune, 9609. It is situated on the right bank of the Serio, 240
ft. above sea-level, in the centre of a rich agricultural district. The
cathedral has a fine Lombard Gothic facade of the second half of the
14th century; the campanile belongs to the same period; the rest of the
church has been restored in the baroque style. The clock tower opposite
dates from the period of Venetian dominion in the 16th and 17th
centuries. The castle, which was one of the strongest in Italy, was
demolished in 1809. The church of S. Maria, 3/4 m. E. of the town, was
begun in 1490 by Giov. Batt. Battaggio; it is in the form of a Greek
cross, with a central dome, and the exterior is a fine specimen of
polychrome Lombard work (E. Gussalli in _Rassegna d' arte_, 1905, p.
17).
The date of the foundation of Crema is uncertain. In the 10th century it
appears to have been the principal place of the territory known as Isola
Fulcheria. In the 12th century it was allied with Milan and attacked by
Cremona, but was taken and sacked by Barbarossa in 1160. It was rebuilt
in 1185. It fell under the Visconti in 1338, and joined the Lombard
republic in 1447; but was taken by the Venetians in 1449, and, except
from 1509 to 1529, remained under their dominion until 1797.
CREMATION (Lat. _cremare_, to burn), the burning of human corpses. This
method of disposal of the dead may be said to have been the general
practice of the ancient world, with the important exceptions of Egypt,
where bodies were embalmed, Judaea, where they were buried in
sepulchres, and China, where they were buried in the earth. In Greece,
for instance, so well ascertained was the law that only suicides,
unteethed children, and persons struck by lightning were denied the
right to be burned. At Rome, one of the XII. Tables said, "Hominem
mortuum in urbe ne sepelito, neve urito"; and in fact, from the close of
the republic to the end of the 4th Christian century, burning on the
pyre or rogus was the general rule.[1] Whether in any of these cases
cremation was adopted or rejected for sanitary or for superstitious
reasons, it is difficult to say. Embalming would probably not succeed in
climates less warm and dry than the Egyptian. The scarcity of fuel might
also be a consideration. The Chinese are influenced by the doctrine of
Feng-Shui, or incomprehensible wind water; they must have a properly
placed grave in their own land, and with this view their corpses are
sent home from long distances abroad. Even the Jews used cremation in
the vale of Tophet when a plague came; and the modern Jews of Berlin and
the Spanish and Portuguese Jews at Mile End cemetery were among the
first to welcome the lately revived process. Probably also, some nations
had religious objections to the pollution of the sacred principle of
fire, and therefore practised exposure, suspension, throwing into the
sea, cave-burial, desiccation or envelopment.[2] Some at least of these
methods must obviously have been suggested simply by the readiest means
at hand. Cremation is still practised over a great part of Asia and
America, but not always in the same form. Thus, the ashes may be stored
in urns, or buried in the earth, or thrown to the wind, or (as among the
Digger Indians) smeared with gum on the heads of the mourners. In one
case the three processes of embalming, burning and burying are gone
through; and in another, if a member of the tribe die at a great
distance from home, some of his money and clothes are nevertheless
burned by the family. As food, weapons, &c., are sometimes buried with
the body, so they are sometimes burned with the body, the whole ashes
being collected.[3] The Siamese have a singular institution, according
to which, before burning, the embalmed body lies in a temple for a
period determined by the rank of the dead man,--the king for six months,
and so downwards. If the poor relatives cannot afford fuel and the other
necessary preparations, they bury the body, but exhume it for burning
when an opportunity occurs.
There can be little doubt that the practice of cremation in modern
Europe was at first stopped, and has since been prevented in great
measure, by the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body;
partly also by the notion that the Christian's body was redeemed and
purified.[4] Some clergymen, however, as the late Mr Haweis in his
_Ashes to Ashes, a Cremation Prelude_ (London, 1874), have been
prominent in favour of cremation. The objection of the clergy was
disposed of by the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury when he asked, "What
would in such a case become of the blessed martyrs?" The very general
practice of burying bodies in the precincts of a church in order that
the dead might take benefit from the prayers of persons resorting to the
church, and the religious ceremony which precedes both European burials
and Asiatic cremations, have given the question a religious aspect. It
is, however, in the ultimate resort, really a sanitary one. The
disgusting results of pit-burial made cemeteries necessary. But
cemeteries are equally liable to overcrowding, and are often nearer to
inhabited houses than the old churchyards. It is possible, no doubt, to
make a cemetery safe approximately by selecting a soil which is dry,
close and porous, by careful drainage, and by rigid enforcement of the
rules prescribing a certain depth (8 to 10 ft.) and a certain
superficies (4 yds.) for graves. But a great mass of sanitary objections
may be brought against even recent cemeteries in various countries. A
dense clay, the best soil for preventing the levitation of gas, is the
worst for the process of decomposition. The danger is strikingly
illustrated in the careful planting of trees and shrubs to absorb the
carbonic acid. Vault-burial in metallic coffins, even when sawdust
charcoal is used, is still more dangerous than ordinary burial. It must
also be remembered that the cemetery system can only be temporary. The
soil is gradually filled with bones; houses crowd round; the law itself
permits the reopening of graves at the expiry of fourteen years. We
shall not, indeed, as Browne says, "be knaved out of our graves to have
our skulls made drinking bowls and our bones turned into pipes!" But on
this ground of sentiment cremation would certainly prevent any
interruption of that "sweet sleep and calm rest" which the old prayer
that the earth might lie lightly has associated with the grave. And in
the meantime we should escape the horror of putrefaction and of the
"small cold worm that fretteth the enshrouded form."
In Europe Christian burial was long associated entirely with the
ordinary practice of committing the corpse to the grave. But in the
middle of the 19th century many distinguished physicians and chemists,
especially in Italy, began prominently to advocate cremation. In 1874, a
congress called to consider the matter at Milan resolved to petition the
Chamber of Deputies for a clause in the new sanitary code, permitting
cremation under the supervision of the syndics of the commune. In
Switzerland Dr Vegmann Ercolani was the champion of the cause (see his
_Cremation the most Rational Method of Disposing of the Dead_, 4th ed.,
Zurich, 1874). So long ago as 1797 cremation was seriously discussed by
the French Assembly under the Directory, and the events of the
Franco-Prussian War again brought the subject under the notice of the
medical press and the sanitary authorities. The military experiments at
Sedan, Chalons and Metz, of burying large numbers of bodies with
quicklime, or pitch and straw, were not successful, but very dangerous.
The matter was considered by the municipal council of Paris in connexion
with the new cemetery at Mery-sur-Oise; and the prefect of the Seine in
1874 sent a circular asking information to all the cremation societies
in Europe. In Britain the subject had slumbered for two centuries, since
in 1658 Sir Thomas Browne published his quaint _Hydriotaphia, or
Urn-burial_, which was mainly founded on the _De funere Romanorum_ of
the learned Kirchmannus. In 1817 Dr J. Jamieson gave a sketch of the
"Origin of Cremation" (_Proc. Royal Soc. Edin._, 1817), and for many
years prior to 1874 Dr Lord, medical officer of health for Hampstead,
continued to urge the practical necessity for the introduction of the
system.
It was Sir Henry Thompson, however, who first brought the question
prominently before the public. Thompson's problem was--"Given a dead
body, to resolve it into carbonic acid, water and ammonia, rapidly,
safely and not unpleasantly." To solve this problem, experiments were
made by Dr Polli at the Milan gas works, fully described in Dr Pietra
Santa's book, _La Cremation des morts en France et a l'etranger_, and by
Professor Brunetti, who exhibited an apparatus at the Vienna Exhibition
of 1873, and who stated his results in _La Cremazione dei cadaveri_
(Padua, 1873). Polli obtained complete incineration or calcination 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% of the weight before cremation. Brunetti used an
oblong furnace of refracting brick with side-doors to regulate the
draught, and above a cast-iron dome with movable shutters. The body was
placed on a metallic plate suspended on iron wire. The gas generated
escaped by the shutters, and in two hours carbonization was complete.
The heat was then raised and concentrated, and at the end of four hours
the operation was over; 180 lb. of wood costing 2s. 4d. sterling was
burned. In a reverberating furnace used by Sir Henry Thompson a body,
weighing 144 lb., was reduced in fifty minutes to about 4 lb. of lime
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 ordinary Siemens regenerative
furnace (which was adapted by Reclam in Germany for cremation, and also
by Sir Henry Thompson) only the hot-blast was used, the body supplying
hydrogen and carbon; or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated
air was sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat or
wood,--the brick or iron-cased chamber being thus heated to a high
degree before cremation begins.
Steps were at once taken to form an English society to promote the
practice of cremation. A declaration of its objects was drawn up and
signed on the 13th January 1874 by the following persons--Shirley
Brooks, William Eassie, Ernest Hart, the Rev. H. R. Haweis, G. H.
Hawkins, John Cordy Jeaffreson, F. Lehmann, C. F. Lord, W. Shaen, A.
Strahan, (Sir) Henry Thompson, Major Vaughan, Rev. C. Voysey and (Sir)
T. Spencer Wells; and they frequently met to consider the necessary
steps in order to attain their object. The laws and regulations having
been thoroughly discussed, the membership of the society was constituted
by an annual contribution for expenses, and a subscription to the
following declaration:--
"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."
Finally, on 29th April a meeting was held, a council was formed, and Sir
H. Thompson was elected president and chairman. Mr Eassie (who in 1875
published a valuable work on _Cremation of the Dead_) was at the same
time appointed honorary secretary.[5] In 1875 the following were
added:--Mrs Rose Mary Crawshay, Mr Higford Burr, Rev. J. Long, Mr W.
Robinson and the Rev. Brooke Lambert. Subsequently followed Lord
Bramwell, Sir Chas. Cameron, Dr Farquharson, Sir Douglas Galton, Lord
Playfair, Mr Martin Ridley Smith, Mr James A. Budgett, Mr Edmund Yates,
Mr J. S. Fletcher, Mr J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, the duke of Westminster
(on Lord Bramwell's death), and Sir Arthur Arnold. These may be
considered the pioneers of the movement for reform.
On account of difficulties and prejudices[6] the council was unable to
purchase a freehold until 1878, when an acre was obtained at Woking, not
far distant from the cemetery. At this time the furnace employed by
Professor Gorini of Lodi, Italy, appeared to be the best for working
with on a small scale; and he was invited to visit England to
superintend its erection. This was completed in 1879, and the body of a
horse was cremated rapidly and completely without any smoke or effluvia
from the chimney. No sooner was this successful step taken than the
president received a communication from the Home Office, which resulted
in a personal interview with the home secretary; the issue of which was
that if the society desired to avoid direct hostile action, an assurance
must be given that no cremation should be attempted without leave first
obtained from the minister. This of course was given, no further
building took place, and the society's labours were confined to
employing means to diffuse information on the subject. Sir Spencer Wells
brought it before the annual meeting of the British Medical Association
in 1880, when a petition to the home secretary for permission to adopt
cremation was largely signed by the leading men in town and country, but
without any immediate result. The next important development was an
application to the council in 1882, by Captain Hanham in Dorsetshire, to
undertake the cremation of two deceased relatives who had left express
instructions to that effect. The home secretary was applied to, and
refused. The bodies were preserved, and Captain Hanham erected a
crematorium on his estate, and the cremation took place there. He
himself, dying a year later, was cremated also; in both cases the result
was attained under the supervision of Mr J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, who
succeeded Mr Eassie in 1888 as honorary secretary to the society. The
government took no notice. But in 1883 a cremation was performed in
Wales by a man on the body of his child, and legal proceedings were
taken against him. Mr Justice Stephen, in February 1884, delivered his
well-known judgment at the Assizes there, declaring cremation to be a
legal procedure, provided no nuisance were caused thereby to others. The
council of the society at once declared themselves absolved from their
promise to the Home Office, and publicly offered to perform cremation,
laying down strict rules for careful inquiry into the cause of death in
every case. They stated that they were fully aware that the chief
practical objection to cremation was that it removed traces of poison or
violence which might have caused death. Declining to trust the very
imperfect statement generally made respecting the cause of death in the
ordinary death certificate (unless a coroner's inquest had been held),
they adopted a system of very stringent inquiry, the result of which in
each case was to be submitted to the president, to be investigated and
approved by him before cremation could take place, with the right to
decline or require an inquest if he thought proper; and this course has
been followed ever since the first cremation.
It was on 26th March 1885 that the first cremation at Woking took place,
the subject being a lady.[7] In 1888 it became necessary, nearly 100
bodies having been by this date cremated, to build a large hall for
religious service, as well as waiting-rooms, in connexion with the
crematorium there. The dukes of Bedford and Westminster headed the
appeal for funds, each with L105. The former (the 9th duke of Bedford)
especially took great interest in the progress of the society, and
offered to furnish further donations to any extent necessary. During the
next two years he generously defrayed costs to the amount of L3500, and
built a smaller crematorium adjacent for himself and family. The latter
building was first used on the 18th of January 1891, a few days after
the duke's own death. The number of cremations slowly increased year by
year, and the total at the end of 1900 was 1824. Many of these were
persons of distinction--by rank, or by attainments in art, literature
and science, or in public life.
Death certification.
The council next turned their attention to the need for a national system
of death certification, to be enforced by law as an essential and
much-needed reform in connexion with cremation. On the 6th of January 1893
the duke of Westminster introduced a deputation to the secretary of state
for the home department, Mr Asquith, and the president of the Cremation
Society opened the case, showing that no less than 7% of the burials in
England took place without any certificate, while in some districts it was
far greater. In consequence of this the home secretary appointed a select
committee of the House of Commons, which was presided over by Sir Walter
Foster, of the Local Government Board, to "inquire into the sufficiency of
the existing law as to the disposal of the dead ... and especially for
detecting the causes of death due to poison, violence, and criminal
neglect." After a prolonged inquiry and careful consideration of the
evidence, a full report and conclusions drawn therefrom were unanimously
agreed to, and published as a blue-book in the autumn of 1893.[8]
The following conclusions are quoted from this volume:--Page iii. "So
far as affording a record of the true cause of death and the detection
of it in cases where death may have been due to violence, poison, or
where criminal neglect is concerned, the class of certified deaths
leaves much to be desired." Page iv. Certification is extremely
important as a deterrent of crime, and numerous proofs are given at
length in support of the statement.... "Contrast this class with that
of uncertified deaths, when the result is such as to force upon your
Committee the conviction that vastly more deaths occur annually from
foul play and criminal neglect than the law recognizes." Page vii.
Great uncertainty in resorting to the coroner's court, and want of
system in connexion with the practice of it, are affirmed to exist.
Page x. It is stated that the opportunity for perpetrating crime is
great in the considerable class of uncertified cases ... "in short,
the existing procedure plays into the hands of the criminal classes."
"Your Committee are much impressed with the serious possibilities
implied in a system which permits death and burial to take place
without the production of satisfactory medical evidence of the cause
of death." Page xii. "Your Committee have arrived at the conclusion
that the appointment of medical officials, who should investigate all
cases of death which are not certified by a medical practitioner in
attendance, is a proposal which deserves their support."
In considering cremation, the committee reported as follows:--Page
xxii. "Your Committee are of opinion that there is only one question
in connexion with this method of disposing of a dead body to which it
is necessary for them to refer. That question is the supposed danger
to the community arising from the fact that with the destruction of
the body the possibility of obtaining evidence of the cause of death
by _post-mortem_ examination also disappears." The mode of proceeding
adopted by the Cremation Society of England having been described,
"your Committee are of opinion that with the precautions adopted in
connexion with cremation, as carried out by the Cremation Society,
there is little probability that cases of crime would escape
detection, but inasmuch as these precautions are purely voluntary,
your Committee consider that in the interests of public safety such
regulations should be enforced by law."
The Cremation Society felt that this report much strengthened the case
for legislation amending the law of death certification. In August 1894
the president of the society laid the results of the select committee
before the British Medical Association at Bristol, and a unanimous vote
was obtained in favour of the suggestions made by it. In November a
second deputation waited on Mr Asquith, in which the president of the
society begged him to carry out the system recommended. The home
secretary replied that the business belonged to the department of the
Local Government Board, and that it was already dealing with the
question and bringing it to a satisfactory solution. Soon afterwards,
however, the government changed, other questions became pressing and
further consideration of the subject was postponed.
With reference to the recommendations of the select committee before
mentioned, the regulations necessary for registration of death and the
disposal of the dead may be outlined as follows:--(1) That no body
should be buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of without a medical
certificate of death signed, after personal knowledge and observation,
or by information obtained after investigation made by a qualified
medical officer appointed for the purpose. (2) A qualified medical man
should be appointed as official certifier in every parish, or district
of neighbouring parishes, his duty being to inquire into all cases of
death and report the cause in writing, together with such other
details as may be deemed necessary. This would naturally fall within
the duties of the medical officer of health for the district, and
registration should be made at his office. (3) If the circumstances of
death obviously demand a coroner's inquest, the case should be
transferred to his court and the cause determined, with or without
autopsy. If there appears to be no ground for holding an inquest, and
autopsy be necessary to the furnishing of a certificate, the official
certifier should make it, and state the result in his report. (4) No
person or company should be henceforth permitted to construct or use
an apparatus for cremating human bodies without license from the Local
Government Board or other authority. (5) No crematory should be so
employed unless the site, construction, and system of management have
been approved after survey by an officer appointed by government for
the purpose. But the licence to construct or use a crematory should
not be withheld if guarantees are given that the conditions required
are or will be complied with. All such crematories to be subject at
all times to inspection by an officer appointed by the government. (6)
The burning of a human body, otherwise than in an officially
recognized crematory, should be illegal, and punishable by penalty.
(7) No human body should be cremated unless the official examiner
added the words "Cremation permitted." This he should be bound to do
if, after due inquiry, he can certify that the deceased has died from
natural causes, and not from ill-treatment, poison or violence.
The Cremation Act 1902 (2 Ed. VII. ch. 8), and the regulations[9] made
thereunder by the home secretary, have since given legislative effect to
some of the foregoing recommendations and have laid down a code of laws
applicable and binding where cremation is resorted to. But the
amendments in the law of death certification generally, so long pressed
for by the Cremation Society of England and recommended by the select
committee, are none the less necessary.
Undoubtedly in populous communities and in crowded districts the burial
of dead bodies is liable to be a source of danger to the living. As
early as 1840 a commission had been appointed, including some of the
earliest authorities on sanitary science,--namely, Drs Southwood Smith,
Chadwick, Milroy, Sutherland, Waller Lewis and others,--to conduct a
searching inquiry into the state of the burial-grounds of London and
large provincial towns. By the report[10] the existence of such a danger
was strikingly demonstrated, and intramural interments were in
consequence made illegal. The advocates of burial then declared that
interment in certain light soils would safely and efficiently decompose
the putrefying elements which begin to be developed the moment death
takes place, and which rapidly become dangerous to the living, still
more so in the case of deaths from contagious disease. But these light
dry soils and elevated spots are precisely those best adapted for human
habitation; to say nothing of their value for food-production. Granted
the efficiency of such burial, it only effects in the course of a few
years what exposure to a high temperature accomplishes with absolute
safety in an hour. In a densely populated country the struggle between
the claims of the dead and the living to occupy the choicest sites
becomes a serious matter. All decaying animal remains give off
effluvia--gases--which are transferred through the medium of the
atmosphere to become converted into vegetable growth of some
kind--trees, crops, garden produce, grass, &c. Every plant absorbs these
gases by its leaves, each one of which is provided with hundreds of
stomata--open mouths--by which they fix or utilize the carbon to form
woody fibre, and give off free oxygen to the atmosphere. Thus it is that
the air we breathe is kept pure by the constant interaction between the
animal and vegetable kingdoms. It may be taken as certain that the
gaseous products arising from a cremated body--amounting, although
invisible, to no less than 97% of its weight, 3% only remaining as
solids, in the form of a pure white ash--become in the course of a few
hours integral and active elements in some form of vegetable life. The
result of this reasoning has been that, by slow degrees, crematoria have
been constructed at many of the populous cities in Great Britain and
abroad (see _Statistics_ below).
The subject of employing cremation for the bodies of those who die of
contagious disease is a most important one. Sir H. Thompson advocated
this course in a paper read before the International Congress of Hygiene
held in London in 1891; and a resolution strongly approving the practice
was carried unanimously at a large meeting of experts and medical
officers of health. Such diseases are small-pox, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, consumption, malignant cholera, enteric, relapsing and
puerperal fevers, the annual number of deaths from which in the United
Kingdom is upwards of 80,000. Complete disinfection takes place by means
of the high temperature to which the body is exposed. At the present day
it is compulsory to report any case in the foregoing list, whenever it
occurs, to the medical officer of health for the district; and it is
customary to disinfect the rooms themselves, as well as the clothes and
furniture used by the patient if the case be fatal; but the body, which
is the source and origin of the evil, and is itself loaded with the
germs of a specific poison, is left to the chances which attach to its
preservation in that condition, when buried in a fit or unfit soil or
situation.
The process of preparing a body for cremation requires a brief notice.
The plan generally adopted is to place it (in the usual shroud) in a
light pine shell, discarding all heavy oak or other coffin, and to
introduce it into the furnace in that manner. Thus there is no handling
or exposure of the body after it reaches the crematorium. The type of
furnace in general use is on the reverberatory principle, the body being
consumed in a separate chamber heated to over 2000 deg. Fahr. by a coke
fire. In a few instances a furnace burning ordinary illuminating gas
instead of coke is in use. (H. TH.)
_Statistics._--The following statistics show the history of modern
cremation and its progress at home and abroad:--
_Foreign Countries._--The first experiment in Italy was made by
Brunetti in 1869, his second and third in 1870. Gorini and Polli
published their first cases in 1872. Brunetti exhibited his at Vienna
in 1873. All were performed in the open air. The next in Europe was a
single case at Breslau in 1874. Soon after, an English lady was
cremated in a closed apparatus (Siemens) at Dresden. The next
cremation in a closed receptacle took place at Milan in 1876. In the
same year a Cremation Society was formed, a handsome building was
erected, and two Gorini furnaces were at work in 1880. In 1899 the
total number of cremations was 1355. In Italy 28 crematoria exist,
viz. at Alessandria, Asti, Bologna, Bra, Brescia, Como, Cremona,
Florence, Genoa, Leghorn, Lodi, Mantua, Milan, Modena, Novara, Padua,
Perugia, Pisa, Pistoia, Rome, San Remo, Siena, Spezia, Turin, Udine,
Verona and Venice. The total number of cremations in Italy in 1906 was
440.
In Germany the first crematorium was erected at Gotha; it was opened
in 1878, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907,
numbered 4584. At Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, the crematorium was opened in
November 1892, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907,
numbered 2521. At Heidelberg the crematorium was opened in 1891, and
the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907, numbered 1741.
Throughout the German empire there are, in addition to the above,
crematoria at Bremen, Eisenach, Jena, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Mainz,
Offenbach, Heilbronn, Ulm, Chemnitz and Stuttgart, besides over eighty
societies for promoting cremation. The total number of cremations
which took place in Germany in 1906 was 2057, making a total of 13,614
down to September 1st, 1907.
Other societies exist in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and
Switzerland. At the crematorium at Copenhagen 77 bodies were cremated
in 1906, the total being 500. The Stockholm crematorium was opened in
October 1887, and the cremations in 1906 numbered 56. The Gothenburg
crematorium (also in Sweden) was opened in January 1890, and the
cremations there in 1906 were 14. Switzerland has four crematoria,
viz. at Basel, Geneva, Zurich and St Gallen--524 cremations took place
in that country in 1906.
In Paris a cremation society was founded in 1880, and in 1886-1887 a
large crematorium was constructed by the municipal council at Pere
Lachaise, containing three Gorini furnaces. It was first used in
October 1887 for two men who died of small-pox. The demand became
large; an improved furnace was soon devised, the unclaimed bodies at
the hospitals and the remains at the dissecting rooms being cremated
there, besides a large number of embryos. In 1906 the number,
including the last-named class, was 6906. The total number of
incinerations at Pere Lachaise down to December 31st, 1906 (including
both classes) was 86,962; but the employment of cremation for the
purposes named has deterred a resort to it by many. Had a separate
establishment been organized for the public, its success would have
been greater. A magnificent edifice has been constructed by the
municipality of Paris for the conservation of the ashes of persons who
have been cremated. Crematoria have been established also at Rouen,
Rheims and Marseilles, and the construction of crematoria in other of
the great provincial centres of France was in contemplation.
In Buenos Aires, since 1844, the bodies of all persons dying of
contagious disease are cremated, and there is also a separate
establishment for the use of the public.
At Tokio in Japan no fewer than 22 crematoria exist, and about an
equal number of cremations and burials in earth take place.
At Calcutta a crematorium was opened in 1906.
At Montreal, Canada, there is a crematorium which began operations in
1902, and completed 44 cremations up to the 31st of December 1905.
_United States._--There were 33 crematoria in the United States on
September 1st, 1907. At Fresh Pond, New York, erected in 1885, the
total number of cremations to December 31st, 1906, being 8514. At
Buffalo, N.Y., the first cremation taking place in 1885, and the total
number down to December 31st, 1905, being 787. At Troy (Earl
Crematorium), N. Y., the first cremation taking place in 1890, and the
total number down to December 31st, 1905, 249. At Swinburne Island,
N.Y., cremations beginning in 1890, total to December 31st, 1905, 123.
At Waterville, N.Y., cremations beginning in 1893, total to December
31st, 1906, 62. At St Louis, Missouri, cremations beginning in 1888,
total to September 1st, 1907, 2151. At Philadelphia, Penn., cremations
beginning in 1888, total to September 1st, 1907, 1685. At San
Francisco, Cal., "Odd Fellows," opened in 1895, total to December
31st, 1906, 6151. Also at San Francisco, Cal., "Cypress Lawn," opened
in 1893, total to December 31st, 1905, 1492. At Los Angeles, Cal., No.
1, Rosedale, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 866; No. 2,
Evergreen, opened in 1902, total to December 31st, 1905, 413; No. 3,
Gower Street, opened in 1907 with 54 down to September 1st. At Boston,
Mass., opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2493. At
Cincinnati, Ohio, opened in 1887, total to September 1st, 1907, 1245.
At Chicago, opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2188. At
Detroit, Michigan, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 689.
At Pittsburg, Penn., opened in 1886, total to September 1st, 1907,
377. At Baltimore, opened in 1889, total to December 31st, 1905, 263.
At Lancaster, Penn., opened in 1884, total to December 31st, 1906,
106. At Davenport, Iowa, opened in 1891, total to September 1st, 1907,
331. At Milwaukee, opened in 1896, total to October 1905, 442. At
Washington, opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905, 275. The Le
Moyne (Washington, Pa.) crematory, the first in the United States, was
erected by Dr F. Julius le Moyne in 1876, for private use. The first
cremation was that of the baron de Palin, of New York, December 6th,
1876. Dr F. Julius le Moyne died October 1879, and his remains were
cremated in his own crematory. Total number of cremations (to 1907)
41. At Pasadena, Cal., opened in 1895, total to September 1st, 1907,
491. At St. Paul, Minn., opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905,
145. At Fort Wayne, Ind., opened in 1897, total to September 1st,
1907, 41. At Cambridge, Mass., opened in 1900, total to September 1st,
1907, 1090. At Cleveland, Ohio, opened in 1901, total to December
31st, 1905, 283. At Denver, Col., opened in 1904, total to December
31st, 1905, 109. At Indianapolis, opened in 1904, total to December
31st, 1905, 32. At Oakland, Cal., opened in 1902, total to September
1st, 1907, 2196. At Portland, Ore., opened in 1901, total to December
31st, 1905, 327. At Seattle, Washington, opened in 1905, with 21 to
the end of that year.
_United Kingdom._--There were 13 crematoria in operation in the United
Kingdom on September 1st, 1907. The oldest is that at Woking, Surrey,
which was first used for the cremation of human remains in 1885. In
that year three cremations took place there, the number gradually
increasing each year until in 1901 301 bodies were cremated. Up to
September 1st, 1907, the total number of cremations at Woking was
2939. Then followed the crematorium at Manchester, opened in 1892 with
90 in 1906 and a total of 1085; at Glasgow, opened in 1895 with 45 in
1906 and a total of 252; at Liverpool, opened in 1896, with 46 in 1906
and a total of 374; at Hull, opened in 1901 (the first municipal
crematorium), with 17 in 1906 and a total of 116; at Darlington, also
opened in 1901, with 13 in 1906 and a total of 33. The Leicester
Corporation crematorium was opened in 1902, with 12 in 1906 and a
total of 50. Next in order came the Golder's Green crematorium,
Hampstead, London, which was opened in December 1902. In 1906 298
cremations took place there, making a total of 1091. After this
followed the Birmingham crematorium, opened in 1903, with 21 in 1906
and a total of 84; the City of London crematorium at Little Ilford,
opened in 1905, with 23 for 1906 and a total of 46; the Leeds
crematorium, opened in 1905, with 15 in 1906 and a total of 42; the
Bradford Corporation crematorium, opened in 1905, with 13 in 1906, and
a total of 20; and the Sheffield Corporation crematorium, opened in
1905, with 6 in 1906 and a total of 26. Thus there were 739
cremations in the United Kingdom in 1906, making a total at the above
crematoria down to September 1st, 1907, of 6158. The Golder's Green
crematorium, situated on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath,
stands in its own grounds of 12 acres, and is but 35 minutes' drive
from Oxford Circus. London thus has two crematoria within driving
distance of its centre, and the Woking crematorium within easy reach
of the south-west suburbs. (J. C. S.-H.)