But, to make
assurance doubly sure, several carefully-conducted experiments have been
made, under the supervision of the directors of the New Mausoleum
movement, that prove that the conditions of desiccation can be
controlled and that decomposition can be prevented, that where it has
begun it can be stayed, and that prolonged preservation, with a fair
approximation to the appearance in life, can be made sure for the
recognition of absent friends, for transportation or the furtherance of
the ends of justice.
When, now, it is added that desiccation has been ascertained to be an
efficient agent in the destruction of disease germs, as proved by the
experiments of Dr. Sternberg, of the Hoagland Laboratory, and by the
investigations of other experts, enough seems to have been said to
establish the truth of the assertion that entombment can be made
sanitary, and that, therefore, entombment offers the satisfactory
solution of the problem how to dispose of the dead so as to do no
violence to a reverent and tender sentiment, and at the same time not to
imperil the public health.
The proposition, then, soon to be submitted for public approval is this:
to erect in the suburbs of our large towns and cities, perhaps even in
their most thickly-populated parts, extensive and handsome edifices that
will provide sanitary Sepulchres for the dead.
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