1882 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 1 038

25

DESIGN FOR A NEW CHAPEL AT MT. HOPE.

It Is Expected That the Necessary Funds Will Be Provided to Build
the Much Needed Structure Early in the Coming Year.
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[image of a church with caption: The above cut represents the proposed design for a new chapel for Mt. Hope cemetery. This chapel has long been demanded by the large number of
owners of lots in this cemetery, and has been recognized by the present board of trustees as one of the most important needs of the cemetery.
Mayor Quincy has several times urgently recommended an appropriation to meet this want of the cemetery, and it is expected that the necessary funds
will be provided early in the coming year.]

KEPT INTACT FOR CENTURIES.
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Proposed New Plan for Disposal
of the Dead.
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Bodies to Be Desiccated and Given
a Permanent Resting Place in a
Mausoleum - Natural Expression
Preserved - No Danger of Burial
Alive - Expense Not Large.
[From Our Special Correspondent.]

NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 1898. At last
science has awakened to the horrors of
the grave and the need of a more mod-
ern and less grewsome method of dis-
posing of the dead. For ages the ques-
tion of this disposition of humanity's
mortal remains has attracted the at-
tention of learned men of all countries,
but without a solution any more satis-
factory than cremation.

Now, however, a body of scientists
have invented a plan that, it is claimed,
will dissipate much of the gloom of
death and abolish the barbaric custom
of interment. They propose to build
huge mausoleums in the suburban dis-
tricts of this city that will be "homes
for the dead" - buildings fashioned after
the pattern of great palaces, and as
artistically and commodiously arranged
inside as any library. To these sump-
tuous quarters the future dead of New
York will be taken and placed in hand-
some private rooms, where they will be
subjected to a simple, yet effective, proc-
ess that will preserve or "mummify"
them for all time to come. Years after
a person is dead his or her friends may
drive up to the magnificent building,
through its flowered lawns, and by
simply entering one of its scores of
private apartments gaze upon the life-
like form and features of the departed,
whose remains lie there as if in sleep.

Mr. Reese Carpenter, head of the
Kensico Cemetery Company, pronounces
the new method an admirable one. He
says that by it the bodies of the dead

can be preserved intact for an indefinite
period of time - forever if desired - that
it will take from future funerals and
last ceremonies all their most harrowing
features, and will enable relatives and
friends to participate in the rite with-
out detriment to their own health, as is
now so often the case. It will make it
impossible, he says for a person to be
buried alive.

When a body is taken to the proposed
mausoleum it will immediately be placed
in a specially prepared sepulchre, made
ready to receive it. This sepulchre is a
little larger than an ordinary coffin,
and the body is placed in it prone. At
the head of the sepulchre is a small hole
to which is attached a tube, through
which by means of a fan wheel a cur-
rent of dry chemicalized air is gently
driven over the remains, escaping
through a similar hole near the feet.
Prior to entering the sepulchre the air
passes through an open vat of sulphuric
acid. The chemical action of the acid
upon the air removes all moisture from
it. After leaving the coffin or sepulchre
the air passes through a hot furnace
and returns to the outer world through
a tall chimney. The furnace kills any
infectious germs which the air might
have caught up in passing through the coffin.

The body is subjected to the dry air
process for 30 days. Then the current is
stopped, the tubes are removed and the
body is in a state of preservation in
which, it is claimed, it will remain for
centuries. The features do not alter in
the least, nor does the skin discolor.
The latter, it is said, attains a white,
marble-like appearance, and the flesh
becomes hard and firm. While the proc-
ess reduces the weight of the body, it
does not seem to reduce its bulk.
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The first experiments were made upon
the bodies of animals. In the case of
even a pig, despite the thickness of its
cuticle, the effectiveness of the process
was demonstrated to the satisfaction of
the experimenters. In nine weeks the
pig was reduced in weight from 22
pounds to 7 1/2 pounds, although it re-
mained to all outside appearances as
plump and rotund as at first. This ex-
periment was particularly interesting
on account of the discussion that fol-
lowed the completion of the process.
The effect of desiccation upon the tis-
sues was ascertained; interstices were
left where the fatty matter had been,
and the drying of the muscular and
fibrous tissues had changed the interior
of the subject to a cellular and sponge-
like structure.

Experiments were then tried upon
human bodies, with the same satisfac-
tory results. One of these bodies, that
of a man who weighed 164 pounds, was

watched continually for a period of
eight months after having been sub-
jected to the treatment, and at the end
of that time the skin had not discolored
in the slightest. It was as white as at
first, although dry and hard, and when
touched had a feeling somewhat like
leather. The face and features were as
perfect as when the man died.

From this and other tests scientists
claim that desiccation by this method
will preserve a body from all traces of
decomposition and transform it into a
condition in which it will remain an
indefinite length of time. In this climate
moisture is not regained in sufficient
quantity to reinaugurate decay.

The architectural design of the pro-
posed mausoleum is very elaborate. The
building is to be surrounded by lawns
and flower bordered drives, and if the
intentions of the men who are to erect
it are carried out it will, to a visitor,
appear very much like one of our great
public museums or libraries. Nowhere
will there be any semblance of mourn-
ing or anything to indicate the pres-
ence of death.

On entering the great building the
visitor will find himself in a beautifully
decorated hall, not unlike the main halls
of our big hotels. The walls will be
frescoed, not with scenes of sorrow or
images recalling unpleasant memories,
but with bright, rich and delicate de-
signs, and at the end of the hall will be
a spacious and beautifully arranged
conservatory. On either side of the hall
doors will open into reception and re-
tiring rooms, and elevators, as in a mod-
ern hotel, will take visitors to the floors
above. Here, as well as on the main
floors, doors will open into private rooms,
and in these rooms the "mummified"
remains will be found in placid repose.
Each will be in a compartment having
a glass front, over which curtains will
fall. By simply drawing these apart
the relatives of the dead may look upon
the forms of their departed dear ones
whenever and as often as they desire.

To render premature burial, or more
properly, premature desiccation, impos-
sible, as soon as a body is placed in the
sepulchre an electrical apparatus is ad-
justed to it, so that the slightest move-
ment of limb or muscle will start an
alarm in the chief watcher's room and
also in the office, which will continue
ringing for hours, or until the body is
visited. A specially devised indicator
will direct the attention of the custodian
to the particular sepulchre in which the
movement has taken place. In addition
to this, a custodian will regularly visit
each sepulchre.

Another feature of this scientific proc-
ess of the disposal of the dead, which
the promoters claim to be a very impor-

tant one, is the inexpensiveness of the
method.

The entire cost of desiccating a body
and giving it a permanent resting place
in this mausoleum will be but $70. Pri-
vate rooms will, of course, cost more,
and the rich man who desires such an
expensive apartment for the sepulchre
of himself and his entire family will be
charged accordingly, and he may lavish
as much money for decoration and rear-
rangement as he desires.

The estimated cost of the first maus-
oleum to be built is somewhat over $300, -
000, exclusive of land, it will accom-
modate 1500 bodies. Should it prove suc-
cessful, larger ones will be constructed
capable of holding no less than 10,000
mummified remains. Unlike the ancient
Egyptian method, which necessitated
the swathing of the body in endless ban-
dages, the bodies subjected to this proc-
ess will be laid out without other cloth-
ing than such garments as are now used
when they are placed in the coffin.

WANT A CREMATORY.
At the annual meeting of the propri-
etors of the Mt. Auburn cemetery, held
yesterday afternoon in Horticultural
Hall, Israel M. Spellman and Jerome
Jones were re-elected trustees to serve
until 1904. The annual report showed
that the repair fund has increased $40, -
473.77 during the past year, and now
amounts to $937,886.85; that the perma-
nent fund is now $378,172.48, and that the
general fund is $140,168.96. It also an-
nounces that the new office building and
chapel will be completed by spring, and
that the trustees have petitioned the
Legislature for authority to establish a
crematory.

[handwritten: Herald. Feb. 8, '98.]