CREMATION. Cremation, or the burning of the dead, has been practised among many nations, and from very early times. The relics of the Bronze age in Great Britain and Denmark show that it was usual in that period, and its prevalence among the ancient Britons is known from history. It was practised from a very ancient date among several other Western nations, and among the people of Eastern Asia. It was general among the ancient Greeks, and must have been adopted by them at a very remote period. Numerous instances of cremation are described in Homer's poems and in Virgil's "Eneid," as occurring about the time of the Trojan War. Cremation was borrowed by the Romans from the Greeks, and was not generally practised among them till toward the end of the republic. The custom gradually went into disuse under the empire, and appears to have been abandoned about the end of the fourth century. There is no record that it was ever practised by any Christian nation. Cremation still prevails among many of the nations of Eastern Asia. In India, until recently, the living widow was burned upon the pyre with the body of her deceased husband. Cremation, with the ancient Greeks and Romans, was performed upon a pile of wood, or funeral-pyre, built in the form of an altar in the open air, and with elaborate ceremonies, and the offering of gifts and sacrifices, strong perfumes being added to neutralize the odors. After the process was completed, the ashes were gathered up and carefully deposited in urns. A proposal was made during the French Revolution to revive the practice, but it was never adopted.

Within a few years new attempts have been made to commend cremation. Several plans have been devised for consuming corpses in furnaces specially made for the purpose, or in close retorts. Prof. H. C. Richter described one in the Gartenlaube of Leipsic, in 1856. More recently Polli and Clericetti invented an apparatus, by means of which the body of Baron von Keller was burned at Milan. Processes suggested by Friedrich Siemens and Prof. Reclam, of Breslau, have been tested experimentally with satisfactory results. Dr. L. Brunetti, Professor of Pathology in the University of Padua, exhibited, at the Vienna Exposition of 1873, the residue from bodies and parts of bodies on which he had practised cremation by various methods. He had found, by his latest experiments, that the whole process of incineration of an adult human body occupied three and a half hours. The resultant ashes and bone-earth weighed 1.70 kilogramme, or about three pounds and threequarters avoirdupois. The quantity of wood required to insure a perfect process was about one hundred and fifty pounds, and cost one florin and twenty kreutzers, or about two shillings and fourpence English. Other apparatus have been invented by William Siemens and Engineer Steinmann, of Leipsic.

The attention of the English and American people was directed to cremation by means of an article advocating it, published by Sir Henry Thompson, in the Contemporary Review for January, 1877. This writer argued in favor of burning in preference to burial on grounds of utility and economy, and of sentiment. He held it to be desirable to expedite the decomposing process of Nature, and render it inoffensive, and to return speedily the elements into which the body is resolved to their destined function of furnishing food to plants. These processes, he represented, are retarded by burial; the ground is made noxious during the process of decomposition, wells are liable to be poisoned, and the health, particularly of crowded districts, is endangered. He referred to the economical aspect of the question in the light of the value of the organic remains, as manure. All of this, he held, was lost to agriculture for an unreasonably long period by the present method of disposing of dead bodies. On the other hand, by cremation in a properly-constructed furnace, the gases of the body would be driven off without offensive odor, and would ere night be consumed by plants and trees, while the mineral constituents-the bones and ashes-would remain in a crucible, and could be preserved in a funeral urn, or scattered in the fields. No scents or balsams would be required, as in the ancient open-air burnings, to neutralize odors. garding sentiment, Sir Henry referred to the repulsive appearance assumed by bodies during decay, and to the horrors of being buried alive, both of which would be avoided by a thoroughly-conducted process of burning. He assumed that cremation is as susceptible as burial of association with religious funeral rites, that it affords escape from unpleasant ceremonials connected with burial, and equally permits the preservation of concrete remains and the erection of a shrine of affection. The body of Lady Dilke, an English woman, was burned in Germany a few months after Sir Henry Thompson's article appeared.

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In Holland a number of societies for the promotion of cremation have been organized into an association. Several societies for the same object have been formed in Germany, but they made little progress in spreading their views until the summer of 1876. Recently it was announced that cremation would be permitted in the duchy of Gotha without the interposition of legal obstacles. Immediately Dr. Küchenmeister, President of the Urne Union at Dresden, proposed to enter into a correspondence for the purpose of calling a convention of the German unions to consider the subject of erecting at Gotha a furnace for cremation after the system of Friedrich Siemens. The result of the correspondence was that a congress of the friends and societies for cremation of all countries met at Dresden on the 6th and 7th of June. At this meeting the following countries were represented: Eng

land, by Dr. Cassie, secretary of the Cremation Society in London; France, by Prof. Müller, of Paris; Holland, by Dr. Egeling, medical director for the province of South Holland, and Prof. Hoogewerff, Ph. D., of Rotterdam; Switzerland, by Gottfried Kinkel; Germany, by members of the unions of the cities of Berlin, Bremen, Chemnitz, Gotha, Hamburg, and Leipsic, and the Urne Union of Dresden. At the introductory meeting, held on the 6th, reports were made by the delegates of the condition of the unions in their several dwelling-places and countries. The public meeting, on the morning of the 7th, was attended by about six hundred citizens, among whom were several ladies of the most cultivated circles of the city. Gottfried Kinkel, of Switzerland, made an address, in which he spoke of the aesthetics of cremation, of the pious exercises for which its ceremonies would give opportunity, and of its advantages in a sanitary point of view, and replied to the arguments which had been brought against

it.

He declared that, though he held that every one had a right to cremation, of which not even the state could deprive him, it was proposed, in introducing it, not to make it obligatory, only permissive. Engineer Schneider described the various methods which had been proposed for performing the process. It was understood, as of course, that the ancient funeral-pyres would not be revived, but closed apparatus would be substituted for them. It was decided to erect, by the united efforts of the friends of cremation in Germany and other lands, a building for conducting the process, either at Coburg or Gotha. Liberal subscriptions were offered, and the sum of 10,000 marks were secured in the meeting. With this sum the erection of a suitable building was considered pecuniarily assured. The establishment of a journal to advocate the cause was determined upon, and an international commission was appointed to carry that purpose into effect, consisting of Gottfried Kinkel, of Zürich; Sir Henry Thompson, of London; Prof. Emile Müller, of Paris; Baron von Stockhausen and Dr. Küchenmeister, of Dresden; and Herr Stier, of Gotha. Plans for a large building, or "temple," for cremation, by Carl Pieper, engineer, of Dresden, and G. Lilienthal, architect, of Berlin, were inspected by the congress. They represent a building of elegant architectural appearance, surrounded with gardens and groves. It is provided with anterooms and a chapel, in which the religious rites may be celebrated in the presence of the friends of the deceased. The body, adorned with garlands and flowers, rests upon a catafalque, which after the services is noiselessly sunk into the furnace-room below. Here it is taken by the attendants and placed in its appropriate cell or retort, where it is consumed. In another room, or crypt, below the furnaces, is arranged a series of cells, each corresponding to a furnace-cell above it, into which the

ashes of the deceased are carefully turned after the burning is completed. This room is reached by spacious staircases from the chapel. At the proper time the friends are called down to witness the ceremonial collection of the remains and the deposition of them in the urn, and finally in the columbarium. In places where several funerals are to be expected daily, the temple will be furnished with a corresponding number of furnace-cells, each with its corresponding cell for ashes in the crypt. A conspicuous feature of the plan is exhibited in the long rows of urn-houses, or columbaria, appearing as wings to the main building.

The first furnace for cremation in the United States has been built at Washington, Pa., by Dr. F. J. Le Moyne. The building is small and entirely plain, and with the furnace cost $1,600. It contains two rooms, a reception-room, with a table for the reception of the corpse, and a columbarium for the temporary deposit of the ashes, and a room for the furnace. The furnace is constructed on the Martin-Siemens principle, and consists of a structure of brick and fire-brick, ten feet long, six feet wide, and six feet high, inclosing a semi-cylindrical retort of fire-clay, seven feet long, twenty-four inches wide, and twenty inches high, its lid accessible from the outside at the door of the furnace. The body is thrust into this retort after the latter has been properly heated from below. The gases formed during the process of burning are carried off by a chimney. The required degree of heat is obtained by means of a fan-blast. At this furnace the first public cremation in the United States was conducted, on the 6th of December, 1876, when the body of Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, was burned in it. Baron de Palm, a man of considerable social distinction, and a member of several honorable societies and orders, died in the city of New York on the 20th of May, 1876. He made the request of his executors that his body should be burned whenever the use of a furnace could be obtained. It was embalmed, to await the building of such a furnace. The process of the cremation was witnessed by a number of persons invited for the purpose, representing the Boards of Health of the State of Massachusetts and of the cities of Brooklyn and Pittsburg, physicians of several cities, correspondents of newspapers, and other persons. The fire was kindled in the furnace at seven o'clock on the morning of the day previous to that of the cremation. At half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 6th, the body was placed in the retort. It had been deprived of its fluids during the process of embalming and was in very fit condition for a favorable operation. It was wrapped in a sheet which was saturated with alum to prevent exposure after the cloth was burned away, and was surrounded with flowers and evergreens. The evergreens were burned quickly, but their forms, as well as that of the sheet, could be plainly seen during

when she accompanied Mr. Macready on a tour in the Northern States, in the course of which she undertook the higher range of tragic parts with great success. In 1845 she went to England, and made her first appearance at the Princess's Theatre as Bianca in Milman's tragedy of "Fazio." Her reception was enthusiastic, and for eighty-four nights she appeared in a variety of characters, including Lady Macbeth, Julia in "The Hunchback," Mrs. Haller, Beatrice, Lady Teazle, and Juliana in the "Honeymoon." Her sister having joined her, they acted for several years at the Haymarket Theatre, and in various towns of Great Britain. In 1849 she revisited the United States, and assumed the part of Meg Merrilies in the play of "Guy Mannering," which, with Queen Katharine, Lady Macbeth, Bianca, etc., constituted the roles in which she gained her greatest celebrity. After another tour in England she returned to America, and, having accumulated a fortune, took a formal leave of the American stage. She subsequently acted in England, and again in the United States in 1857-'58, after which she returned to Rome, where she had previously resided. In 1860 she again acted in New York, and appeared on several occasions for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission. In 1871, after a residence in Europe, she resumed her career in the United States as a reader, besides fulfilling several dramatic engagements. Her final performances in New York at Booth's Theatre were signalized by great social and literary demonstrations. Her career closed in Boston at the Globe Theatre, on May 15, 1875. Her estate was estimated at $600,000.

CUSTER, GEORGE A., was born at New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio, December 5, 1839; killed in a battle with the Sioux, on the Little Big Horn, June 25 or 26, 1876. He graduated at West Point in 1861, and was made secondlieutenant of a company of the United States Cavalry, with which he was present at the first battle of Bull Run. After the appointment of McClellan to the command of the army, Lieutenant Custer was chosen as a staff-officer by Brigadier-General Kearney. He soon left this position and marched with his company, which was in that part of the Army of the Potomac which moved upon Manassas after

DAKOTA. The Legislature assembled in biennial session January 9, 1877. There has been a steady increase in population and wealth in the Territory. The crop of 1875 was unprecedentedly large, and while that of the succeeding year was not so great, owing to its partial destruction by locusts, there was enough to supply all wants, and make another crop. Millions of bushels of wheat were also shipped to Eastern markets.

Here he

its evacuation by the Confederates. made his first cavalry charge upon a Confederate force, which he drove across Muddy Creek. When the Army of the Potomac settled down before Yorktown, Custer was detailed as assistant engineer of the left wing under Sumner. He planned and erected the earthworks nearest the enemy's lines, and accompanied the advance under General Hancock in pursuit of the enemy from Yorktown. When the army reached the Chickahominy, he was the first to cross the river, and was soon after made captain and one of General McClellan's aides. In this capacity he served during most of the Peninsular campaign, and took part in all its battles. He was also engaged in the campaign which ended in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. For a time after the retirement of General McClellan from the command of the army, Custer was not in active service. He was next engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville, and soon after became aide to General Pleasanton, then commanding a division of cavalry. In this capacity Custer distinguished himself as a dashing cavalry-officer in a number of hot contests. He was made brigadiergeneral of cavalry, and rendered important service in the battle of Gettysburg, where he routed Hampton's cavalry, and had two horses shot under him. He took part in the battle of the Wilderness in 1864, and in the same year his brigade led the column in Sheridan's raid toward Richmond. He rejoined Grant's army on the Pamunkey. He rendered important service in the battle of Fisher's Hill, after which he remained in command of a division until after Lee's surrender. He led his division in the battle of Cedar Creek with such bravery and success that he was brevetted major-general of volunteers. When the Confederates fell back to Appomattox, Custer led the advance of General Sheridan's command. In July, 1866, Custer was made lieutenantcolonel of the United States Cavalry, with the brevet rank of major-general, and was thereafter engaged in frontier service. (For an account of the operations in which he lost his life, see ARMY.) General Custer was one of the most courageous and dashing cavalry leaders in the service. His achievements during the war were of the most brilliant kind.

The only drawback to agriculture in Dakota seems to be the grasshoppers, or migratory locusts, that come in swarms, and generally in the latter part of June, or early in July, when they come at all, and devour the corn and other crops. As probably the best protection against the devouring insects, there are recommended to the farmers fall ploughing, early seeding of grain in the spring, and the cultivation of those crops least likely to be injured by the

grasshoppers in case they do come. Barley, oats, and wheat, can be raised, by early sowing, in spite of them, unless they make their appearance earlier in the season than heretofore; and it is suggested to the farmers that they put ⚫ a larger portion of their land in these, and less in corn. Corn suffers most of all, and is, in fact, about the only crop that is, even under the most favorable circumstances, entirely destroyed. Potatoes never fail entirely.

On the subject of finances and taxation the Governor says: As by statute the Auditor and Treasurer are allowed to keep their offices at places remote from the capital, it is impossible for me to state accurately the financial condition of the Territory. The law, as it now stands, constitutes the Governor, Auditor, and Treasurer a board for the assessment of the Territorial tax." For 1875 only two mills on the one-dollar valuation was assessed; but, this proving inadequate, the rate for 1876 was fixed at four mills on the dollar. He recommends that the Legislature fix by statute the rate of taxation for the next two years; that the law authorizing the payment of interest on warrants be repealed; that more rigid laws for the collection of taxes be enacted; and that the Auditor and Treasurer be required to keep their offices at the capital. He also recommends the reduction of the rate of interest from 12 to 10 per cent. Immigration of an excellent character continues to pour into the Territory, much the larger portion of which is from Europe, especially from Russia. Continued improvement is observed in the public schools. The Dakota Southern Railroad Company have become the proprietors of what was formerly known as the Sioux City & Pembina Railroad; and have completed and in operation seventeen miles of road, extending from a point on their main line near Jefferson, in the county of Union, to Portlandville, on the east bank of the Big Sioux River. Fourteen miles more are ready for the iron. Another road, branch of the St. Paul & Sioux City road, is being constructed from Worthington to Sioux Falls, which, it is believed, will reach the latter place during the present year. It is in operation to Luverne, within thirty miles of Sioux Falls.

A codification of the laws has been made, and its adoption is recommended. The message recommends legislation concerning the Black Hills in the following terms: "Most or all of that region of the country known as the Black Hills, where rich mineral deposits have recently been discovered, is in Dakota, and the fact that it is probably one of the richest goldbearing regions yet discovered on this continent, and the further fact that the early consummation of an agreement with the Indians for its relinquishment will soon open it up to settlement, render legislation in relation thereto of the greatest importance."

A bill has passed the United States Senate for the creation of the Territory of Huron out

of that portion of Dakota north of the 46th parallel of north latitude; this bill is now (January, 1877) pending in the House of Representatives. At the election in 1876, Jefferson P. Kidder (Republican) was chosen delegate to Congress, over Moses K. Armstrong (Democrat), by a vote of 6,199 to 2,413. The Legislative Council has 12 Republicans and 1 Democrat, and the House of Representatives 20 Republicans and 4 Democrats, one district not being canvassed on account of irregularities.

DAVID, FÉLICIEN CÉSAR, & French composer, born March 8, 1810; died August 30, 1876. He showed considerable musical talent at an early age, and in his eighth year was sent to Aix, where he entered the choir of the cathedral, and pursued his studies in the Jesuit College of that place. At nineteen years of age he took the place of his former teacher as director of the choir. Having held the position for a year he went to Paris, where he entered the Conservatory, studying under Fétis. At this time he joined the St.-Simonists, and soon was one of their most devoted supporters. When the sect retired to Ménilmontant, he was one of the forty who tried to establish at that place a home for the new religion. When, in 1833, the sect dissolved, he with several others of the members went to Constantinople, where they were arrested and brought to Smyrna; thence they went to Egypt. Driven from there by the plague, they traveled through the desert to the coasts of Syria. On all these journeys he carried a piano with him, and often when they rested from their toilsome marches David refreshed his comrades with his music, until finally the instrument was broken by superstitious Bedouins. Having returned to France in 1835, he lived very retired until 1844. The works which he composed during this time, although quite numerous, attracted very little attention. In 1844 he published his large choral symphony, "The Desert," a work in which he seemed to combine his recollections as in a picture. When it was first produced in the Paris Conservatory it was received with great enthusiasm, and transformed the obscure composer at one stroke into a musical celebrity. Encouraged by his success in Paris, he set out on a journey through Europe, and, although severely criticised at some places, was generally well received. He afterward produced several operas in Paris, among them "La Perle du Brésil" (1851), "Herculanum (1859), and "Lalla Rookh" (1862). Of these the second is the most important, for which he received from the Ministry of Arts and Sciences the prize of 20,000 francs. After the death of Berlioz, in 1869, he was appointed librarian of the Conservatory, and shortly after became a member of the Institute. He produced his last large opera, "L'Indien," in 1874.

DAVIES, CHARLES, an American mathematician, born at Washington, Litchfield County, Conn., January 22, 1798; died at Fishkill Land