+---------------------------------------+---------+--------------+ | | Furnace | Gas-producer | | +---------+--------------+ | | £ | £ | | Ordinary brickwork about | 40 | 30 | | Fire brickwork " | 230 | 30 | | Lime, sand, fireclay, &c. " | 35 | 10 | | Cast iron " | 100 | 30 | | Wrought iron " | 60 | 20 | | Valves, regulators, levers, &c. " | 50 | 10 | | Timber " | 5 | -- | | Cooling tube, &c. " | -- | 50 | | Chimney, &c. " | -- | 100 | +---------------------------------------+---------+--------------+ | Total 800_l._; add freight and contingencies. | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ It has been urged against cremation by sentimentalists, that if the burning could be observed in even an improved apparatus, the process would prove a harrowing one, recall in fact to mind the horrors described by the Comte de Beauvoir in his Indian reminiscences.[189] But no such thing would result, for whilst being consumed the body would remain of itself perfectly motionless and without visible contraction or convulsion. Several late human cremations which have taken place in the Siemens Works in Dresden, have been purposely witnessed by eminent scientific men and others, through the glass panel of the door which is always provided for the use of the manufacturing operator, and the utter absence of anything which could prove in the least distressing to the mind, the eye, or the imagination, is vouched for by all. The current of combined air and gas simply plays upon the body with a transparent flame, until the whole becomes incandescent. There is not even the least effluvium. In a late experiment, when nearly a quarter of a ton of animal matter underwent cinerary treatment at Dresden, the gases between the flue and the chimney proper were intercepted by an aspirator, and found perfectly inodorous.[190] Once incandescent, the body soon assumes a hue of translucent white, and then speedily crumbles into ashes. [189] 'Voyage autour du Monde.' [190] For full details of the carbonisation, see the 'Morning Advertiser,' Oct. 20 and Nov. 15, 1874, and the 'Morning Post,' Nov. 13, 1874, which contain translations from the German press.