On Dec. 20, 1883, Mr. John Storer Cobb, who was one of the projectors and founders of the New York Cremation Society and the United States Cremation Company, requested Bostonians (in the columns of a leading newspaper) who were in favor of substituting incineration for inhumation as a means of disposing of the dead, to furnish him with their names and addresses. After the receipt of these names he called a meeting, which took place Jan. 24, 1884, and the result of which was the organization of the New England Cremation Society. Organization was effected under Chapter 115 of the Massachusetts Public Statutes; but the commissioner of corporations refusing to allow such incorporation, the society not wishing to organize under the general corporation law, whereby the par value of shares must be $100, and all stock subscribed for and paid in before it could commence operations, applied for a special charter, embodying its views and needs. But the time for the introduction of new business having expired, it was obliged to wait till the next session of the legislature. Early in the session it presented a bill for incorporation, which took the form of a general law, authorizing the formation of cremation societies. It was the intention of the society to at once incorporate under this act, place the stock of the society on sale, and as soon as possible erect a crematorium in the near vicinity of Boston. The bill passed both houses of the legislature, but was amended, so that now the par value of shares must be either $10 or $50, and, as under the general corporation law of Massachusetts, the whole capital stock must be subscribed and paid in before the society can commence operations. The capital stock of the society is $25,000, distributed into 2500 shares, each of the par value of $10. At present the society numbers about 75 members. The officers are: John Storer Cobb, president; Charles A. Holt, treasurer; and Sidney P. Brown, secretary. Inspired with the necessity of a better method of disposing of the dead, Dr. John O. Marble began the agitation of the question in Worcester, Mass., in November, 1884, by reading a paper upon the subject before 25 of the most prominent physicians of that city. Much to his surprise and pleasure they heartily approved of the plan of cremation as a substitute for the present time-honored, but, to the living, dangerous custom of earth-burial. At the solicitation of one of them, who is the enthusiastic president of the Worcester Natural History Society, the doctor delivered a lecture upon the subject of the “Disposal of the Dead, Cremation Preferred,” before a large audience in the hall of the society on the evening of Dec. 4, 1884.