The young generation of the Japanese physicians and naturalists regard cineration from a sanitary standpoint, and constantly urge the government to promote its interests on hygienic grounds. [Illustration: CREMATION AMONG THE THLINKETS IN ALASKA.] It must be conceded that the Japanese mode of cremation is by far superior to the method of the Hindoos, who still adhere to the ancient funeral-pile. The cost of incineration is small. The body is reduced to ashes completely though slowly, and the process takes place in clean, well-kept, closed buildings, in a manner which, as far as the simple arrangements permit, offends neither the eye nor the olfactories. At Osaka cremation is carried on in stone furnaces, which are closed by iron sliding-doors. There are three large crematories, situated at the outskirts of the city; they are enclosed by high walls, and when seen from a distance, if it were not for the chimneys 60 feet high, one would take them to be temples. The principal crematory contains twenty large furnaces, each of which is capable of reducing three bodies; thus it is evident 60 bodies can be incinerated at the same time. The corpse is placed upon an iron grate, the fire being underneath, and covered with a straw mat, that has been previously saturated with salt water. Incineration under these circumstances is said to be entirely satisfactory. The cremations begin at 11 P.M., and are finished at 3 A.M. At Tokio, and most of the other cities, a black earthenware urn is fashionable; but in the province Totomi the ashes are placed in an urn of red color. When the Asiatic cholera raged in Japan in 1877, the people were compelled by the authorities to cremate its victims. But the sanitary measure met with no resistance, its wisdom being recognized even by the lower classes of the people. By the decree, making cremation obligatory in times of cholera, the Japanese government has given an example of sanitary legislation which should be imitated. Most of the books on cremation inform us that incineration was and is not practiced in China. This is an error. Marco Polo repeatedly asserts (Travels. New York: Harper & Bros., 1845. pp. 153, 155, 158, 159, 160) that the Chinese wherever he travelled were in the habit of burning their dead. On the other hand, Chinese historical works make no mention of the practice, and burial is the almost universal custom at present. The books in which the subject of cremation is treated only speak of it as being practiced upon the bodies of Buddhist priests and lepers.