Note 147 — Chapter V
Reading edition
It is worthy of notice, that upwards of thirty years ago Honoré de Balzac, in his novel Madame Jules, represents the husband of the dead lady as applying to the Minister of the Interior for leave to burn her body, and upon obtaining it, he put the ashes in an urn, and placed the latter in his cabinet. He was evidently in favour of the scheme, and chose to record his approval of it in this way.