The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-26 00:00:00

humid season ? And would you recommend the removal
of all the churchyard earth ? I shall feel truly obliged
and grateful for your opinion on these matters, aud your
further remarks as to the duties of medical men may be
productive of much good i❑ influencing an investigation.
" With my renewed apologies for thus again trespas-
sing on your valuable time,
" Believe me, Sir, with much respect,
" Yours very faithfully,
(Signed) " DAN. SMITH."

No. IV.

" London, 38, Finsbnry- square, Nov. 27, 1846:
" Sir,—The facts contained in your second letter give
an additional importance to those stated in your first; and
from both together, it appears that earth has been re-
moved from a great portion of a churchyard 500 years old,
densely crowded with graves,—that many bodies were du;
up with this earth and again reinterred—that the earth is
of a dark colour, and still containing bones, although the
larger bones have been collected by hand-picking,' and
have been re-interred--that a large quantity of this
earth has been used on pasture land close to the town—
that many cart-loads of it have been put in trenches, by
the side of the walks, in the garden of the rectory—
that the new ground which has been added to the
church yard has been " coated' with it from its fertilizing
effects in hastening the rapid growth of grass, and that
two large banks of it still remain within fifty yards of
the town—the one mixed with " rubbish,' containing 500
loads, and the other consisting exclusively of church-
yard earth, :being one yard in thickness, and seventy
yards in length, containing at least 500 loads more, and
exposing a large surface to the atmosphere. You fur-
ther describe the present state of the church-yard to be
sliced down' to within a loot or two of the remains of
the dead, some bodies having been actually exposed
and re-interred, it being, you state, still necessary occa-
sionally to cover in others, to keep them from view, and
this part you say is densely crowded with graves.
"From the account it is obvious that, independently
of what has been used on pasture land, in the garden of
the rectory, and in the new ground of the churchyard,
one thousand loads of earth, highly charged with animal
matter, being in fact the progressive accumulation of
the bodies of the dead for five centuries, have been ac-
tually exposed to the atmosphere; and the question is
whether it is probable that this earth can now give off
emanations capable of producing in those who inhale
them disease and death.
" In the evidence given by Mr. J. Dean,* before the
Health of Towns Commission, some facts are stated
which will help us to answer this question. This wit-
ness enters into a detailed consideration of the dif-
ference in a sanatory point of view, as well as in the
productive value of manure, diluted with water, and used
as a liquid, and of the same manure applied in the solid
form as top dressing. The thought is revolting, but it
is not the less the fact, that practically the whole of the
churchyard earth which has been exposed to the atmos-
phere, whether that applied on the pasture land, in the
trenches of the rectory garden, on the new ground
added to the churchyard, or that which still remains in
heaps close to the town, must be regarded as top dres-
sing. According to the evidence of Mr. Dean, the pro-
per dilution of manure with water, and the application of
it to land in a liquid form, while it increases the produc-
tive value of the manure five or six fold, absolutely pre-
vents the escape of noxious emanations, or at all events
renders the production of miasmata only occasional, and
of very short duration ; but this same manure, when
applied in a solid form, as top dressing, decomposes
slowly, and gives off for an indefinite period emanations
injurious to whoever is exposed to them. On the coast
of Kent abounds a creature called five fingers (the As-
terias), which preys upon the oyster, and which the
fishermen catch in great numbers, in order to protect
their oyster-beds. As this devourer of the oyster is not
itself used for human food, it is often spread out as top-
dressing in fields, sometimes close to villages, and when
this is the ease, according to the state of the atmosphere
and the direction of the winds, the poisonous products of
decomposition by generating epidemic fever, have spread
devastation in those villages. The state of the atmosphere
is not always favourable to decomposition, nor that of
the winds to the injurious diffusion of its products, so
that materials the most highly charged with poison, may
be inactive, and therefore innoxious for a considerable
time, but at length will come a warm, close atmosphere,
with a sluggish wind slowly moving along the now
rapidly-developed poisonous gases, and then, should this
wind chance to move in the direction of houses and vil-
lages the inhabitants, who are susceptible to fever, will
be sure to be seized with this disease. This appears to
have been the course of events at Minchinharcpton in
the year 1844. You state that previously to that period
not a single case of fever had been observed in this
town, at least for fourteen years ; you say it was pro-
verbial for its state of health, and certainly its position
and soil are particularly favourable to health, while it
appears to be free from stagnant ditches, collections of
filth, and the usual sources from which fever springs.
In the autumn of 1843 the exposure to the atmosphere
of the church-yard earth tdbk place ; in the following
year fever broke out, many cases occur, all of them so
uniform in their symptoms as to indicate their origin
from some common cause. After a time the fever
abates, the alarm subsides, but soon the disease again
breaks out worse than before; so that withia the last two
months upwards of 150 cases have occurred. The in-
tensity of the disease, meantime, falls on the street ad-
joining the rectory, and on the rectory itself, and in the
rector's own family, the wife, the daughter, and the
gardener, become its victims and perish.
" But in churchyard earth five centuries old, still
densely crowded with graves, poisonous matter must be
contained in a high degree of concentration. We know
from experience that the air may become so charged
with animal and vegetable poison, as to cause death by-
the inspiration of it for a few moments. This is the case
in hot climates where there is much moisture, and where
large quantities of dead and decayed vegetable and ani-
mal substances are exposed for a considerable time, per-
haps in stagnant pools and marshes, to this moist heat.
It is the same in vaults in which bodies are enclosed in
leaden coffins, the opening of which has sometimes
proved suddenly fatal to those who have breathed the
stench and vapour that have issued from therm Cases
are on record in which thieves who have broken into
tombs and forced open such coffins, with a view of
plunder, instead of finding jewels, have met with
death, and have been found dead in the vaults.
These facts show the highly-concentrated state in
which an animal poison may exist. Your five centu-
ries old dark churchyard earth must, I repeat,
contain this poison in a high state of concentration.
The state of the atmosphere, for a considerable time
past, has been favourable to decomposition, from the
nature of your soil, whit h you state to be sandy, with
reek abounding everywlere ; the poisonous products
cannot percolate through the earth, but must be exhaled
into the atmosphere. If the weather should be calm, and
the wind move sluggishly in the direction of your town,
your present ep:cemic will continue ; with the change of
the atmospheric conditions, the intensity of the emana-
tions given off from your decomposing heaps, may dimi-
nish, and, consequently, your fever may decline and
even subside, but it will again recur 29 long as those
heaps are allowed to remain, and, indeed, as long as
this extraordinary amount of poisonous matter is allowed
to contaminate a soil natura'ly salubrious.
" The arrangement by which dead organic matter is
capable of again receiving the principle of life, of
assuming new vital forms, and of developing into new
bodies, is beautiful and beneficent, but when such
matter is taken from new graves and applied directly
to fertilise our fields, the transition is too immediate,
and cannot bat shock the natural prejudices of the
human mind. Mr. Chadwick has shown the impera-
tive necessity of an entire revision of our whole
system of interment, at least as far as regards large
towns and populous districts; but the case of Minchin-
hampton proves that such a revision is equally necessary
for our villages and hamlets. The necessity of such a
revision appears to have been felt by the great architect
of St. Paul's—' For I could wish,' says Sir Christopher
Wren, that all burials in churches might be disallowed,
which is not only unwholesome, but the pavement can
never be kept even, nor pews upright, and if the church-
yard be close about the church, this is also inconvenient,
because the ground being continually raised by the
graves occasions in time a descent by steps into the
church which renders it damp and the walls green, as
appears evidently in all old churches.' When shall w e
see every parish in England with its God's Acre,' those
secluded places of sepulture, of which the German
Protestants have set us the example; beautified with
perennial flowers, with flowering shrubs, with the
cypress and the willow, and with groups of other trees,
the favourites of our familiar fields, gardens, and
woods; in which peaceful retreats it may be possible
to cherish those reverential and tender associations
naturally called up by the sight, or even the thought of
the hallowed spot in which our beloved dead i epose;
and full of these' types of renovation and decay, which
the fields and the woods offer to the notice of the
serious and contemplative mind,' suggestions which are
especially so precious because so soothing to the mourner
and so calculated to revive in his heart resignation and
hope.

:'From the state of uncertainty in which the authori-
ties of your town still appear to be with regard to the
cause and remedy of the calamity with which it is visited,
I am afraid that time must be distant.
" I am, Sir, your faithful servant,
(Signed) " SOUTHWOOD SMITH.
"Daniel Smith, Esq."
No. V.
" Michinhampton, Dec. 7, 1846.
" Dear Sir,—l now hope to give you a detailed account
of the epidemic with which this town has been visited,
as well as the part I have taken in the matter.

"An early meeting of the inhabitants of the pariah
was held to ascertain the cause of the disease, and being
called upon to give my opinion, I stated that I had re-
sided in the town 16 years, as a surgeon, during 14 of
which I had no recollection of having attended a single
case of fever, that is, in the town. Two years ago /
was much occupied in attending many cases, and, from
their uniformity of symptoms, I felt assured that they
arose from some specific cause. In my dail3 rides I en-
deavoured to discover this source; I looked in vain for
any undrained lands or marshy bogs, which were calcu-
lated so throw off malaria; I found none. I then directed
my attention to the physical or geographical position and
condition of the town. I found here no feature calcu-
lated to favour the development of fever ; but on
further inquiries I found that a considerable quantity
of churchyard earth was exposed to the atmosphere
—earth saturated with animal matter, and which I
consider was just such a cause calculated to produce the
effects I had witnessed. The patron of the living, who
is also the lord of the manor, together with the rector,
were, I believe, the principal cause of the unfortunate
churchyard arrangement. The former, whe was present,
appeared to receive my opinion with some pique and dis-
courtesy. Many, if not most, of the individuals present
considered, that there wax something in my views. I
farther stated that I ree ,gnised the same uniform symp-
toms in the fever of the present year, indicating that
both arose front the same cause. The rector, who was

' First Report, Pod. 2, p. 406 et Del,.