The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-25 00:00:00

A '

The Board of Health has made its long-looked-for
report on the subj ct of intramural interment ; and has
propounded in it " A General Scheme for Extramural
Sepulture." This report is .a deeply interesting docu-
ment, futl of facts, and abounding with it.f)rtuation on
the subject of which it treats, which is con,idered in all
its bearing.. But it is more than interesting ; it is,
plrbar, the moat important public paper that has Leen
submitted to the country for a very long period ; and
tt w who read it can fail to he impressed with the mag-
nittrie f the evil that t xists, or with the practical *ta-
d •rn that h exhibited in the plan proposed fir its
amendment.

THE WRONG.
The Commissioners of the Board of. Health—namely,
Fords Carlisle and Ashley, Mr. E. Chadwick, and Dr.
Southwood Smith—set out by stating that Ow epidemic
of last year, " the sexercst that has am:cted this country
in modern times," ims destroyed no fewer ttian 16,000
persons in this metropolis alone ; and that much of the
virulence and intensity of that scourge was owing to the
existence. of crowdid graveyarda within its pre-
cincts. "They have," they state, ."aecertsined by
personal examination the state and capacity of
`the principal cemeteries in the neighbourhood of
London, and viSitml various sites provited . for
new cemt-tq!ies, with a view c f determining!, f.om their
• own observation, whether those sites possessed the rc-
quisite conditions for placing interment for the metre-
rolls in a satisf:ctory state." This gives them a die-
tinct.-locus star:di ; and indepenchntly of their .merely
offu,!ial authority, entitles their opinions to the fullest
po,siWe weight. • What, then, do they say on the
subject of burial in graveyards the prscinets of
cities.? .

they lay it down as an axiom that a few f of earth

does not obstruct the escape of those noxious gases
which are volved by the decomposition of the human
body; and they point to the eAr ape of water, and c.;rn-
mon coal gas through a stratum of sand or gravel sere-
ral feet in thickness, as a proof of this physical fact. A
calculation made by Dr. Lyon Playtair, and quoted by
the Commissioners, estimates the amount of the gases
volved annually from the decompofition of 1,117
corpies per acre, which is very fir short of the number
ac•tially interred in the metropolitan graveyards, at not
nit les that 55.261 cubic feet; therefore as 52;000 in-
t 'tint nts take place annually in the metropolis, accord-
ing to this ratio the amain; of gases emitted is equal to
2,572,580 cubic feet. The whole of this, however, be-
yond 'what is absorbed by the soil, must pass into the
water below or int" the atmosphere above,
What, then, must be the state of the air that is
breathed, the condition ( f the water that is drank, by the
denizens if this metropolis? Thesbare idea of either is
almost too frightful t contt mpla^. When the living
body is exposed to these putrid emanations in a highly
concentrated state, the effects are immediate and deadly;
when more diluted they still taint the system, inducing a
morbid condition which renders it more prone to disease
in general, but especially t 3 all the forms of epidemic
disease, nod which further predisposes it to pass into a
state verging upon, if not actea'ly that of putrefaction.
Estimating the duration of a simple generation at 30
years, there must have bees interred in the small space
of 218 acres—the area of all the graveyards in the me-
tropolis—in the last generation, a million and a half of
dead bodies; and within the next 30 years more than
another million and a half of the dead, that is to say, a
large propol Con c f those who now people the metro:.
polia will have to be crowded into those same church-
yards, unless other and better provision for interment be
made. Yet such is the cupidity of the Church, tl.e un-
scrupulousness of the metropolitan- undertakers, and,
it must be added, the practical supieeae:3 of the au-
thorities to whom the whole question of grave 3 ards has
b en delegated by the State, that at this very moment
there are further burials going on in some of the most

IriOs•fally gorged ot the dikothes of this metropolis—
among others St. Paul's, Covent gar'ei, where it is abso-
lutely impossible for" the boring iron" to find an unoccu-
pied inch of ground. Why the Commissioners have not or-
de:el the closing of this graveyard—zituate as it is in
the midst of a dense population, adjaceit to the largest
mArket in Europe, and flanked on its three aides, if not
on the whole four, with the abodes of perhaps the poor-
est class of the mAropolitan ;population--is, to say the
least et it, perfectly unaccountable. In reference to
this topic, Dr. Sutherland speaks in a manger not to be
misunderstood in his report to the I39atd of Health on
this subj, ct:—" I am sorry to say that there are no in-
dications of any change for the better. The frightful
exposures which have beet! made before Parliament as
to the state of our burial grounds may have led, to the
partial abatement of nuisanc.4 of more than ordinary
nr,goitade; but sp.akiug generally, it may be sat-ly
stated that the language contained in the Parliamentary
report, and the descriptions in the report on ' The Prac-
tice of Interment in Towns,' are as applicable now as
they we:o at the time these documents were laid bctire '
the public. lam decidedly of opinion," he aids, that
n..) material improvement has !yen effe3ted.
.The grave,

•
yards of London aro still the plagur-spots of its popula-
tior. The putrid drain4ge from them pollutes its wells,
sect les beneath its dwellings, and poisons its atmosphere;
and some parts of the met'opolis are still honeycombed
with deposits of the puttewent remains of millions of its
citizens, just as with cesspools and other abominations."
Nor are the London graveyards, as such, the only
sources of pestilential d;s, use, the sole focii from whence
ratatei inevitable death, in connexion with intramural
sepulture; the vaults of the several churches of the me-
tropolis are equally deleterious to life and health as are
the circumjscent burying-ground 4. The vault of many
churches are still little hater than charnel-houses, which

it is absolutely dangerous to enter,;, if they hare been
ventilated, the noxious effluvia which they ceaselessly
genera`e hese been poured forth to contaminate the at-
mosphere without. And it matters not, in practice,
whether the bodies deposited there be cased in wood
only or in lead, the result is the same, with merely an
imperceptible difference. In wooden coffins decomposi-
tion goes on very much more rapidly than in leaden
coffins, three or f ,ur years generally sufficing to reduce
the contents to a dry, powdery, bony skeleton. The sur-
rounding air, therefore, sooner becomes charged with
the deadly products. Af:er a certain cumber of years,
depending upon the state of the ventilation of the vault,
the wood drops to powder, or becomes so rotten as no
longer to hold together, and the contents are revealed to
the visitor. Leaden coffins last longer to the eye; but it
is doubtfel whether the lead does not act as a filter,
and allow a passage to the deadlier hydrogenous
gases, even while it refuses all outlet 'to others, denser in
their character, and therefore less dangerous and less
suttle, such as carbonic acid gas. The condition of
one of these receptacles of "rotting" humanity may
be taken as a specimen of the greater number of them—
if not of the whole—ex uno discs omnes. It is Dr. %Yel-
ler Lewis, a medical man appointed by the Board of
Health to visit the vaults of the metropolitan churches
that speaks; and St. Mary-at-Hill is the locus in quo,
to which be makes allusion-4$
Here are placed," he says,
"some hundred and fifty coffins, in all possible positions,
piled one above another—the lower crushed by the
weight of those above. Tbe great majority are broken
and di csyed—the remnants of mortality
falling out be-
tween the rows of coffins. In all but'the newest coffins the
external wood is deeayed, leaving the lead exposed.
Enormous cobwebs end fungi,
with much dirt and filth,
render the inscriptions that remain illegible. Many of
the coffins consist of a mere shell of decayed wood,
which, on the slightest touch, bra aks into powder and
exposes the remains of the skeleton. The coffins are so
fragile, and the piles so much out of the perpendicular,
that it is dangerous to approach very near them. In
the two farther corners 'urge collections of bones
are piled together without any attempt at order or
decency—a most revolting sight. The churchwar-
den was not aware, it appittrB, of the condi-
tion of the vault. The vault is not ventilated, and the
odour of decomposing flesh is extremely foul." Who
can wonder at the remark he makes as a sequel to this
ticture—" After remaining for about an hour in this
vault, I was much oppressed by sickness, and an attack
of diarrhoea followed, which lasted about 24 hours."
And yet the practice of interment in this vault is still
continued. " Oh shame, where is thy blush!"
There are in the metropolis of Great Britain alone not
less than two hundred graveyards, to almost all of which
are annexed those focii of concentrated pestilence, char-
"(tl vaults; there are, therefore, two hundred centres of
more or less pollution, each pouring off unceasingly day
and night, its respective contribution of decaying matter.
The whole together, reckoning only the gases from de-
composing human remains, amount, as already stated, in
ones ear, to upwards of two millions and a half of cubic
feet. Whatever portion of these gases is not absorbed
by the earth—earth, be it remembered, already sur-
charged by the fm:3al accumulation
.of centuries—and
whatever part not mix with and contaminate the water
already, God knees, sufficiently contaminated from
a thousand impure sources—must be emitted into
the atmosphere, bearing with it putrescent matters
perfectly perceptible to sense. Froai the law
of the diffusion of gases, these must be rapidly
spread through the whole cf the atmosphere that
surrounds the metropolis•, .and though they thereby be•
come dihned, and are thus rendered proportionally in-
nocuous, yet that they do materially contribute to the
contamination of the air breathed by two millions of the
people cannot admit of any reasonable doube With
these facts uncontested and incontestible, is there not an
.nsurmountab!e case made out f the total prohibition of
interment in the metropolis, simply on account of the in-
ju cry resulting
aside
allfr thoomtehrconsiderations.
practiceerattinooths.e public health, and
setting
But these other considerations are, in their various
drgrees, no less cogent thin this consideration. Public
morals are of equal importance with public health, in
civilized society; and public advantage may be consulted
as much in economising expense, especially to the poor,
as it may bo in preserving life in the richer and more
comfortable classes. If the proletariat be not abolished,
the pauper should at least have a decent funeral. At
present, however, such a thing is unknown among the
poorer classes; and what is still worse, that utter indif-
ference to mortality which has always been a prevailing
vice of society when a country touches on its decline,
is every day becoming more and more manifest
among the richer portion c f the community. The
conveyance of the dead through the crowded streets
of a busy city such m London, 'midst a popula-

tioa intently occupied with the concerns of their daily
traffic, in whom the funeral procession of strange s (an
awaken ho sympathy, but who become familiar with such
spectacles from their frequency, under circumstances in
which it is impossible to arrest (Mention or create re-
spect, has itendency to lessen and destroy those feelings
regarding the corpse which it has been always considered
of the highest importance to cherish individually and
nationally.. Among those masses the rasing hell at-
tracts no attention; the funt ral procession excites no re-
spect, no relgious thought or emotion; and hence that
haehling effect is produced which must generally result
Nal the sight of mourning and suffering when viewed
with indifference. "Not eree the hearse," says the It-v.
Mihnan,:" in-its gorgeous gloom, with all the pomp
of heraldry, and followed by the carriages of half the
nobility of the land, will arrest for an instant the noise
and confusion of mar streets, or awaken any deeper im-
pression with the mass then idle curicsity. While the
poor man, borne on the shoulders of men as peer
as la' mself, is jostled off the pavement, the
mourners, 'at some crossing, are either in danger of
being run over or sepatated from the body; in the
thriwg f passers no sign of reverence, no stirring cf
conscious mortality in the heat t " And yet, though the
poor are sensibly alive to the due dispossl of the last re-
urins of their deceased friend: and relatives, they cannot
obtain other than "manned rites" fit their ashe, unless
upon the payment e.t.a sum to the offieiatine clergymen
incomptable tvih their mi,erable means. Oh religion!
THE REMEDY.

These facts being ee, ablished, it remained to seek a
remedy on the part of the public body entrusted with the
consideration of the subject of intramural interments;
and such a remedy has been propounded by the Board of
H, accordingly. • S tting out with the proposition
th- t considerations such as those which have been
offired, involving alike the physical and moral well-
being f the people, are sufficient to satisfy the Legislt-
tu: e and tt e putlie that a t tal change in the pric..ice
of interment is absolutely necessary;" and laying it down
as a prin&ple that •4 if interment in the me ropolis is to
be wholly discontinued, provision must bo made for
the removal of 52,000 corpses a year, or of 1,000
a week and upwards, to considerable distances
from the places at which the deaths occur, and also for
the decent, orderly, and impressive interment of this
number of t'e dead," they reduce the remedies for the
evil to three, namely, the grant of powers t) parishes se-
parete or in combination; the eicouragement of private
cetneterie-, such as those of Ii ensal green, Norwood,
ez.e., and the appointment of a special board or commis
sion. It boots not to enter upon the course of analysis
followed only in the discussion of these plans; and it will
therefore suffice to say, that having rejected the first as
incompatible with the requirements of the case, on the
ground that parochial practice has hitherto been the
source of almost all the evils complaieel of ; and, having
rejected the second on the ground that death should not
be the subject of trading speculation, as it would be if
public cemeteriei were to be made the sole property of
private companies ; they have decided upon the adop
tion of the third, namely—the appointment of a
spacial board or commission—on the following grounds,
" That these public officers should be bound to ac-
quire the requisite knowledge of the principles and de-
tails of the department of the public service they would
be called upon to administer—that they would to bound
to the performance of this and their other duties by a
direct and personal responsibility—a principle under the
control of which neither parochial boards nor the direc-
tors of join•-stock companies can be brought—that the
greatness of the scale on which the arrangements would
be made would give them simplicity, uniformity, effi-
ciency, and economy—that the saving of expense in all
ways would be so great, that there would be ample
means of interring oven the very poorest with increastd
propriety aed Solemnity—that several of the requisite
changes—such, for example, as the removal of the body
by the propose 1 line of river conveyance, with the sys-
tem of intermediate reception houses—could not be car-
ried into eff ctual operation by any but a single autho-
rity—and finally, that there is no other mode by which
the scheme of sepulture proposed can be carried into
effect as a whole, end administered as one system under
one direction and control."
It is in favour of this conclusion, that the system
which it involves has been tried in other countries with

the most satisfactory results: in the chief cities of the
continent sepulture is under the direct control of the
State, and all classes are satisfied. In all the cities
visited by Dr. Sutherland, as the agent of the Il..ard of
Health, the Government had provided by very stringent
laws ard regulations for the decent burial of the dead,
and for the prevention of imposition on the living; ut
Frankfort the conducting of funerals was placed in the
hands of a commission; at Munich it was under the
magistrates; and it was the same in other towns. The
various bodies entrusted with these important functions
issued regulations and superintended their execution.
They buried the dead according to a fixed charge, in a
variety of classes, so a 3 to suit the n eats of all descrip-
tions of families, leaving at the same time ample
liberty as to extra matters of expense. In some cases
ho found the charges incluth d all the items of expense;
in others, only the removal and conveyance of the dead
from the house to the place of interment. From the
fa ti and arguments, of which the preceding are ab-
stracts, however, the Commissioners of the Beard of

He ath have arrived at the following conclusions, which
they submit in this form in the report under notice, " as
the foundation of a General Scheme for Extramural Se-
pulture:"—
i. Tint with a view to remedy the evils of intra•
mural internrAit, as at present generally practised, it
will be necessary to obtain separat3 Acts f3r London and
the country.

"2. That, after the passing or the Act for London, all
interments in churches and within the precinct: of the
metropolis, except in special CllB,B, under license isrued
by the Metropolitan Interment Commission, should, as
soon as the necessary preliminary arrangements are
comple'el, be strictly forbidden.
"3. That public burial grounds to provided at a
suitable distance from the metropolis; that, with a view
to prevent the near approach of the population to such
burial ground, no new dwelling-houses be permit d
within a distance proportioned to the size of the
cemetery and the number of interments for which it is
calculated; and that, in order to render possible the al-
vantages of crramural interment, without, at least, en-
hancing the cost to the poor, to secure the proper de-
cencies of burial, and to put an end to the injurious
itiluence to health occasioned by the carel.-ss and un-
checked disposal of bodies, it be, with the exceptions
above referred to, unlawful to inter in any other plsce
than the public burial grounds within the prescribed pre-
cincts.

" 4. That, considering the river as a highway I assing
through the largest extent of denarly-peopled districts,
the facilities for establishing houses of reception on its
banks, the conveniences arising from the shorter dis-
tances within the larger portion of the same area for the
removal of the bodies to such houses of reception, the
advantages of steamboat conveyance over that by rail-
way in respect to tranquillity, and the avoidance of any
large number of funerals at any ono point at any one
time, and of any interference with common traffic and
with the- throng of streets; and, lastly, taking into ac-
count its great comparative cheapness, it is desirable that
the chief metropolitan cemetery should be in some eligi-
ble situation accessible by water carriage.
" 5. That it be unlawful to inter in any burial ground
more than one corpse in one grave.
" 6. That the price of funerals be regulated according
to a series of scales or classes; and that the whole ex-
pense of each funeral be included in the charge fixed for
its class, and be paid for in ono sum.
" 7. That, it being essential to the success of the pro-
posed improved practice of interment that it be adminis-
t,red on one system, under one responsible authority,
all public burial grounds and the whole arrangement for
burial be intrusted by comrnissi,,n to a small body, not
exceeding five, of whom not less than one should be
paid, specially qualified and responsible.
" 8. That in every cemetery there be a part conse-
crated and a part unconsecrated, and that in the conse-
crated part there t o erected a church alapted to the
purpose, and fitted also for full services according to the
doctrine and discipline of the Church of England; and
that in the unconsecrated part there be erected a com-
modious chapel.
" 9. That the new consecrated grounds be under the
same ecclesiastical jurisdiction in matters spiritual, and
in respect to the performance of the service and the
superintendence of the chaplains, as the parochial burial
grounds fur which they ere to servo as substitutes now
are; that the inhabitants retain the same right cf sepul
lure as they would have ha-i in their respective burial
ground., sutject to the general provisions which may be
necessary for the public health and the convenience or
sepulture; and that the incumbents have the right of
performing the burial service f,l. any of their parish-
inners in the public cemetery, subject to the regulations
established for the same.
" 10. That, inasmuch as the fees and voluntary offer-
ings paid to the clergy' con,t;tote one of the lesst of the
charges incident to interment, and at the same time
form in some instances almost the whole, and iu many
instances the greater part, of the funds on which they
have been accustomed to rely, provision be made for
compensation t, the benefice, on account of the recuipt
of fees for interment, on the average of titres years be-
fore the posing of the Act.
" 11. That compensation be made to the proprietors of
private burial grounds aed to the holders of cemeteries
estsblished by Act of Parliament according to the awards
of juries.
" 12. That provision be made for placing therexisting
burial grounds under such regulatiou as may be most
conducive to the public health and advantage.
" 13. That although, if the whole work were ti be
done afresh for the first time, ore part of a general
scheme of extramural cemeteries would have included
the formation of a correspouding set of intramural
officers to receive orders, to give instructions, to cAlect
and enforce l ayments, and to transact other general
business, yet, to avoid the unnecessary creation of new
offices, it be provided that the preeent parish clerks or
sexton, or both, as the case may be. should be retained,
and their offices made use of for maintaining the paro-
chial connexion with the cemeteries.
" 14. That the whole immediate outlay for carrying
into effect this scheme may be cbtained without any aid
from the Treasury, and without the levying of any new
rat a in the f)lloweng way—that is to say, by luau; the
principal and interest of such loan to be defrayed out of
1 the receipts of the cemeteries, security being given by