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

THE WRONG.

The Commissioners of the Board of health--:namely,
Lords Carlisle and Ashley, Mr. E. Chadwick, and Dr.
Southwood Smith—set out by stating that the epidemic
of last year, " the severest that has afflicted this country
in modtrn times," has destroyed no fewer than 16,000
persons in this metropolis alone ; and thatktruch of, the
virulence and intensity of that scourge wita_owing to tl,e
existence of crow icd graveyards within' its pre-
cincts. "They have," they state, “aseertaitsed by
personal examination • the state and capacity of
the principal cemeteries in the neighbourhood of
London, and visits(' various sites, proposed for
new cemeteries, with & view of determining, from tl;eir
own observation, whether those sites possessed the re-
quisite conditions for placing interment for the metro-
polis in a satisfactory state." This gives them a dis-
tinct locus standi ; and independently of their merely
official authority, entitles their opinions to the fallest
possible weight. What, then,,= do they say on the
subject of burial in graveyards within the precincts of
cities?

They lay it down as an axiom that a few feet of earth
does not obstruct the escape of those noxious gases
which• are evolvad_by the ,de=nposition ;att." human
body ; and they point to the escape of vi aeer, and com-
mon coal gas through a stratum of sand or gravel seve-
ral feet in thickness, as a proof of this physical fact. A
calculation made by Dr. Lyon Playfair, and quoted .by
the Commissioners. estimates the amount of the gases
evolved annually from the decompofition of 1,117
corpses per acre, which is very far short of the number
ac'ually interred in the metropolitan graveyards, at not
t less than 55.261 cubic feet; therefore as 52,000 in-
t Talents take place annually in the metropolis, accord-
ing to this ratio the amount of gases emitted is a qual 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 of the water that is drank, by the
denizens of this metropolis? The bare idea of either is
almost too frightful to contemplate. 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, Mit especially t ► all the forms of epid mac
-
disease, and which further predisposes it to pass into a
state verging upon, if not actual), that of putrefaction.
Estimating the duration of a simple generation at 30
years, there must have been interred in the small space
of 218 acres—the area of a'l the graveyards in the me-
tropolis—in the last generation, a million and a half of
stead bodies; and within the next 30 years more than
another million and a halt of the dead, that is to say, a
large paopoition of those who now people the metro-
polis 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, the un-
>crapulousness of the metropolitan undertakers, and,
it must be added, the practical supiee ses of the al-
- to whom the whole question of graveyards has
been delegated by the State, that at this very moment
there are further burials going on in some of the most
frightfully gorged of the Golgothas of this metropolis—
among others St. Paul's, Covent- garaen, where it is abso-
lutely impossible for " the boring iron" to find an unoccu-
pied inch of ground. Why the Commissioners have not or-
dere I the closing of this graveyard—situate as, it is in
the midst of a dense population, adjacent to the largest
market in. Europe, and flanked on its three sides, if not
on the whole four, with the abodes of perhaps the poor-
est class of the metropolitan :population—is, to say the
least et it, perfectly unaccountable. In reference to
this topic, Dr. Sutherland speaks in a manner not to be
misunderstood in his report to the Board of Health on
this subject:—" I am sorry to say that there are no in-
dicetions of any change for the better. The frightful
exposures which have been made before Parliament as
to the state of our burial grounds may have led to the
partial abatement of nuisances cf more than ordinary
msguitude; but speaking generally, it may be safely
stated that the language contained in the Parliamentary
report, and the descriptions in the report on The Prac-
tice of Interment in Towns,' aro as applicable now as
they were at the time these documents were laid before
the public. lam decidedly of opinion," he aids, " that.
no material improvement has been effel.,ted. The grave-
yards of London are still the plague-spots of its popula-
tion. The putrid drainage from them pollutes its welly,
seethes beneath its dwellings, and poisons its atmosphere;
and some parts of the metropolis are still honeycombed
with deposits of the putrescent 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 disease, the solefocii from whence
ra hates 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 circumjacent burying-grounds. The vaults of many
churches are still little better than charnel-houses, which
it is absolutely dangerous to enter, or, if they have been
ventilated, the noxious effluvia which they ceaselessly
genersee have 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 years generally sufficing to reduce
the contents to a dry, powdery, bony skeleton. The sur-
rounding air, therefore, sooner becomes charged with
tl e deadly products. After a certain number of years,
depending upon the state of the ventilation of the vault,
or becomes so rotten as no
dhroolpdstotgo pethoewr.daenr,
and the contents are revealed to
the visitor. Leaden coffins last longer to the eye; but it
the
longer wood
t o
is doubtful 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
subt'e, 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 ono disce omnes. It is Dr. Wal-
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 he makes allusion—" Here are placed," he says,
".some hundred and fifty coffins, in all possible positions,
piled one Rhos(' another—the lower crushed by the
weight of those above. The great majority are broken
and decayed—the remnants (.f mortality falling out be-
tween the rows of coffins. In all buathe newest coffins the
external_ wood is decayed, leaving the lead exposed.
Enormous cobwebs and 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, breaks into powder and
exposes the remains of the skeleton. The coffins are so
fragile, and the piles so much out of tbe perpendicular,
that it is dangerous to approach very near them. In
the two farther corners large collections of bones
are piled together without any attempt at order or
decency—a moat revolting sight. The churchwar-
den was not aware, at appears, 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 ho makes as a sequel to this
picture—" 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 bolus."
Aod yet the practice of interment in this vault is still
continued. "Oh shame, where is tby blush!"
There are in the metropolis of Great Britain alone not
less than two handled graveyards, to almost all of which
are annexed those focii of concentrated pestilence, char-
nel 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-
c.-imposing human remains, amount, as already stated, in
one year, 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 faecal accumulation of centuries—and
whatever part not mix with and contaminate the water
already, God knees, sufficiently contaminated froni
a thousand impure sources—must be emitted into
the atmosphere, bearing with it putrescent matters
perfectly perceptible to sense. From the law
of the diffusion of gases, these must be rapidly
spread through the whole of the atmosphere that
surrounds the metropolis; and though they thereby be-
come diluted, and are thus rendered proportionally in-
nocuous, vet that they do materially contribute to the
contamination of the air breathed by two millions of the
people cannot admit of any reasonable doubt. With
these facts uncontested and incontestible, is there not an
insurmountable case made out for the total prohibition of
interment in the metropolis, simply on account of the in
jury resulting from the practice to the public health, and
setting aside all other considerations.
But these other considerations are, in their various
degrees, no less cogent than 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 be 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 te hat 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 cf the community. The
coaveyance of the dead through the crowded retreats
of a busy city such as London, amidst a popula-