The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-12-08

publication. For this purpose it is put
into wooden vessels and kept till 1t fer.
ments, and ceases TO smell, when It be.
comes bright and sparkling, and then re.
mains fresh for an indefinite length Of
time. In other words It remains fresh
when all its putrescent impurities are
decomposed and its noxious gases driven
oil. Who will wonder that such river
shonld be impure? Draining district
30 extensive and 80 denSely populated,
with 100000 inhabitants in the towns and
villages on it, banks before it reached
London, with all the animal matter aow-
ing into It's sewers, slaughter.houses, over
filled graye.yards and surface drainage,
1t would naturally become at the point
where It supplies the great metropolis
with drinking water, one immense filthy
receptacle OF decayed and decaying mat
ter, were II not for the decomposition de-
posting its sediments and evolving its
gases as II tows along. 1t is we'll for the
people OF London and other great cities
that the decomposition Of animal matter
in watsry solution is not long delayed.
WATER CONTAMINATED ny GRAVES.
This water and other waters in Eng
land have been carefully examined. In
1854, during the prevalence Of cholora in
that country, 1t was observed that per-
sons using water from one source had
the desease, while others near them, diff
erently supplied, escaped. A notable in
stance occurred at Oxford, as related by
DR.. Acland, where in two jails near TO
each other, with different water supply,
the inmates in one were stricken with
pest, while none suffered in the other.
Public attention being turned by these
circumstances 10 the water supplies,
they were carefully examined, and have
the testimony OF DR.. Hassell, who
thoroughly Investigated the subject, that
abundance Of evidence can be furnished
to prove that the pntresoent products Of
organic matter In drinking water is the
fruitful cause Of severe and fatal disease,
and frequently Of an epidemic character"
In the list Of the waters analysed In
England, as given by Muspratt, 1t Is a
significant fact that the most impure was
the water Of what he calls the "Glasgow
WE'LL" and OF the Liverpool wells"
al, then, you will consider how organ
ic Impurities get into the wells, you may
Judge In a manner, how far tho morbifc
products Of the graveyard contaminate,
not only the wells, but all our sources Of
water supply. Many wells, you know,
would utterly dry up were it not for the
timely rains. Rain water Ia pure rs It
falls, but is good solvent. As it pene-
trates the earth 10 replenish the failing
fountains beneath, il carries along the
soluble products OF putrefaotion with
which il comes in contact, and SO the old
well.iilled graveyard furnishes It's quota
OF the unseen poison we imbibe with our
drink.
Consider, also, In this connection, the
fearful possibility Of deriving, from the
water flowing through the grave, the
germs Of zymotic diseases, such as scarla.
tina, typhoid fever and diphtheria by
which any community is liable to be
scourged. Tho most malignant case Of
diphtheria l have ever met occurred
among the children in house supplied
by spring and well at the base Of a hill
on which there was cemetery. And the
question has repeatedly occurred 10 me
could 1t be possible that the disease by
which those children were swept away
could come from germs washed down
through the earth from new.made
grave! OF course l can not say that such
was the case; for no one has actually de.
monstrated that diphtheria may be thus
transmitted-and, therefore, I do not
press this speculative view as an argu-
ment. We know enough to know that
pure air and pure water, the two great
essentials to healthful living, may both
be contaminated by interment OF the dead,
and we know, also, that no such result
can follow cremation. May not orema.
ton, then, be fairly considered among the
important sanitary questions which have
lately received much attention, especial.
ly on the part Of medical men?
WHY CREMATION SHOULD ne ADOPTED.
The American Medical Association has
a section, called the Section OF Hygiene.
Various reports have been submitted by
1t, but mostly Of a preliminary kind, re.
porting plans for working as by means Of
Boards Of Health, supported by govern.
ment, rather then by work actually &c.
complished. Deeply, impressed with the
Importance Of the work in which the sec.
ton is engaged, stand here to-day with
others, TO call public attention 10 it,
and an ready to consider fairly and
thoughtiully any measure that promises
so much in the way Of sanitary reform
as cremation, however great an innoya.
ton Il may appear on a practice more
honored by the custom than for It's bene.
fetal results. The sanitary considers.
tions on this subject must override all
others. There Is nothing In religion or
natural feeling or public policy, even, to
prevent the adoption Of cremation, 1.-THE
safety OF the public health is found to re.
quirc 1t. Men may talk OF a feeling Of
repugnance against casting the dead body
Of friend into the furnace; but il II be
found necessary, for sound and sufficient
hygienic reasons, they will do It, aud they
ought to do II, Just rs ships crew will
take the body oil a comrade, dead Of an IN.
fictitious disease, and cast It overheard,
to be devoured in the sea.
But Is there anything In cremation 40
repulsiye that the feeling In regard to It
will not he overcome? The thought Of the
body undergoing the putrid, poisonous
process Of natural decomposition in the
grave, Is far more repulsiye, and that is
yielded to. Jeremy Taylor, in a sermon on
death, gives his idea Of the repulsive
change wrought in the grave. by relating
the story OF a fair young German gentle.
man, who being solicited to st for his
picture, refused, But he agreed that a
lew days alter his burial q painter might
20 to bis vault and draw liie.like pic
ture OF his death. The agreement was car
ried out-the picture was taken, 1t was
hung amid the pictures Of his houored
ancestors, and II was the "picture Of 4
man with his face half eaten of aud his
body infested with serpens"-the pic.
ture Of the
"Dusr RETURNING TO THE EARTH"
In the natural way have seen as It some.
.imeS occurs on the battle Geld. You