The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-10-16
REMOVAL OF CEMETERIES.


grave yards OF the corporate limits. The
author does not base his wishes upon or
support his views by any sani-
tary arguments, but strikes right
out boldly with the expression that "thc
conversion Of these gravc-yards into bust.
ness and building lots will add greatly to
the value of the property within the entire
city limits" Here crops out the feverish in,
dustrialism of the day, smothering the sen.
timent that has been wont to hold in sacred
silence the gloomy aisles and sad white
marbles that marked the last sleeping places
ofthe Wondering heaps in their narrow
cells below, or in the dumb vaults above.
But this Is scarcely the warrant to justify
the city fathers in observing TO action the
petition ofour correspondent, and with no
stronger appeal they must leave the pale
tenements of those still walls TO rest in
peace and quiet. hut there is an argument
that is now urged why cemeteries in a city
should be removed, or rather depleted of
the dead, aud that is based on hygcnic or
sanitary grounds. Our correspondent this
morning proilers and presses it.
But has he the scientific truths,
the sanitary facts to sustain him?
Our correspondent says that "from the
corpscs come cIlluvia putrefaction which
dillnsing itself creates disease and death. "
In reply to this we would say that if the
corpscs remained at all exposed in simple
collins or ifnot properly Inferred and AT
sufficient depth, il might be possible that
through the air some gases might propa.
gatea poisonous miasma. Bat science has
studied this question and ascertainod what
is proper buryng to avoid this evil and
surely under our present system
of inspection, superintendent, ETC.,
as atienGed to by our boards
of public health, there is not much to be ap-
pretended Indeed there is not much to he
apprchendcd about direct infection from a
dead body. undortakcrs and their assist
ants are VIGOROUSLY free from contagious
diseases from the handling Of corpses. And
1t is known that when the plague pits of
London were reopcned and whore the dead
once lay piled in layers, no disease what
ever ensucd The gases evolved from
dead bodies, as we have always understood.
are nearly all absorbed by the vegetable
produce OF the soil, the grasses the trees.
etc, which the hands Of allIiclon and grief
have planted over the loved and lost
What of such do run riot in the air, become
so diluted that their noyious properties are
destroyed. The chief of these gases is car
bonic acid, gas we breathe every day, a gas
without which even our saltwater would
be flat or impossible. II is said that the to.
tai weight Of the bodies consigned each year
to the Paris cemeteries is some $500. 900
pounds. Now if even all the carbon of these
were transformed into the gas, there would
result some 100000 pounds of that gas in
five years, Surprising all this discharged
into the atmosphere would it be dele.
terlous to the citizens of Paris? The oucs-
ton may be answcrcdby the statement that
the Grand Opera louise alone gives out
every year thirteen times more carhonic
acid from its gas lights than the impossible
amount just figured rs arising from the
corpses. The annual quantity of carbonic
acid gas from the nightly illumination of that
city is nearly $500 times greater than the
maximum corpse cxhaation. So much
then for the fear because of
the atmospheric cflluviar escaping
rom our grave-yards. The other point,
however, made by our correspondent this
morning is that diseases are bred by the
waters that, flowing through cemeteries,
become impregnatcd with the diseases
breeding putrcfactions of the bodies" Who
says besides himself that diseases are thus
bred? And who says that dead bodies are
disease breeders? This is assertion, not
argument. Indeed, facts seem to point in
the reverse direction. Grave-dggers and
their helps, who are coming constantly fin
contact with corpses enclosed in all sorts
oil collins, from the metallic to the
sIenderess cypress orpinc, some bunglirgly.
loosely put together are remarkably
healthy set from Yorricks skull finder
down to the present and really appear TO
DO less liable to epidemic diseases than
Others And until itbc proved by our cor.
respondent that his dictum is in accord
with results, we me justified in silence os
to answering, especially when we
have shown the entire absence
Of deleterious effects from the ex.
of carbonic acid gas from such
dead bodies. Besides this, numborless and
most carefully conducted experiments boye
demonstrated that germs infectious dur.
ing life are destroyed by the combustion of
corpses in the earth as soon as putrid for.
begins, and this is sustained bv
tho additional scientific fact tina. even i'm.
pure air which has passed over purified
meats becomes fully purified, provided only
that the earth or any other filter be only
rs humid as that of the ground at
only one foot below its snrhco
How long time II takes for the cornse n
nlly decay depends on the character of tho
soil which contains it, the amount of water
Or air that can'get to it, etc. Sometimes
we are told, IL is dcvoured in less than n
week Partisan law places the period at
years, and the legislation of Geneva
makes 1t ~ years, whereas at Frankfort 30
years is the standard, In Turkey, whence
was derived yur first idooa nr a., -,