Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-27
tSournal alto Goluier.
Saturday Morning, August g, 1881.
AN OLD RELIEF ATTACKED.

One of the most effective arguments used
 by those who favor the cremation of the
 dead is the alleged danger to health from
 cemeteries. It is generally believed that
 such danger exists, but M. G. Robinet, a
 writer in the Reoue Scsent:fque, declares that it does not, and supports his opinion in an
 ingenious and striking way. He points out
 that the injurious effects attributed to ceme-
 teries can be exhibited only through the air,
 the soil and the waters. It has been sup- posed that the air in the neighborhood of
 cemeteries might be poisoned by carbonic
 acid gas but M. Robinet declares that this is mistake. He has made calculation of
 the maximum quantity of carbonic acid gas
 that can be produced in the cemeteries of
 Paris. The results of these calculations, which are based upon numerous wsiehines
 of corpses made in several hospitals and on
 the most authentic data of the chemical com
 position of the human body, show that this
 quantity is infinitely less considerable than
 has been supposed. The total weight of the
 bodies consigned each year to the cemeteries
 in Paris is 3,472, 500 pounds If all their
 carbon were transformed (which is not the
 case) and disengaged as carbonic acid gas,
 they would furnish 3,142, 300 pounds
 of that gas in five years. Now, ac-
 cording to the calculations of M Bous-
 singault, the quantity of carbonic acid pro-
 duced in Paris, by the respiration of men
 and animals and the different processes of
 combustion, is 45,OOo, ,o0O pounds in twenty
 four hours. The combustion of illumina- ting gas alone in Paris produced last year quantity of carbonic acid thirty-fivs hundred times more considerable than all the dead buried in the cemeteries during five years ton. The Grand Opera House alone gives out l every year thirteen times more carbonic acid I from it's gaslights than could be disengaged | from all the cemeteries put together, even if ! all their carbon were converted into gas Af- | ter examining these figures and comparing them with the results of careful experiments f which show that the proportion of carbonic acid gas in the air of Paris is no greater than in the country, M. Robinet thinks he has a right to affirm that there is no danger to the public health from this source. Other poisons in the free air are not found, and there is no good reason to believe that ceme- teries produce miasms.
 Regarding the extent to which the soil is affected in consequence of burials, M Robi- net points out that the time required for the earth to fully transform organic matter that nay be buried in it varies according to the physical and chemical nature of the soil, and 'ays that recent experiments by M schut- have shown that, so far as the 1ako orSo Nf Da~s1 ' ation of the soil, either with gases or solids, 'xists. The analysis, so far at least as it re- ers to gases, has given identical results with he analyses of good arable lands.
 Concerning the contamination of water, l Robinet declares that no important in- tance has been established against the ceme- cries. What, on the contrary, most evil lently comes out after study of the facts is he remarkable purifying power that the arth possesses. As proof of this the well n the cemetery of Montparnasse is cited, the vater of which is shown by chemical analy- is to be of excellent quality. And with re- pect to the inferior organisms which some persons believe may be conveyed away by water that has traversed the soil of ceme- l cries, M Pasteur has shown that the waters f springs issuing from the ground even at Q light depth are so destitute of germs that hey cannot fertilize the liquids which are nost susceptible of change. Such waters, avs M. Pasteur, fare at the base of lands which have been traversed necessarily for cen- uries by streams, the effect of which has 'een constantly to cause the finest particles of he superposed soils to descend to the springs. | The latter, in spite of these favorable condi- ions for polluting them, remain indefinitely f perfect purity, a manifest proof that a ertain thickness of earth arrests all the finest olid particles" |,
 In conclusion M. Robinet affrms that, to , he present day, not single instance of pos harge of the cemeteries of Paris. Let us , ay, he continues, Eff we have not the cour- ge to support it, that the spectacle of death ught to be hidden from our sight, that in ! UT life of feverish industrialism we have no ! me to spare for the dead let us even &C., 1 that we have speculative reasons , pr desiring to remove the burial grounds rom Paris; but let us stop invoking science, t us stop invoking hygiene let us stop as- srting that cemeteries are real centers of in- 'ction, that they are susceptible of develop lg the germs of the gravest maladies let t } stop frightening the ignorant public with { 'norous words and phrases It is easy tough to say and repeat that cemeteries are