The times., 1898-08-07
GRAVEYARDs.
They Should Not BE Allowed in Set
lied Communities.
From the North American Review.)


Innumerable proofs, furnished by scien-
tiffc men of all ages, recently by the
French doctor. PaSteur. show that earth
retains instead Of destroying the germs of
disease contained in a body and that IN
some degree it will vitiate it's surround
ings.
Since HannibaTs army was decfmated
by efffuvia from an ancient graveyard
he unwittingly demolished. history has
repeated itself The cholera in London I'm
1851 was ascribed TO the upturning of the
earth where victims of a previous plague
had been buried
The French Academy of Medicine To-
Gated the origin of the disease of the lungs
and the throat in putrid ernanations from
the Partisan cemetery Pere la Chase
OF the older churchyards of Paris, once
honeycombed with graves, thai of the
nocents Is remarkable Established on
the present site of the market called
"Halles Centrales, it bred pestilence for
centuries without hindrance. Finally it
became notorious as a nuisance, so that
1t had 10 be abolished. InnumerabIe skel-
etons were unceremoniously carted 20
Catacombs on April :, 1856. Lyon Playfair
asserts thai Roman fever originates not
! in the Pontine Marshes, but in decaying
bodies of the millions buried in the Eter-
nal City. DR.. Domingo Freire found in
cemeteries of Rio Janeiro myriads of mi
!
persons stricken with yellow fever year
| after BURIAL
Drainage from cemeteries in PhiIadel-
phia has polluted water of the Fairmount
reservoir. The Centennial dysentery of 1876
has been attributed 10 this cause. A con-
tinued prevalence OF typhoid fever in this
! sparsely-inhabited city must be ascribed
! to the same cause
! Mortality by yellow fever was twice as
1 large in portions of New Orleans where
| large cemeteries are located as elsewhere
] In Cuba this plague RACES almost con-
tinually. Bodies OF the victims OF disease
and Spanish cruelty, estimated to num-
Der 100000. are inadequately protected
against high temperature and moisture:
their emanations are a menace to our SOL
diers more terrible than Spanish guns.
American officers should be delegated TO
destroy these bodies before they do harm.
The Austrian government permits the de-
Struction of those who have fallen on the
field of battle by the erection of pyres.
practice which ought to be made obi
gatory on the military authorities of all
civilized nations. Over a hundred thou
sand bodies of Napoleon's army of inva
sion were cremated in 1872 by Russians.
More men died before Sehastopol by in
haling miasma of purified bodies than
were killed by the enemy. Some 40 900
corpses poisoned the air after the battle
of Sedan, until inhabitants of adjacent
Belgian villages prevailed on their gov
ernment to appoint in 1871 an officer to re-
lieve the distress. BY saturating them
with naphtha he succeeded in burning 500
bodies in an hour, until all were con-
Sumed. Long experience in the East In
dies has shown that danger increases
with moist heat. Neither burial nor dis
infectants can sufficiently protect the
health of our army. DR.. Samuel Latham
Mitchill said in a report to cur common
council May 80. 1926: Earth purifies con-
tents of graves on the principle that va
: ter in cleansing clothes becomes Itself
foul"
commission recently appointed to in
vestigate sanitary conditions of all grave
yards in Denmark was obliged to con
$ denim Cos out of total number of 650
, German authorities have forbidden III
: use of water from any we'll situated with
in 300 yards of a grave. Experience ha
!, shown that cemeteries should by law b
banished far outside the limits OF an,