Daily camera., 1899-03-29
PREMATURE BURIALS
Germany's Planof Preventing Them
Favored In New York.
Too lAasA Haste in Laying Away ~
D~aA N This Country PrsaA1-
uSas 10 Be Prescr4bsA
By Law.

TO enact law that will prevent prema-
ture interment or cremation. \ bill,
already introduced, provides thai in
more interments, each cemetery shall
have a mortuary or mortuaries. to be
used for the disposal of the dead. which
shall provide rooms of sufficient num-
Der to enable each body that is re-
ceived to be placed and kept therein
a certain time.
No body shall be received unless ac-
of an attending physician or coroner
showing whether he has found these
signs of death:
l. Permanent cessation of respira-
ton and circulation
. Purple discoloration of the de-
pendent parts of the body.
g. Appearance of blistering around
a part of the skin touched with red
hot iron.
4. The characteristic stiffness known
as rigor mortis.
s. Signs of decomposition.
The bill Furthermore provides that
no body shall be cremated or buried
in any of the cemeteries or other places
for the final disposal of the dead be
fore - hours have elapsed from the
time of death. Provisions for excep-
rions in the case of death from infec-
tious diseases are made.
Burial alive is about the most ghast-
ly terror of which the human mind can
conceive" says H. Gerald Chaplin. who
drafted the bill. at fills the minds of
nervous people with an ever-haunting
dread. There is more necessity for
such legislation as ! am working for
in this country than there is in Eng
land. 1t is the custom there 10 keep
the dead above ground for three days
at least, which covers the period men
toned in the bill introduced by Mr..
Lexington But in this country we
bury or cremate our dead with the
same haste and hurry that we do other
things. Climatic conditions make this
a necessity sometimes.
The proposed legislation in New
York is based principally upon laws
that were enforced in different German
provinces before the empire, and which
are still carried out to perfection in
Bavaria and Saxony. Amendments to
the laws have been made from time TO
time, but only in the direction OF i'm
provement. There is no additional ex-
pense to people who are obliged TO dis
pose of their dead. That is already eN-
pensive enough in New York. at all
events. The cost of precautionary
and this has been re-
duced to a minimum in Germany.
The laws there are very simple, and
the Gchenfrauen-wome who take
care Of the dead, corresponding to
'layers-out' in England-are instructed
as distinctly what they may do as what
/, hey may no, do. Nothing is left to
their discretion. A staff of phi, sicians
are at their call. In many towns these
women assume the duties left to the
coroner in this country. They are
trained to the work, and are appointed
by the municipality on civil service
basis
There is dead house in every Gem
etery. The law specifies how and
where they shall be built. The rooms
for the reception of the dead are ten
feet long, six feet wide and ten feet
high. Even the temperature of the
room is fixed by law. Each room has a
door leading into common hall, or
waiting-ro The door is unlocked at
all times and relatives or frieSlds of the
deceased are practically unrestricted.
except in cases of Infectious diseases,
in their opportunity to visit and in
spect the bodies of their dead.
Apartments are provided in the
building for the lichenfraueu, and il is
their duty TO INSPECT each body in their
charge At least three times every day
for signs of returning life. Electrical
arr made with Zach body.
so that at the slightest movement an
alarm is given to the watchers in
charge The fact that many persons
have been saved from burial alive by
these establishments in Germany is
s sufficient reason for the adoption of
the same system in this country.''-N.
y. Sun