Chapter XI: Appendix: Page (10)

Amongst the distinct clerical orders of the Primitive Church, Bingham (book iii. chap. 7) reckons the _Psalmistæ_, the _Copiatæ_, and the _Parabolani_. The Psalmistæ, or the canonical singers, were appointed to retrieve and improve the psalmody of the church. The business of the Copiatæ was to take care of funerals and provide for the decent interment of the dead. St. Jerome styles them _Fossarii_, from digging of graves; and in Justinian’s Novels they are called _Lecticarii_, from carrying the corpse or bier at funerals. And St. Jerome, speaking of one that was to be interred, “The _Clerici_,” says he, “whose office it was, wound up the body, digged the earth,” and so, according to custom, “made ready the grave.” Constantine incorporated a body of men to the number of 1100 in Constantinople, under the name of _Copiatæ_, for the service in question, and so they continued to the time of Honorius and Theodosius, junior, who reduced them to 950; but Anastatius augmented them again to the first number, which Justinian confirmed by two novels, published for that purpose. Their office was to take the whole care of funerals upon themselves, and to see that all persons had a decent and honourable interment. Especially they were obliged to perform this last office to the poorer people without exacting anything of their relations upon that account. The _Parabolani_ were incorporated at Alexandria to the number of 500 or 600, who were deputed to attend upon the sick, and take care of their bodies in time of weakness.[37] [Cod. Theod., leg. 43:—“Parabolani, qui ad curanda debilium corpora deputantur, quingentos esse ante præcipimus; sed quia hos minus sufficere in præsenti cognovimus, pro quingentis sex centos constitui præcipimus,” &c.] They were called _Parabolani_ from their undertaking (Παραβολον ἔργον) a most dangerous office in attending the sick. The foundation of a great city like Constantinople must have brought the magnitude of the service of the burial of the whole population distinctly under view, and have necessitated comprehensive and systematic arrangements of a corresponding extent, by the superintendence of superior officers through the gradations of duty of a disciplined force, which, even with the Eastern redundance of service, could scarcely have failed to be efficient and economical as compared with numerous separated and isolated efforts. A great prototype was thus gained, and the well-considered gradations of duty and service of the great city was carried out as far as practicable in the small parish. In some churches, where there was no such standing office as the Copiatæ or the Parabolani, the Penitents were obliged to take upon themselves the office and care of burying the dead; “and this by way of discipline and exercise of humility and charity which were so becoming their station.” _Bingham_, book xviii. cap. 2. The state of administrative information in these our times may surely be deplored, when any views can be entertained of making the small parish and the rude and barbarous service (multiplied, at an enormous expense) of the really unsuperintended common gravedigger and sexton, the prototypes for this most important and difficult branch of public administration of the greatest metropolis in the modern world.

On a full consideration I think it will be apparent that the exclusion of the burial of corpses in churches or in churchyards, and the adoption of burials in cemeteries, and the conspicuous interment there of all individuals whose lives and services have graced communities, will, in so far as it is carried out, be in principle a return to the primitive practice, restoring to the many the privilege, of which they are necessarily deprived by burials in churches, of association in sepulture with the illustrious dead, and giving to these a wider sphere of attention and honour, and beneficent influence.

On the immediate question of the arrangements for sepulture I beg leave to submit for consideration the following extracts from a communication from the Rev. H. Milman, which is more peculiarly due to him, as his examination before the Committee of the House of Commons does not appear to have elicited his full and matured opinions on the important subject:—

I cannot but consider the sanitary part of the question, as the most
dubious, and as resting on less satisfactory evidence than other
considerations involved in the inquiry. The decency, the solemnity,
the Christian impressiveness of burial, in my opinion, are of far
greater and more undeniable importance.

It must unquestionably be a government measure in its management as
well as its organization. If you have understood my evidence as
recommending parochial, rather than a general administration, such
was not my intention. I thought that I had left that point quite
open. When I stated (2729) the alternative of cemeteries provided by
the national funds, and by parochial taxation, I represented the
unpopularity of the latter mode of taxation: and (in 2782) I
suggested certain advantages to be derived from the more general and
public administration. The Committee, however, who seemed to incline
strongly towards the parochial system, went off in that direction,
and the questions turned rather on the practicability of that
system, and the manner in which it might be organized.

Further reflection leads me to the strong conviction that the
parochial system, even if there were no difficulties in forming the
union of the smaller parishes for this object, could only furnish so
loose and uncertain a superintendence over an affair of such
magnitude, and requiring such constant vigilance, as to be
altogether inadequate to the purpose. It is not easy, with their
present burthens and responsibilities, to fill the parochial offices
with men competent to the duty, and with sufficient leisure to
devote to it. They are usually filled by men in business of some
kind, with considerable sacrifice of their time, and of that
attention which is required by their personal concerns. These
duties, however are confined, onerous as they sometimes are, to
their own immediate neighbourhood. But if we add to their
responsibilities, the care of a remote and large churchyard, with
all its complicated management, we impose upon them duties so
arduous and so incompatible with their own interests and avocations,
that the conscientious would shrink from undertaking them, and they
would fall into the hands of a lower class of busy persons, anxious
for notoriety, or with some remote view of advantage to themselves.
It will be absolutely necessary to relieve the parish officers from
a burthen which they cannot undertake without a sacrifice, which is
more than can be expected from men engaged in business or in some of
the active professions. Besides all this, the administration would
be constantly passing from one to another; the objection to the
whole parochial system, that a man no sooner learns the duty of his
office, than he is released from it, would apply in a tenfold degree
to an affair of such magnitude. The only way to secure the proper
organization and conduct of a remote cemetery, would be by officers,
judiciously selected, and adequately paid, who should devote their
whole time to the business. Many of these objections, as the want of
sufficient time without neglecting more serious duties, would apply
to the clergyman of a large town parish, and if the cemetery be made
an object of parochial taxation, the less he is involved in it the
better.

On the wise and maturely considered organization, and on the
provisions for the careful, constant, and vigilant superintendence
of the whole system, will depend entirely its fulfilment of its
great object, the re-investment of the funeral services, and of the
sacred abode of the dead, in their due solemnity and religious
influence. Nothing can be more beautiful, more soothing under the
immediate influence of sorrow, or at all times more suggestive of
tranquil, yet deep religious emotion, than the village churchyard,
where the clergyman, the squire, or the peasant, pass weekly or more
often by the quiet and hallowed graves of their kindred and friends,
to the house of prayer, and where hereafter they expect themselves
to be laid at rest under a stone perhaps, on which is expressed the
simple hope of resurrection to eternal life, and where all is so
peaceful, that the tomb may almost seem as if it might last
undisturbed to that time. I am inclined to think that some of the
unbounded popularity of Gray’s Elegy, independent of its exquisite
poetic execution, may arise from these associations. Of these
tranquillizing and elevating influences, so constantly refreshed and
renewed, the inhabitants of large cities are of necessity deprived.
The churchyard, often very small, always full, and crowded with
remains of former interments, either carelessly scattered about, or
but ill concealed, is in some cases a thoroughfare, where the
religious service is disturbed by the noises, if not of passing and
thoughtless strangers, with those of the din and traffic of the
neighbouring street; and the new made grave, or the stone, which has
just been fixed down, is trampled over by the passing crowd, or made
the play-place of idle children. Where, as in some of the larger
parishes in the west of London, the burial place is not contiguous
to the church, it is more decent, but then it is secluded within
high walls, or perhaps by houses, and is only open for the funeral
ceremony, at other times inaccessible to the mourning relatives.

But will it not be possible, as we cannot give to the population of
the metropolis, and other crowded towns, the quiet, the sanctity,
the proximity to the church of the village place of sepulture, to
substitute something at least decent, and with more appearance of
repose and permanence; if not solemn, serious, and religiously
impressive? The poor are peculiarly sensible of these impressions,
and to them impression and custom form a great part, the most
profound and universal influence of religion; and to them they
cannot be given but by some arrangement under the sanction, and with
the assistance, of the Government. Private speculation may give
something of this kind to the rich, but private speculation looks
for a return of profit for its invested capital. To my mind there is
something peculiarly repugnant in Joint-Stock Burial and Cemetery
Companies. But, setting that aside, they are and can be of no use to
the _people_ of the metropolis and the large towns. There always has
been, and probably always will be, some distinction in the burial
rites (I beg to say that to the credit of my curates, they refuse to
make any difference between rich and poor in the services of the
church) and in the humbler or more costly grave of rich and poor—

Here lie I beside the door,
Here lie I because I am poor;
Further in the more they pay,
Here lie I as well as they.

But it may be a question whether the very numbers of funerals, which
must take place for a large town, with the extent of the burial
places, may not be made a source of solemnity and impressiveness,
which may in some degree compensate for the individual and immediate
interest excited by a funeral in a small parish. That which at
present, when left to a single harassed and exhausted clergyman, and
one sexton, and a few wretched assistants, can hardly avoid the
appearance of hurry and confusion, might be so regulated as to
impose, from the very gathering of such masses of mortality,
bequeathed together to their common earth, not (let me be
understood) in one vault or pit, but each apart in his decent grave.
The vast extent of cemetery which would be required for London
(suppose six or eight for the whole metropolis and its suburbs), if
properly kept, and with such architectural decorations, and the
grand and solemn shade of trees appropriate to the character of the
ground, could scarcely fail to impress the reflective mind, and even
to awe the more thoughtless. Our national character, and our more
sober religion, will preserve us, probably, from the affectations
and fantastic fineries of the Père la Chaise ground at Paris. From
some of the German cemeteries we may learn much as to regulation,
and the proper character to be maintained in a cemetery of the dead.

National sepulture is a part, and a most important part of national
religion; of all the beautiful services of our Church, none is more
beautiful (I might wish, perhaps, two expressions altered) than our
service for burial. I could have wished that the Church had taken
the initiative in this great question. I trust that she will act, if
the State can be prevailed upon to move, in perfect harmony with the
general feeling on the subject. It is fortunate, that in the Bishop
of London we have not merely a person of liberal mind, and practical
views, but one who brings the experience of the parish priest of a
large London living to his Episcopal authority and influence.

One further practical suggestion occurs to me as likely most
materially to diminish the expenditure of funerals of all classes,
and therefore to render any great scheme more feasible. A funeral
procession through the streets of a great and busy town can scarcely
be made impressive. Not even the hearse, in its gorgeous gloom, with
all the pomp of heraldry, and followed by the carriages of half the
nobility of the land, will arrest for an instant the noise and
confusion of our streets, or awaken any deeper impression with the
mass than idle curiosity. While the poor man, borne on the shoulders
of men as poor as himself, is jostled off the pavement; the
mourners, at some crossing, are either in danger of being run over
or separated from the body; in the throng of passers no sign of
reverence, no stirring of conscious mortality in the heart. Besides
this, if, as must be the case, the cemeteries are at some distance,
often a considerable distance, from the homes of the deceased, to
those who are real mourners nothing can be more painful or
distressing than this long, wearisome, never-ending—perhaps often
interrupted—march; while those who attend out of compliment to the
deceased while away the time in idle gossip in the mourning coach,
to which perhaps they endeavour to give—but, if their feelings are
not really moved, endeavour in vain to give—a serious turn. Abandon,
then, this painful and ineffective part of the ceremony; let the
dead be conveyed with decency, but with more expedition, under
trustworthy care, to the cemetery; there form the procession, there
assemble the friends and relatives; concentrate the whole effect on
the actual service, and do not allow the mind to be disturbed and
distracted by the previous mechanical arrangements, and the extreme
wearisome length of that which, if not irreverent and distressing,
cannot, from the circumstances, be otherwise than painfully tedious.

It may be worth observing that, in London, even the passing bell
seems almost lost in the din and confusion. This is the case even in
the old churches, which retain their deep, full, and sonorous bells.
The quick shrill gingle, or the feeble tone of those which are
placed in the chapels of the more recent burial-grounds, instead of
deepening to my ear, are utterly discordant with the solemnity of
the service. In the country nothing can be finer than the tolling
from some old grey church tower—

Over some wide watered shore,
Swinging slow with solemn roar.

What would be the effect of a bell as large as St. Paul’s, heard at
stated times, or in the event of the funeral of some really
distinguished persons, from the distant cemetery?

§ 178. The formation of national cemeteries would give the means of more special and appropriate service for the interment of the dead than it is now possible to provide by small parochial establishments. In the more populous parishes, the service is unavoidably hurried. In all, the feelings of survivors require the most full, respectful, and impressive service. In many of the rural districts, the friends and fellow-workmen of the deceased accompany the remains to the grave, and one object of subscriptions to burial and general benefit clubs is to secure the advantages of arrangements for the attendance of fellow-workmen, who are members of the same club. When a waterman dies, to whom his brethren would pay respect, the body is conveyed by them in an eight-oared cutter, to the churchyard by the water-side. On their return, the seat which the deceased would have occupied is left vacant, and his oar, tied with a piece of crape, is placed across the boat. One of the most popular and impressive of funeral ceremonies is that on the interment of a private soldier. When a private of the metropolitan police dies, a number of members of the force, and a superior officer, attend his funeral in their uniforms. It is not unfrequent when a member has been invalided and left the force, that he will make it a dying request that his funeral may be attended by the officer and men with whom he served. This request is generally complied with. Old soldiers who have been invalided frequently make it a dying request to the commanders of the regiments in which they have served that they may be buried as if they had died in the service; and unless there be an exception to the respectability of their conduct, the honour and consolation is bestowed.

§ 179. In Scotland, it is a subject of intense desire on the part of the labouring classes to gain the attendance of some person of higher condition at their funerals. When an aged and exemplary member of a congregation dies, it is not unfrequent that the minister’s eldest son will pay respect, by acting as one of the bearers of the corpse. In many of the rural districts in England, the persons composing the procession will sing hymns. In the churches, anthems are still sung, and funeral discourses given in the manner described by the Rev. Dr. Russell, the rector of Bishopsgate.

When I was a boy (says the reverend gentleman), nothing was more
common, in the parish of which my father was rector, than for the
body to be brought into church before the commencement of the
evening service on Sundays. The psalms and lessons appointed for the
burial service were read instead of the psalms and the second lesson
of the evening. At the time of singing, a portion of those psalms
which have reference to the shortness of life was sung; and
sometimes an ambitious choir would attempt a hymn—‘Vital spark of
heavenly flame,’ or the like. Since I have been in orders, I have
myself occasionally, in the country, buried persons with a similar
service. Sometimes funeral sermons were preached.

§ 180. The natives of the provinces, when they attend the remains of their friends to the grave in London, frequently express a wish to have anthems or such solemnities as those to which they have been accustomed.[38]

§ 181. The formation of national cemeteries would enable the ecclesiastical authorities to provide means for complying with the desire thus expressed. Under general arrangements, with reduced expenses, it will be seen that ample pecuniary provision for it may be made to give to the funerals of the many the most impressive solemnity. On this subject, the Rev. Mr. Stone, rector of Spitalfields, observes—

Should the legislature determine upon removing the burial of the
dead from populous places, it would get rid of these mischiefs; and
should it adopt a national system of burial instead of the highly
objectionable parochial system sketched out in Mr. Mackinnon’s Bill,
it might do much more—it might greatly add to the solemnity of our
burial obsequies, and so make them at once more impressive and more
attractive. This might be done by concentration; instead of the
parochial clergyman, hurried to the performance of this affecting
service, when his time, attention, and sympathies are engaged by
other duties, summoned desultorily to it, and often compelled to
repeat it over and over again at the same grave, just as the
interest or the convenience of undertakers, the caprice, the
bigotry, or the carousals of mourners may choose to prescribe, let
ministers appointed to officiate in national cemeteries perform the
service over great numbers at once, and at two or three stated hours
in every day. But the performance of the burial service over great
numbers at the same time would add incalculably to its solemnity. In
the present state of things, simultaneous interments are supposed,
as they certainly are primarily intended, merely to save the time
and labour of the clergy; and they may sometimes be hurried through
in a manner so careless, slovenly, and unfeeling, as not even the
necessities of the clergy can excuse. But it is quite a confusion of
ideas to suppose that the practice itself is slovenly and unfeeling.
On the contrary, I find it more impressive in its effect upon
myself; and I think it must prove so to others. Two or three
coffins, placed with their sable draperies in the body of the
church, are in themselves an awful spectacle; and the attendant
mourners, occupying the surrounding pews clothed in the same livery
of death, form a congregation at once appropriate, and large enough
to give effect to a religious service. By their numbers, too, they
operate against the intrusion of idle gossips and inquisitive
gazers, and, associated as they are with each other in a bereavement
of the same kind, they are thus brought into a contact calculated to
kindle emotions of social sympathy and religious sensibility.
Assembled in the burial ground round the same grave, or disposed in
groups by the side of graves within a reasonable distance of each
other, they form a picture of the same affecting and impressive
character. If the sympathy of a public assembly is perceptible or
intense in proportion to the numbers that compose it, this
aggregation of burials need only be limited by the effective power
of the human voice.

Judging from an experiment of my own, I think that these salutary
effects would be heightened to a thrilling degree by music. And from
the practice of the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities, I
presume that the introduction of music into the burial office is not
inconsistent with the rubric. At a burial already alluded to, I
acceded to a special request by allowing the introduction of some
organ-music; and, having no rubrical directions on the point, I
selected two parts of the service as those in which music seemed to
me to be most admissible, and most likely to prove impressive. After
the officiating minister has preceded the corpse from the entrance
of the church and read the introductory sentences, there is an
interval, during which he ascends the desk, the mourners take their
places in the pews assigned to them, and the corpse is deposited in
the body of the church; and there is a still longer interval, during
which the melancholy procession leaves the church for the burial
ground. I found that both these intervals, which are unavoidably
disturbed by somewhat bustling and noisy arrangements, were most
usefully and effectively filled up by the introduction of music. The
subjoined scheme of the music performed at royal burials will prove
that I was not mistaken in supposing music consistent with the
rubric, nor much so in selecting those parts of the service, at
which I prescribed its introduction. It will also serve to show to
what an extent music might be made to give effect and attractiveness
to a national burial of the dead.

Parts of the Service. Musical Composer. “I am the resurrection,” &c. Sung Croft. “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” &c. Ditto Croft. “We brought nothing into this world,” &c. Ditto Croft. The Psalms are chanted Chant in G minor Purcell.

After the lesson, and before the removal of the corpse from its station in the choir, an anthem is introduced _ad libitum_.

“Man that is born of a woman,” &c. Sung Croft. “In the midst of life,” &c. Ditto Croft. “Yet, O Lord God, most holy,” &c. Ditto Croft. “Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets,” &c. Ditto Purcell. “I heard a voice from heaven,” &c. Ditto Croft.

Immediately before the Collect, “O merciful God,” or sometimes, though very seldom, before “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” an anthem is introduced _ad libitum_.

At the close of the service, while the mourners are moving off, the Dead March in Saul is played on the organ.

The anthems usually selected are two of the following:—

“When the ear heard,” &c. Handel.
“I have set God always before me,” &c. Blake.
“The souls of the righteous,” &c. Dupuis.
“Hear my prayer,” &c. Kent.

On the burial of esteemed members of the cathedral choirs, the other choristers have sung the highest and most solemn of the church music.

§ 182. Where the circumstances described, in respect to the Protestant population, have prevented compliance with the popular desire for hymns or anthems to be sung or sermons to be spoken at the burial at the parochial churches in London, interment has been purchased for the express purpose of obtaining them at the trading burial grounds. And yet it may be submitted that the desire is consistent with the earliest recognized practice for all classes,[39] and that a system of national cemeteries would in proportion to the numbers interred in them, furnish valuable cases as examples for its beneficial exercise, and must, to a great extent, prevent the misapplication of the service to such cases as have apparently caused it to fall in public esteem.

“The honour,” says Hooker, “generally due unto all men maketh a decent interring of them to be convenient, even for very humanity’s sake. And therefore so much as is mentioned in the burial of the widow’s son, the carrying him forth upon a bier and accompanying him to the earth, hath been used even amongst infidels, all men accounting it a very extreme destitution not to have at least this honour due to them.” * * * * “Let any man of reasonable judgment examine whether it be more convenient for a company of men, as it were, in a dumb show to bring a corpse to a place of burial, there to leave it, covered with earth, and so end, or else to have the exsequies devoutly performed with solemn recitals of such lectures, psalms, and prayers, as are purposely framed for the stirring up of men’s minds into a careful consideration of their estate both here and hereafter.

“In regard to the quality of men, it hath been judged fit to commend them unto the world at their death amongst the heathen in funeral orations; amongst the Jews in sacred poems; and why not in funeral sermons amongst Christians? Us it sufficeth that the known benefit hereof doth countervail millions of such inconveniences as are therein surmised, although they were not surmised only, but found therein.” * * * “The care no doubt of the living, both to live and die well, must needs be somewhat increased when they know that their departure shall not be folded up in silence, but the ears of many be made acquainted with it. The sound of these things do not so pass the ears of them that are most loose and dissolute in life, but it causeth them one time or other to wish, ‘Oh that I might die the death of the righteous, and that my end might be like his.’ Thus much peculiar good there doth grow at those times by speech concerning the dead; besides the benefit of public instruction common unto funeral with other sermons.”—_Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity_, b. v. ch. lxxv.

“When thou hast wept awhile,” says Jeremy Taylor, in his Holy Dying, “compose the body to burial; which, that it be done gravely, decently, and charitably, we have the example of all nations to engage us, and of all ages of the world to warrant; so that it is against common honesty and public fame and reputation not to do this office.”—“The church, in her funerals of the dead, used to sing psalms and to give thanks for the redemption and delivery of the soul from the evil and dangers of mortality.”—“Solemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearness to the departed soul, and of his worth and our value of him, and it hath its praise in nature, and in manners, and in public customs; but the praise of it is not in the gospel, that is, it hath no direct and proper uses in religion; for if the dead did die in the Lord, then there is joy to him, and it is an ill expression of our affection and our charity to weep uncomfortably at a change that hath carried my friend to the state of a huge felicity.”—“Something is to be given to custom, something to fame, to nature and to civilities, and to the honour of deceased friends; for that man is esteemed to die miserable for whom no friend or relation sheds a tear, or pays a solemn sigh. I desire to die a dry death, but am not very desirous to have a dry funeral; some flowers sprinkled on my grave would do well and comely; and a soft shower, to turn those flowers into a springing memory or a fair rehearsal, that I may not go forth of my doors, as my servants carry the entrails of beasts.” * * * *

“Concerning doing honour to the dead the consideration is not long. Anciently the friends of the dead used to make their funeral oration, and what they spake of greater commendation was pardoned on the accounts of friendship; but when Christianity seized on the possession of the world, this charge was devolved on priests and bishops, and they first kept the custom of the world and adorned it with the piety of truth and of religion; but they also ordered it that it should not be cheap; for they made funeral sermons only at the death of princes, or of such holy persons ‘who shall judge the angels.’ The custom descended, and in the channels mingled with the veins of earth, through which it passed; and now-a-days, men that die are commended at a price, and the measure of their legacy is the degree of their virtue. But these things ought not so to be; the reward of the greatest virtue ought not to be prostitute to the doles of common persons, but preserved like laurels and coronets to remark and encourage the noblest things. Persons of an ordinary life should neither be praised publicly, nor reproached in private; for it is an offence and charge of humanity to speak no evil of the dead, which I suppose, is meant concerning things not public and evident; but then neither should our charity to them teach us to tell a lie, or to make a great flame from a heap of rushes and mushrooms, and make orations crammed with the narrative of little observances, and acts of civil, necessary, and eternal religion. But that which is most considerable is, that we should do something for the dead, something that is real and of proper advantage. That we perform their will, the laws oblige us, and will see to it; but that we do all those parts of personal duty which our dead left unperformed, and to which the laws do not oblige us, is an act of great charity and perfect kindness.”—“Besides this, let us right their causes and assert their honour:” * * “and certainly it is the noblest thing in the world to do an act of kindness to him whom we shall never see, but yet hath deserved it of us, and to whom we would do it if he were present; and unless we do so, our charity is mercenary, and our friendships are direct merchandise, and our gifts are brocage: but what we do to the dead, or to the living for their sakes, is gratitude, and virtue for virtue’s sake, and the noblest portion of humanity.”

_Necessity and nature of the superior agency requisite for private and
public protection in respect to interments._

§ 183. Having given a view of the evils arising from the existing practice in respect to interments in towns, and an outline of what appears to be justly desired as necessary objects to supply the wants of the population, I now beg leave to submit for consideration the information collected as to the practical means of obtaining them.

§ 184. The most pressing of the evils being physical or sanitary evils, the first means of amendment required is the appointment and arrangement of the qualifications, powers, and duties and responsibilities of an officer of health, to whom the requisite changes of practice may be most safely confided.

The functions of such an officer, as marked out by the evidence of existing necessities, may be divided into the ordinary and the extraordinary. The immediate necessities are those which arise from the want of a trustworthy person who maybe looked up to for counsel and direction to survivors in the event of a death, §§ 121, 122, 123, 124, and guide a change of the practice of interment. It is only by an arrangement that will carry a man of education, a responsible officer, to the house of even the poorest person in the community, just at the time when a competent and trustworthy person is most needed to give advice, that the effect of ignorant or interested suggestions may be prevented, and the beneficent intentions of the legislature, or the salutary nature of any public arrangement for the general advantage can be made known with certainty.

§ 185. The ordinary service of such an officer would consist of the verification of the fact and cause of death, and its due civic registration. From the exercise of these duties would follow the extraordinary duties of directing measures of immediate precaution and prevention, which it is to be feared whatsoever general sanitary measures might be adopted would, at the outset, and for too long a period, constitute ordinary and every-day duties. Out of the ordinary duties of the officer of health, would arise extraordinary jurisprudential duties of protecting the interests of the community in cases of deaths which have occurred under circumstances of suspicion or of manifest criminality.

§ 186. Assuming the necessity of the establishment of adequate national cemeteries at proper sites, it is proposed that a body of officers properly qualified by service, as in the example § 185, should have charge of the material arrangements, and take the place of the churchwardens and overseers in respect to all places of burial, and be responsible for the control of the servants of the establishment, and shall, moreover, be enabled to regulate and contract for supplies, at reduced prices, of materials and service of the nature of those now supplied by the undertaker. §§ 150, 153, 154, 155.

§ 187. In order that the officer of public health may be brought to the spot, it is proposed that the last medical attendant on the deceased should, on a small payment, be required to give immediate notice of the death, in a form to be specified, or in case there happened to be no medical attendant, it should then be incumbent on the occupier of the house, or the person having charge of the body, to give the required notice.

Before particularising the course of practice of such an officer, it appears requisite to state other grounds on which intervention appears requisite for the verification of the fact of death, and the mode of death, by the inspection of the body previously to interment.

§ 188. It is admitted that some additional arrangements are yet wanting for the complete attainment of the proper civic and technical purposes of registration:—as depositaries of pre-appointed evidence of the fact of death, to determine questions of private rights:—as depositaries of evidence for purposes of medical science and public health, to show the extent and prevalence of common causes of disease incident to different occupations and different localities—and of the data for tables of insurance, as well as for the recovery of sums assured, where the proof of age is not admitted in the policy. Any one who is unknown to the local registrar may go and register as a fact his own death, of which a certified copy of the registry will, according to the 38th clause of the Act, be evidence in a court of law. Cases of the registration of false statements have already been detected; some have been made with the view to successions and to the obtainment of property. False registrations have been made amongst the labouring classes as to the place of death, to gain interments in distant parishes at cheaper rates. Fictitious deaths have been registered to defraud burial societies, and the registrar’s certificate of such deaths have got in use by vagrants as a means of obtaining alms. In Manchester a woman having obtained and used one certificate of a fictitious death, soon after obtained another similar certificate, and in order to deter parties from visiting the house, she got the cause of death registered as “malignant fever.”

§ 189. On the continent, wherever the mortuary registers are well kept, and arrangements are made for the protection of the public health, the fact and time of death, and the identity of the deceased, is verified on the spot, by inspection of the body by a competent responsible officer of public health. Vide instance and effects at Geneva, stated in the General Sanitary Report, p. 174.

§ 190. It is proposed that the verification of the fact of death, and ascertaining its cause, by inquiry on the spot, should be confided to the officer proposed to be appointed as an officer of public health. The present local registrars might act as auxiliaries; the proposed appointment would be an additional security for the accuracy of the mortuary registration, and would improve that branch of the local machinery for registration.

Postponing the consideration of other collateral grounds for the appointment of a district officer of health, and to illustrate more clearly the course of alteration of the practice of interments, we will suppose the physician or officer of health brought by the proper notice to the habitation where the body lies in the presence of the survivors.

§ 191. In visiting the habitations of the labouring classes, he would be more careful to denote his office, profession, and condition, by his dress, and in his address, even than with other classes. On his arrival at the place of abode of a person of the working class, he would, after announcing his office and duty, inspect the body, and then require the name, age, occupation, and circumstances of the death of the deceased, enter them, and take the attestations of witnesses present. If the death occurred from any ordinary cause, he would, nevertheless, speak of the expediency of the early removal of the body to the chapel or house of reception, where it would be placed under proper care until the appointed time of the attendance of the relations and friends at the interment. The exercise of a summary power of removal in the case of rapid decomposition of the corpse, or in case of deaths from epidemic disease, for the protection of the living, is frequently suggested and claimed by neighbours. On inquiry in Manchester as to the periods during which the bodies of persons dying in the poorest districts were retained in the rooms where they died, the superintendent-registrar, Mr. Gardiner, observed, “they are not retained so long in these districts, because the houses to which the rooms belong are generally inhabited by several families, and those other families feel the inconvenience of the retention of the body amongst them, and they press for an early interment.” With females or survivors who cannot endure to part with the remains, the exercise of a friendly will would sometimes be necessary, and if properly exercised would generally be effectual. The name of an officer of public health would carry with it very general voluntary obedience to whatever he recommended, and in a majority of cases the prostrate survivors would be glad that he should order everything, and would feel it a relief if he were to do so. He would be prepared with a tariff of the prices of burial, and with instructions as to the regulations adopted for the public convenience, and for the more respectful performance of the ceremony of interment, and should be empowered and required, on the assent or application of the parties, to carry them out completely, as he might do with very little inconvenience or expenditure of time. He might be empowered to take such a course as this. Speaking to the widow or survivor of the lowest class, he might say—

“The inspectors of public health have been empowered to regulate the practice and the charges for interment, and to contract for and on behalf of the public to ensure the means of burial in a proper and respectful manner for the highest, as well as for the most humble classes. Formerly, the charge for the funeral of a person of the condition in life of your husband was four or five pounds, but by the new regulations, an equally respectable interment is secured to you for little more than half the amount. You are, nevertheless, at liberty to obtain the means of burial from any private undertaker. You may also, if you prefer it, have burial in any private cemetery, or elsewhere.”

§ 192. It is anticipated that, except on private canvass, and that only for a time, interment under the auspices of a public officer would be preferred in the great majority of cases, if the business were conducted with moderate care, in a manner really satisfactory, and if the minor but really important conveniences of all classes were duly consulted. For example, one frequent cause of the delay of interments amongst the poorer classes in crowded districts, is the delay of notification of deaths to distant relatives and friends, whose attendance may be required. More than one-half of the poor cannot write, and many of all classes who can write are unable to collect their thoughts even for a simple announcement of the event. The poorer classes generally get some one to write for them; and the regular payment for each letter is fourpence and a glass of liquor, or sixpence, exclusive of paper and postage. In the charges for funerals of the labouring classes in Scotland, five shillings is set down as the item of expense of letters of notification of the death of an artisan, and fifteen shillings for the notifications of the deaths of persons of the middle ranks of life. Under practicable regulations, such notifications might be prepared in a manner suitable to persons of every condition, at the rate of threepence per letter, or at one-half the ordinary rate of payment, paper, and envelope, and postage stamp included. The service might be rendered at an expense of a few minutes’ time to the officer in taking down a list of the names and addresses of the persons to be sent to. This list he would on his return to his office, hand to a clerk, by whom they would be immediately prepared and despatched in proper and well considered form. The Inspector might, therefore, add—

“If you will give me the names and addresses of those relatives and friends who may be desired to attend the funeral, I will cause notice of the time and places of attendance to be sent to them. Amongst the highest classes it is now the practice to diminish the number of followers to the grave, and to commit that duty only to a few; and it is desirable, for the sake of preventing unnecessary expense, that too many should not be invited. All the friends of the deceased who attend at the national cemetery will have an opportunity of joining in with the procession. Besides, the requests to attend, I can also, if you wish it, and will give me the names and addresses, cause notifications of the fact of the death to be sent to any persons in any part of the country.”

In the cases of illness amongst the survivors, or of a death from epidemic disease, indicating an infected atmosphere, he might add—

“For the protection of your own health, and the health of your children and of your neighbours, it is requisite that the body be immediately removed to a place where it will be kept under the care of a physician, and inspected until the appointed time of interment, when it will be received by the friends and relations who attend.”

§ 193. It is considered that, in general, this course would be complied with, but it is considered by physicians, that if it were found necessary in the first instance, in the case of the poorest and most ignorant and highly-excitable people, to concede the point, the officer might give directions to have the body enclosed with cloth of a material to resist the immediate escape of effluvia, and to be closed down, which might be done at a few shillings extra expense. Mr. R. Baker, the surgeon, who has paid great attention to the means for the improvement of the sanitary condition of the population at Leeds, observes—

I believe that where persons die of epidemic diseases, there is not
much regard paid to the necessity of early interment. There is what
is called the making up of the body, which is often done very early
after death, and even in some cases of supposed contagion, before it
is absolutely necessary. But an application is used in coffins of
those whose friends can afford it which deserves naming, because it
is at once safe and economical, and renders any sanitary precautions
unnecessary, where there is a desire from any requisite family
arrangements to keep the body; it is to place the body in a deal
shell, and then to place this shell within the coffin, between which
and the shell are affixed at the sides and bottom, a few pieces of
circular wood about the thickness of two crown pieces, here and
there, to keep the shell and coffin apart, forming a considerable
interstice, which is filled in with boiling pitch. The lid of the
shell is then laid on, having a glass over the face, and over this
is poured more pitch till the shell is incased in a pitch coffin
between the wooden ones. The cost of this process, which is next to
that of embalming, is about 9_s._ 6_d._, and is easily paid out of
the seven or ten pounds which the club supplies. I would only add
that this experiment deserves well of every one’s consideration,
being far superior to lead, and equally useful, in all ordinary
interments, and admirable for the purpose of avoiding contagion,
while it admits the opportunity of keeping the body for any
arrangement that is required to be made. If this plan could be
enforced upon all occasions where death had occurred from contagious
disease, I look upon it, that a great benefit would be conferred
upon the community.

§ 194. In the cases where decomposition, as sometimes occurs, commences even before death and proceeds with extreme rapidity after it, even an immediate removal is not effected without producing depressing effects on the bearers; and when there is an in-door church service, in some districts in the metropolis, it is not unfrequently necessary to have the body left at the church door, on account of the extremely offensive smell which escapes from the coffin. These coffins are generally constructed without knowledge, or care, or adaptation to the circumstances of the remains, or to any sanitary service. Mr. W. Dyce Guthrie, surgeon, who has paid much attention to some of the structural means for the protection of the public health, specifies various modes in which the evils arising before interment, as well as after, may be prevented, at a cost so inconsiderable as not to be sensibly felt, even by the poorest classes, and yet be as efficient as the most expensive arrangements now in use. For example: “Coffins may,” he says, “be rendered perfectly impervious to the escape of all morbific matter, at an expense not exceeding 1_s._ 6_d._ or 2_s._ each, by coating the interior over with a cement composed of lime, sand, and oil, which soon sets and becomes almost as hard and resisting as stone. Pitch, applied hot, would answer the same purpose as the compound I have mentioned, but it would be more expensive.” In the cases of such rapid decomposition as bursts leaden coffins, or renders “tapping” necessary, he recommends the application, at a few shillings expense, of safety-tubes to the foot of the coffin, so as to secure and carry away into a chimney flue, or a current created by a chauffer, the mephitic matter. These are adduced as instances of the detailed appliances of which the officer of health would judge in each case on the spot and suggest to the survivors, and if necessary write directions, or a prescription, for their appliance.

§ 195. A cause of the delay of interments might, it is stated, be diminished by arrangements, under which coffins of every size being kept prepared, one might be brought to the house, with the name of the deceased, and his obituary duly inscribed on a plate, in about one-third the time that is now usually employed for the purpose. By this service, the rapid progress of decomposition, and the escape of noxious effluvia would be arrested.

§ 196. Before leaving the abode of the deceased, the officer of health would, in the case of death from diseases likely to have been originated or precipitated by local causes, inspect the premises, inquire closely as to the antecedent circumstances of the decease; and note directions to be given in respect to the premises to officers having charge of drainage or sewerage, or public works, for cleansing and lime-washing the premises, at the charge of the owner, before renewed occupation.

In respect to the poorest classes, those who stand the most in need of protection: the measure of prohibiting burial, except on a verification of the fact and cause of death, by a certificate granted on the sight and identification of the body at the place where the death occurred, has its chief importance as being the means of carrying a person of education into places rarely, if ever entered, by them, except by accident. The functions of the officer of health when there are marked out by instances of acts done by force of humanity and charity, which as yet have no authority in law, or in administrative provision. For example, in the following instance, of a house owned by a landlord of the lowest class.

Shepherd’s-court consists of about six houses. It was notorious that
fever had prevailed to a great extent in this court; in the house in
question, several cases of fever had occurred in succession. The
house is small, contains four rooms,—two on the ground-floor and two
above; each of these rooms was let out to a separate family. On the
present occasion, in one of the rooms on the ground-floor there were
four persons ill of fever; in the other room, on the same floor,
there were, at the same time, three persons ill of fever; and in one
of the upper rooms there were also at the same time three persons
ill of fever; in the fourth room no one was ill at that time. It
appeared that different families had in succession occupied these
rooms, and become affected with fever; on the occasion in question,
all the sick were removed as soon as possible by the interference of
the parish officers. An order was made by the board of guardians to
take the case before the magistrates at Worship-street. The
magistrates at first refused to interfere, but the medical officer
stated that several cases of fever had occurred in succession in
this particular house; that one set of people had gone in, become
ill with fever, and were removed; that another set of people had
gone in, and been in like manner attacked with fever; that this had
occurred several times, and that it was positively known that this
house had been affected with fever for upwards of six weeks before
the present application was made. On hearing this, the magistrate
sent for the owner of the house, and remonstrated with him for
allowing different sets of people to occupy the rooms without
previously cleansing and whitewashing them; telling him that he was
committing a serious offence in allowing the nuisance to continue.
The magistrate further gave the house in charge to the medical
officer, authorizing him to see all the rooms properly fumigated,
and otherwise thoroughly cleansed; and said that, if any persons
entered the house before the medical officer said that the place was
fit to be inhabited, they would send an officer to turn them out, or
place an officer at the door to prevent their entrance. The landlord
became frightened, and allowed the house to be whitewashed,
fumigated, and thoroughly cleansed. Since this was done the rooms
have been occupied by a fresh set of people; but no case of fever
has occurred.[40]