Chapter IX: Appendix: Page (8)

§ 123. The principle of the measure proposed, _i. e._ a certificate of the fact, and the cause of death, given on view of the body, and the non-interment without such certificate, has been in operation perhaps during two centuries. In the year 1595, orders were issued by the Privy Council to the justices, enjoining them, that wherever the plague appeared, they would see that the ministers of the church, or three or four substantial householders, appointed persons to view the bodies of all who died, before they were suffered to be buried. They were to certify to the minister or the churchwarden, of what disease it was probable each individual had died. The minister or the churchwarden was to make a weekly return of the numbers in his parish that were infected, or had died, and the diseases of which it was probable they had died. These returns were to be made to the neighbouring justices, and by them to the clerk of the peace, who was to enter them in a book to be kept for the purpose. The justices, who assembled every three weeks, were to forward the results to the Lords of the Privy Council. It is supposed that this scheme of registration gave rise to the bills of mortality, which have been preserved without interruption from the year 1603 until the present period. It is conjectured also, that the appointment of “searchers” originated at the same time. The alarm of the plague having subsided, the office of searcher was, until the recent appointments of registrars under the new Registration Act, given by the parish officers to two old women in each parish, frequently pew-openers, who, having viewed the body, demanded a fee of two shillings, in addition to which they expected to be supplied with some liquor, and gave a certificate of the fact and cause of death as they were informed of it, and this certificate was received by the minister as a warrant for the interment.

§ 124. The Rev. Mr. Stone observes on this topic—

It would be well if the burial of the dead could be expedited by
some agency created for the purpose; something, for instance, like
the obsolete office of searcher. I never heard but one person make
an objection even to those inferior functionaries, and that one was
an educated person, who would probably have withdrawn the objection,
had the agency been one of a more refined, intelligent, and
conciliatory character. It might be a more delicate matter to secure
the removal of the corpse to be deposited elsewhere for any
considerable time before the burial; though, judging from one
practice, which has fallen under my observation, I feel justified in
supposing, that even this would not be met with universal
repugnance. A similar thing is now often done spontaneously from a
pecuniary motive, and for the purpose of evading burial dues. In my
parish ground, and, I believe, in others, the fees for the burial of
a non-parishioner, or person dying out of the parish, are double
those payable for a parishioner. But, if the undertaker employed is
a parishioner, this extra payment is easily evaded, by his
accommodating the corpse on his own premises. It is brought there
some time before the burial, and frequently from a considerable
distance; it then becomes a resident parishioner, and forthwith
claims the privilege of a parishioner. It claims to be admitted into
our burial ground at single fees; and, of course, the claim so made
cannot easily be disallowed. Indeed, by a little management, this
smuggling of dead bodies may be effected so that my clerk and
sexton, the only officers in my preventive service, may themselves
know nothing about it. It is probable, however, that such sanitary
arrangements as those adverted to would be best facilitated, and it
is certain that much mischief would be entirely prevented, by a
reduction in the amount of burial expenses. Indeed these expenses
ought, if possible, to be reduced for the sake of all classes,
whether they arise from too high a rate of burial fees, from the
prejudices of the people, or from the advantage that may be taken of
those prejudices or other circumstances by a class so directly and
deeply interested as the undertakers.

§ 125. Several physicians of eminence in the metropolis, who are conversant with the state and feelings of families of the middle and higher classes on the occurrence of a death, have expressed their confidence, that the most respectable families, who are stunned by the blow, and are ignorant of the detail of the steps to be taken when a death has occurred, would gladly pay for the attendance of any respectable and responsible person, on whose information they might, under such circumstances, rely. As already stated, the physician takes no cognizance of the arrangements for interments, and knowing the feelings that commonly arise when the undertaker’s bill is presented, carefully avoids giving advice, or doing anything that may implicate him with the arrangements for the interment.

§ 126. In opening the consideration of remedial measures, it appears incumbent to represent that there are many who, viewing what has been accomplished abroad, and the inconvenience experienced in the metropolis in respect to the oldest private trading burial grounds, object on principle to the abandonment of acknowledged public functions and services, and to leaving the necessities of the public as sources of profit to private, and (practically for every-day purposes) irresponsible associations. They submit, that if the steps in this direction cannot be retraced, the public have claims that at all events they shall be stayed. Such opinions may, perhaps, be the best represented in the following portion of the communication from the Rev. Wm. Stone.

It may be thought that, in alluding to these private burial grounds,
I have expressed myself strongly, and indeed I am not anxious to
disavow having done so. The subject seems to me to justify such a
tone of expression. In all ages and nations, the burial of the dead
has been invested with peculiar sanctity. As the office that closes
the visible scene of human existence, it concentrates in itself the
most touching exercise of our affections towards objects endeared to
us in this life, and the most intense and stirring anxieties that we
can feel respecting an invisible state. And, appealing thus to
common sympathies of our nature, it has been universally marked by
observances intended to give it importance or impressiveness. The
faith and usage of Christians have given remarkable prominence to
this duty. The ecclesiastical institutes of our own country indicate
a jealous solicitude for the safe and religious custody of the
receptacles of the dead; and there are few of us, perhaps, to whom
those receptacles are not hallowed by thoughts and recollections of
the deepest personal interest. It is reasonable, then, that the
reverential impressions thus accumulated within us should shrink
from the contact of more selfish and vulgar associations. And one
may be excused for thinking and speaking strongly in reprobation of
a system which degrades the burial of the dead into a trade.
Throughout the whole scheme and working of this system, there is an
exclusive spirit of money-getting, which is revoltingly heartless;
and in some of its details there is an indecency which I have felt
myself compelled to allude to in the tone of strong condemnation.

It is surely desirable that a state of things so vulgar and
demoralizing, should be put an end to, but at present there seems no
prospect of it. Of course, during the continuance of a competition
such as I have described, our parishioners will never return to our
parish burial grounds, and I have already remarked, that if they
did, they might not get interment there, inasmuch as it would,
perhaps, be found impossible to make our parochial system meet the
wants of any crowded population. There is little better chance of
the present offensive system of burial being superseded by the joint
stock cemeteries; for to the mass of our population these cemeteries
hold out hardly any advantages which are not possessed by the
private burial grounds, while they have to compete with those
grounds under disadvantages greater, in some instances, than those
which our churchyards have to contend with.

Indeed, even if it were practicable, I should be sorry to see our
people handed over for burial to a joint stock company. I am very
far from saying this out of any sympathy with the popular, and often
indiscriminate and unreasonable jealousy felt towards all joint
stock companies. Nay, I see obvious reasons why the cemeteries of
such companies should be a great improvement upon the present system
of private speculation in burial grounds. And it may be thought
that, as a clergyman and an interested party, I may naturally prefer
these cemeteries, because their proprietors, unlike the private
speculators, are required to indemnify the clergy for loss of fees
by some amount of pecuniary compensation. But I do sympathize with
the common repugnance to consign to joint stock companies the
solemnities of Christian burial; and I believe that this repugnance
is not more common than it is strong. “And so,” said a highly
intelligent gentleman, pointing to a cemetery of this class, “the
time is come when Christian burial is made an article of traffic.”
And since the legislature has been reported to be contemplating the
removal of burials from populous places, it has been commonly
suspected of having been led to entertain the measure through the
influence of joint stock cemetery proprietors. In fact the
repugnance in question is no more than what I have already adverted
to. It is the state of feeling which shrinks from associating the
touching and impressive solemnities of burial with the profits of
trade. So far as the trading principle is involved, the joint stock
company is no better than the private speculator. However
disinterested may have been the motives which have induced some to
become shareholders in these companies, and I have been assured upon
authority which I respect, that many have done so without any
expectation or hope of profit upon their shares, yet the primary and
effective character of these associations is undeniably that of
trading associations, and they cannot be rescued from that character
by even numerous individual exceptions. Their managers, like the
proprietors of the private grounds, are assiduous in soliciting
attention to their lists of prices; and affiches, painted in large
letters, and placed at various outlets of the metropolis, with
genuine mercantile officiousness, direct the public, as in a case
close by my own parish, “To the E. L. Cemetery, only one mile and
a-half.” Surely we may say, that this system also involves much that
is inconsistent with reverential impressions of the sanctity of
burial, much that must either offend or deteriorate the better
feeling of our population. Then again, as regards burial services,
and other details in the working of the system, with what security
can we consign these to the tender mercies of a trading company? Why
should not the money-getting principle eventually come to operate
upon these points also, and, as in the private burial grounds, tempt
shareholders to sanction indecent and mischievous condescensions to
the interests, habits, tastes, and caprices of the people? What
security, at least, is there equal to that which is afforded by a
clergy and parochial establishments, responsible to the civil and
ecclesiastical authorities of the country, or which would be
afforded by what, for reasons before mentioned, I should think still
preferable, a national plan of burial, placed under a departmental
control of Government?

The remedial measures hereafter submitted for consideration have been deduced directly from the actual necessities experienced within the field of inquiry, and such only are submitted as clearly suggested themselves without reference to any external experience. The following preliminary view of the experience of other nations is presented for consideration on account of the confirmatory evidence which it contains, as well as the instances to be avoided.

_Examples of successful Legislation for the Improvement of the Practice
of Interment._

§ 127. It appears that the evil of the expensive interments consequent on the monopoly which the nature of the event, and the feelings of survivors, gives to the person nearest at hand for the performance of the undertaker’s service, is checked by special arrangements in America. In Boston, and most of the large towns in America, there is a Board of Health which nominates a superintendent of burial grounds, who is invariably a person of special qualifications, and generally a medical man. All undertakers are licensed by the Board of Health, by whom the licence may at any time be revoked. The sexton of the church which the deceased attended is usually the undertaker. The bills of the undertaker are made out on a blank form, furnished by the public superintendent of interment, to whom all bills are submitted, and by whom they are audited and allowed, before they are presented for payment to the relations or friends of the deceased. Previous to interment, the undertaker must obtain from the physician who last attended the deceased, a certificate specifying the profession, age, time of illness, and cause of death of the deceased. This certificate is presented to the superintendent of funerals. An abstract of these certificates, signed by the superintendent of funerals, is printed every week in the public journals of the city. The cost of a funeral for a person in the position of life of the highest class of tradesmen in Boston, is about fifty dollars, or 10_l._ English, exclusive of the cost of the tomb. The price of a good mahogany coffin would be fifteen dollars, or 3_l._ 5_s._ The price of a most elegant mahogany coffin would be perhaps double that price. The price of a pine coffin, such as are used for the persons of the labouring classes, would be about four dollars. There is a peculiarity in the coffins made in the United States,—that a portion of the lid, about a foot from the upper end, opens upon a hinge. This, when opened, exposes to view the face of the deceased, which is covered with glass. The survivors are thus enabled at the last moment to take a view of the deceased, without the danger of infection. In Germany, the coffins are nailed down, every blow of the hammer frequently drawing a scream from the female survivors.

§ 128. In the chief German states it is adopted as a principle, that provision shall be made, and it is made successfully, for meeting the necessities of the population in respect to the undertakers’ supplies of service and materials; and that on the occurrence of a death, those necessities shall not be given up as the subject of common trading profits to whatsoever irresponsible person may obtain the monopoly of them. At Franckfort provision is made for these services and supplies of material at the lowest cost to the public as part of a series of arrangements comprehending the verification of the fact of death on view of the body, the edifice for the reception and care of the dead previous to interment, and the public cemeteries, all under the superintendence of superior and responsible medical officers. The expenses of the supplies of materials are reduced so low under these arrangements, that they no longer enter into serious consideration as a burthen to be met on such occasions.

§ 129. At Berlin, a contract is made by the Government with one person to secure funeral materials and services for the public at certain fixed scales of prices. The materials and services are stated to be of a perfectly satisfactory character; and yet the undertaker’s charge for a funeral such as would here cost for an artisan 4_l._ and upwards, is not more than 15_s._ English money; the charge for a middle class funeral is about 2_l._, and for a funeral of the opulent class of citizens is about, 10_l._ And yet I am assured that the contractors’ profits on the extensive supplies required are deemed too high, and that the Government will, on the renewal of the contract, find it necessary to protect the poorer classes by a contract at a lower rate.

§ 130. At Paris, interments are made the subject of a _fisc_; but a contract is made with one head to secure services and supplies to the private individual at reduced rates, and so far the system works advantageously to the public.

§ 131. The whole of the interments are there performed, and the various burial and religious dues collected and paid under one contract, by joint contractors for the public service at regulated prices, called the _Service des Pompes Funèbres_. This establishment annually buries gratis, upwards of 7000 destitute persons, or nearly one-third of all who die in the city. The funerals and religious services are divided into nine classes, comprehending various settled particulars of service, for which a price is fixed. The appointed service for any of these classes may be had on the terms specified in a tariff. This is found to be a great benefit to testators and survivors, as it enables them to settle the ceremonial with certainty, and without the possibility of any extortion. The first class of funerals are of great pomp: they include bearers, crosses, plumes, eighteen mourning coaches and attendants, grand mass at church, 120 lbs. of wax tapers, an anniversary service, and material of mourning cloth; and also the attendance of Monsieur le Curé, two vicars, twenty-one priests, six singers and ten chorister boys, and two instrumental performers, at a cost of 145_l._, for a funeral superior in magnificence perhaps to any private funeral in England. The charge for the service and materials of the ninth class, in which there is the attendance of a vicar and a priest, and of a bass singer or chorister for the mass, is about 15_s._ of English money. In the service ordinaire there is less religious service, and that is performed gratuitously. The only charge made is the price of the coffin, which is five or seven francs, according to the size: the coffin is covered by a pall, and carried on a plain hearse, drawn by two black horses. This funeral is conducted by a superintendent and four assistants, exclusive of the driver. The following is the scale of charges, and the numbers interred under each, during two years:—

─────────────────────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬──────┬───────┬──────
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1st │ 2nd │ 3rd │ 4th │ 5th │ 6th
│Class.│Class.│Class.│Class.│Class. │Class.
─────────────────────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼───────┼──────
│ £. │ £. │ £. │ £. │£. _s._│ £.
Religious Funeral │ │ │ │ │ │
Service │ 24│ 19│ 11│ 8│ 5 10│ 2
Anniversary Religious│ │ │ │ │ │
Service │ 26│ 20│ 12│ 9│ 6 0│ 3
Undertaker’s Material│ │ │ │ │ │
and Service │ 95│ 83│ 49│ 23│ 14 10│ 5
─────────────────────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼───────┼──────
Total Expenses │ 145│ 122│ 72│ 40│ 26 0│ 10
─────────────────────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼───────┼──────
Number of { 1839│ 23│ 52│ 138│ 256│ 828│ 1,457
Burials { 1841│ 30│ 47│ 188│ 201│ 816│ 1,655
─────────────────────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴───────┴──────
─────────────────────┬──────┬───────┬──────┬────────┬──────────┬───────
│ │ │ │Total of│ │
│ 7th │ 8th │ 9th │the nine│ Service │General
│Class.│Class. │Class.│Classes.│Ordinaire.│Total.
─────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼────────┼──────────┼───────
│ £. │£. _s._│ _s._ │ │ │
Religious Funeral │ │ │ │ │ │
Service │ 1│ 0 16│ 11│ │ │
Anniversary Religious│ │ │ │ │ │
Service │ │ │ │ │ │
Undertaker’s Material│ │ │ │ │ │
and Service │ 3│ 1 11│ 4│ │ │
─────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼────────┼──────────┼───────
Total Expenses │ 4│ 2 7│ 15│ │ │
─────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼────────┼──────────┼───────
Number of { 1839│ 2,523│ 141│ 530│ 5,958│ 14,087│ 20,045
Burials { 1841│ 2,377│ 78│ 715│ 6,107│ 14,185│ 20,292
─────────────────────┴──────┴───────┴──────┴────────┴──────────┴───────

§ 132. On the number of burials in Paris for 1841, the gross income would be about 80,000_l._ per annum. Out of this sum the contractor pays the fixed salaries of the staff of officers, which consists of a chief inspector of funeral ceremonies, of 27 other directors besides, 78 bearers, one inspector of cemeteries and four keepers; officers chiefly appointed by the municipality. The total amount of the salaries which he pays is 5862_l._, English money. He keeps an establishment of 30 hearses and 76 carriages, with suites of minor attendants properly clothed, and inters the 7000 of the pauper class gratuitously. The last contractor paid annually to the municipality 17,000_l._, which sum was chiefly devoted to ecclesiastical objects. The large profits which he realized led to considerable competition, and a new contract was recently sealed for nine years, securing for public purposes an annual income of 28,000_l._

Besides this amount, there is a revenue of about 20,000_l._ per annum derived by the municipality from the sale of tombs, and from the tax on interments, which is twenty francs for the interment of every adult, and ten francs upon children under seven years of age. One-fifth of this revenue, or about 4000_l._, is devoted to the hospitals.

§ 133. The remains of those who die in the public hospitals in Paris, and are not claimed by their friends, are, after dissection, merely enclosed in a coarse cloth and deposited in the ground, without any funereal rites. This number amounts, as stated, to no less than 7000 annually. The total average deaths in Paris is from 28,000 to 30,000 annually. This, in a population of 900,000, gives about one burial to every thirty of the population annually, which is nearly as large a proportion of annual deaths and burials as that in Manchester. The deaths and burials in the British metropolis (though varying in different parts, from 1 in 28, as in Whitechapel, to 1 in 56, as in Hackney, chiefly according to the condition of the locality) average for the entire population of 1,800,000 inhabitants, one death or burial in every forty-two of the inhabitants, or one-fourth less of burials than at Paris in proportion to the population. In Paris the average number of inhabitants to every house is 36. If the mortality were there in the proportion of London there would be 7,000 fewer burials yearly. An assertion may be ventured, that more than this excess of mortality is ascribable to the still lower sanitary condition of the labouring population in Paris, which has its concomitant in a still lower moral condition than yet prevails amongst the population of our large towns.[26]

§ 134. In Paris the law requires that the dead shall be interred within twenty-four hours after the decease, but this law may be evaded by neglect to give notice of the death. The general practice, however, appears to be, that interments take place within two days.

§ 135. In America, the later regulations manifest the tendency of the general experience to connect the regulations of interment with the general regulations for the protection of the public health, and to do this by single, specially qualified, paid, and responsible officers, rather than by Boards, or by any unskilled and honorary agency. The revised statutes of Massachusetts introduce the alternative of the appointment of a single officer. Every town is empowered to appoint a Board of Health, “or a health officer:” and the Board so appointed may appoint “a physician to the Board.” The Board acting by such officer may destroy, remove, or prevent, as the case may require, all nuisances, sources of filth, and causes of sickness. “Whenever any such nuisance or source of filth, or cause of sickness shall be found on private property, the Board of Health, or health officer, shall order the owner or occupant thereof at his own expense to remove the same within twenty-four hours, and if the owner or occupant shall neglect so to do, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars,” c. 21, s. 10. In cases of the refusal of entry into private property, on complaint to a magistrate, the magistrate may thereupon issue his warrant, “directed to the sheriff, or either of his deputies, or to any constable of such town, commanding them to take sufficient aid, and being accompanied by two or more members of the said Board of Health, between the hours of sunset and sunrise, to repair to the place where such nuisance, source of filth, or cause of sickness complained of may be, and to destroy, remove, or prevent, the same, under the direction of such members of the Board of Health.” The cleansing of the streets and houses is in most cases included in the functions of the Board of Health, or of the health officer, who regulates the removal of all refuse. Sec. 14, c. 21.

Every householder, when any of his family are taken ill, is required, on a penalty of one hundred dollars,—and every physician in the like penalty, on ascertaining that any person whom he visits is infected with the small-pox, or other disease dangerous to the public health,—to give immediate notice to the officers of public health, and they may, “unless the condition of such person is such as not to admit of his removal without danger of life,” remove him at once to the public hospital, whatever may be his station in life. Sec. 43 and 44, c. 21.

I have been favoured by Dr. Griscom, the inspector of interments at New York, with the copy of a report on the sanitary condition of the population of that city; which points out the great extent of deaths that are preventible by the adoption of means similar to those recommended in the General Report for the improvement of the sanitary condition of the population in Great Britain. This report, revealing extensive causes of death in New York, of which a large proportion of the population must have been unaware, may be adduced in proof of the immense services derivable from such an office, when zealously executed, in guarding against evils more destructive than wars.[27]

§ 136. In Munich, and in other towns in Germany, the visits and verification of the fact of death as the warrant for interment, is felt to be an important public security, and is highly popular; but one cause of its popularity is the jurisprudential functions of the officer of health, as means of preventing premature interments, and the escape of crime; for comparatively little attention appears yet to have been given to the practical means afforded by the office of tracing out and removing the causes of disease. The difficulty appears to be in respect to the jurisprudential functions of the officers of health to satisfy the public anxiety for the exercise of solemn care in _every_ case of a multitude, where only one case in that multitude will, on the doctrine of chances, be a case calling for intervention; and where it is not provided, as it may and ought to be, that the discovery of that one shall be a matter of deep personal interest, instead of a mere source of trouble to the officer himself, his examinations may be expected to degenerate into a routine in which the intended security will fail in the less obvious cases.

In later times very comprehensive regulations as to the sites and management of cemeteries, and the service of officers of health, who have charge of the cemeteries, have been adopted throughout the Austrian dominions, and it is stated that they work very satisfactorily. On the occasion of every death by accident or violence, or of suspicion, a close inquiry as to the causes is made by the town physician. In Vienna a strict inquiry is made into every such death by the following officers, who all attend for that purpose;—namely, the town physician, the surgeon in chief, the professor of pathological anatomy, a lawyer, and in some cases, when analyses are required, a chemist. The results of their examinations are set forth in a “protocol,” a carefully prepared document, “_bien motivé_,” which sometimes takes two or three days in drawing up. The effect of this inquiry is the prevention, to a great extent, of crimes of violence, and the production of public confidence. It is stated to be highly popular.

§ 137. In Paris some cases have of late occurred, which have created much public uneasiness by the evidence they afforded of the defective organization of the service of the officers of health, and occasioned it recently to undergo an examination with the view to the adoption of better securities. It appears that, from a very early period, to satisfy the public solicitude, the law required the fact of the reality of a death to be verified by the personal visit and inspection of the Maire of the district of the city where the death had taken place. Subsequently, the Maires were allowed to delegate this duty to officers of their own nomination, persons qualified for the duties by a medical education, and who were called _Officiers de Santé_. But the appointments thus made by the Maires did not give public satisfaction; and in the year 1806 it was required that the persons appointed as “officiers de santé” by the Maires, should be chosen by them from amongst the doctors in medicine and surgery who were attached to the public hospitals. They appear, however, to have been mostly chosen without reference to public qualifications, from their own medical friends in private practice. This arrangement of appointing persons in private practice appears to have prevailed in other countries, and to have frustrated much of the benefits otherwise derivable from the institution. Thirty-five of these private practitioners are now appointed to perform the duty. Reports have gained ground that from negligent discharge of the duty, persons had even been buried alive, and that the verification had been given in cases of murder. On a recent commission of inquiry, the celebrated surgeon, M. Orfila, thus speaks of the necessity of the verification of the fact of the decease.

“It is possible to be interred alive! Interments may take place
after murder, committed with the knife or by means of poison,
without a suspicion being created that the death has been occasioned
by violence. Ignorance or malevolence may attribute to crime deaths
that have occurred from natural causes!”

After referring to ancient cases in which evidence was recorded of parties having been buried alive, he adduces the following recent instances of parties having been interred without due verification of the cause of death by the _Officier de Santé_:—

“We all know the case of the death of the grocer in the Rue de la
Paix, who died of poison by arsenic. The interment took place after
the verification of the death. In about a month afterwards I was
called upon to examine the body as to the poison. Although the
putrefaction of the corpse of the person who was of a very full
habit had been much advanced, I was enabled to discover the presence
of the arsenic by which the crime had been perpetrated.

“The widow Danzelle, of the Rue Beauregard, was found dead in her
bed on the 1st of January, 1826. The certificate of the decease was
given in due form to the relations to authorise the interment. In
that certificate, given to M. le Commissaire de Police, the medical
practitioner declared, ‘the death has taken place, and it appears
that it has been occasioned by a commotion of the brain with
hæmorrhage.’ ‘The deceased’ added he, ‘lived alone; she was found
dead in her chamber, where she appeared to have fallen down.’ The
municipal authorities caused the interment to be adjourned, and
required a new examination of the body in the presence of the
Commissioner of Police, assisted by two doctors in medicine. The
result of the examination was, ‘that Madame the widow Danzelle had
fallen under the blows of an assassin; the corpse bore five recent
wounds in the neck, made with a cutting instrument, and the carotid
artery had been divided.’

“In the month of July, a child of Dame Revel, Rue de Seine Saint
Germain, died very suddenly. The authorities being informed that the
child had been the subject of much ill-treatment on the part of the
parents, ordered an inquiry and _une expertise medico-legale_. The
examination of the body showed that the rumours as to the barbarous
conduct of Dame Revel, the mother, were but too well-founded. Dr.
Olivier testified to the fact, that the body bore twenty-seven
recent contusions on the body and members, and a fracture of nearly
five inches in extent, which almost entirely broke through one of
the bones of the cranium.

“The death of this poor child, which was three years and three
months old, awakened suspicions which had arisen on the death of its
eldest brother, of eight years of age, which had been interred on
the 28th of February preceding. The body was disinterred, and Dr.
Olivier, to whom this second examination was confided,
notwithstanding the length of time that had occurred since the
death, found traces of numerous contusions on the body and members,
and a wound above the right ear, with a fracture and disjunction of
the bones of the cranium.”

And notwithstanding in this, as in the other case, the interment was effected without observations.[28]

After giving instances where the innocent were justified or suspicions were allayed by post mortem examinations, which proved that deaths suspected to have been from murder had occurred from natural causes, M. Orfila concludes by stating:—

“I do not believe that it often happens that persons are interred
alive in Paris, though I must admit that such events may take place;
but I am convinced that the earth has covered and continues to cover
crimes without any suspicion being raised in respect to them.”

§ 138. Another report imputes the neglects of the “officiers de santé,” to the forgetfulness of duties, the force of habit or routine, the results of age and infirmities; and the chief remedy recommended, and now apparently in course of adoption in Paris, is the erection on the unsubstantial foundation of service by a number of private practitioners, of two additional stages as securities, namely, of three paid medical officers, who are to devote their time to the superintendence of the performance of the public duties by the private practitioners, and, secondly, a certain number of high honorary officers, who are to superintend both classes of paid officers. This is an example of one of those superficial alterations, in which, from want of firmness on the part of the legislature to compensate fairly and amply the interests which it is obviously necessary to disturb, and from not duly regarding and estimating the immense amount of pain and public evil which requires measures of alleviation of corresponding extent and efficiency; consequently from allowing that amount of pain and mortality to weigh as dust against local patronage and latent sinister interests,—that evil is only masked, and more widely and deeply spread by the intended remedy. Of a certainty the attention of every private practitioner, as he gains practice, whilst acting as a public officer, must every hour of the day be _from_ his public duties, and _with_ the means of adding to his emoluments. That the least possible time may be taken from them, the public duties are slurred over, conclusions are snapped from the readiest superficial incidents; extensive and removable, but latent causes of evil, the development of which would require sustained and laborious examination, are perpetuated, by being stamped authoritatively as “accidental” or arbitrarily classed under some general term assigning the evils as the results of some inscrutable cause. The three superior paid inspectors will not long be able to stimulate the thirty-five private practitioners to a close attention to their public duties against their paramount and ever-pressing interests, or will soon tire of doing so. The service will become one of mere routine and of short and easy acquiescence in all except the most extraordinary cases which present an appearance of danger to the officer himself if he overlook them. Under such arrangements, the functions of the office degenerates into a highly prejudicial form, protracting the evil, by creating an impression from the fact of the existence of the office, that all has been done in the way of prevention or remedy that can be done by such an officer. The admixture of private practice with important public duties in such cases, is attended with further evil in depriving the public of much volunteer service from the whole class of private practitioners, for many who would give information to advance science, or to aid the public service, can scarcely be expected to give cordial aid that may add to the credit and promote the interests of a rival. To the people themselves such services, from a locally connected private practitioner, are generally less acceptable than those of an independent and responsible public officer. The official service must, in time, fail to inspire confidence, for it must fail to elicit evidence to justify public confidence. The additional expense of the three additional officers will only have created an additional interest, in slurring over cases that may have been overlooked by the other class of officers, involving blame for remissness to the superior officers. When exposures do take place, these two classes of officers will only add to the means of perplexing public attention, and of dividing and weakening responsibility. If less than half the number of officers, devoting their whole time to the service, would be sufficient (as will be shown they would), for the efficient discharge of these highly important duties in London, less than one-third of the number would suffice in Paris.

§ 139. Except in the regulation of the expenses of the funerals, there appears to be nothing in the practice of interments in Paris, that deserves to be considered with a view to imitation. Indeed, the whole arrangements there are now under revision, and exertions are being made for their improvement. The little account that appears to have been at any time made of the feelings of the labouring classes, and the burial after dissection, of the poor dying in hospitals, without funereal rites, the almost total omission of any marks of sympathy or respect towards their remains,—cannot but have a most demoralizing effect on the survivors. The mode in which the evil of the retention of the corpse amidst the living is provided for by the law, which requires that interments shall take place within twenty-four hours after notice, must frequently oppress the feelings of the dying and of survivors, and harass them with alarms which the medical inspection provided, as we have seen, § 137, is not of a character to allay. The intermediate stage of removal provided at Franckfort and other German towns; the retention of the corpse in a separate room warmed and ventilated, and watched at all hours, and lighted during the night; the regular medical attendance and inspection, and other cares bestowed until there are unequivocal signs of dissolution, and the minds of all classes are satisfied, appears to be a superior arrangement, salutary in its effect and principle.[29] Beyond these benevolent arrangements may be commended the acts of real good will and charity by which the feelings of the labouring classes are consulted and satisfied by community of sepulture, and the benevolent care and spirit of good will in which it appears to be maintained.

_Experience in respect to the sites of Places of Burial, and sanitary
precautions necessary in respect to them._

There appear to be very important questions connected with the consideration of the site of the place of burial to populous districts.

§ 140. The question of the distance of places of burial (irrespective of convenience of conveyance) appears to be dependent on the numbers buried,—on the composition and preparation of the ground,—on the elevation or depression of the place of burial,—and its exposure to the atmosphere and the direction of the prevalent winds for the avoidance of habitations.

§ 141. The extent of burial ground requisite for any district will be determined by the rate of decomposition.

§ 142. At Franckfort and Munich, and in the other new cemeteries on the continent, where qualified persons have paid attention to the subject, the general rule is not to allow more than one body in a grave. The grounds for this rule are,—that, when only one body is deposited in a grave, the decomposition proceeds regularly,—the emanations are more diluted and less noxious than when the mass of remains is greater; and also that the inconvenience of opening the graves, of allowing escapes of miasma, and the indecency of disturbing the remains for new interments, is thereby avoided; and in the case of exhumations, the confusion and danger of mistaking the particular body is prevented.

§ 143. The progress of the decay of the body is various, according to the nature of the soil and the surrounding agencies. Clayey soils are antiseptic; they retain the gases, as explained by Mr. Leigh; they exclude the external atmosphere, and are also liable to the inconvenience of becoming deeply fissured in hot weather and then allowing the escape of the emanations which have been retained in a highly concentrated state. Loamy, ferruginous, and aluminous soils, moor earth, and bog, are unfavourable to decomposition; sandy, marly, and calcareous soils are favourable to it. Water, at a low temperature, has the tendency, as already explained, to promote only a languid decomposition, which sometimes produces adipocire in bodies: a high and dry temperature tends to produce the consistency and permanency of mummies. A temperature of from 65 degrees Fahrenheit and upwards, and a moist atmosphere, is the most favourable to decomposition. The remains of the young decompose more rapidly than those of the old, females than males, the fat than the lean. The remains of children decompose very rapidly. On opening the graves of children at a period of six or seven years, the bodies have been found decomposed, not even the bones remaining, whilst the bodies of the adults were but little affected. The process of decomposition is also affected by the disease by which the death was occasioned. The process is delayed by the make of some sorts of coffins. The extreme variations of the process under such circumstances as those above recited is from a few months to 30 years or half a century. Bones often last for centuries.

§ 144. The regulation of the depth of the graves has been found to be a subject requiring great attention, to avoid occasioning too rapid an evolution of miasma from the remains, and at the same time to avoid its retention and corruption, to avoid the pollution of distant springs, and also to avoid rendering increased space for burial requisite by the delay of decomposition usually produced by deep burial, for the ground usually becomes hard in proportion to the depth, and delays the decomposition. Attention to these circumstances by qualified persons in Germany has led to different regulations of the depth of graves at different ages. At Stuttgart the different depths are as follows: for bodies of persons—

ft. in.
Under 8 years 3 9
8 to 10 years 4 7
10 to 14 years 5 7
Adults 6 7

At the Glasshutte, in the Erzgebirge, the depths are as follows:

ft. in.
Under 8 years 3 8
8 to 14 years 4 7
Adults 5 0

At Franckfort the average depth prescribed for graves is 5 ft. 7 in.; at Munich 6 ft. 7 in.; in France 4 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft.; in Austria 6 ft. 2 in., if lime be used.

§ 145. Space between graves is also a matter requiring attention to avoid the uncovering of the coffin in one grave in opening another, and to avoid the accidents arising from the falling in of the sides of the graves: this space must vary according to the consistency of the ground and the depth of the graves. At Munich and Stuttgart the space prescribed, is in round numbers, rather more than 32 square feet to each adult. To avoid treading on the graves, and to allow the access of friends, spaces must be allowed also for walks.

These circumstances considered, the space requisite for the interments in a town may be determined by the multiplication of the average square superficies of a grave, by the average yearly mortality, and the period of years which the grave is to remain closed. “As an example,” says Dr. Reicke, “of the mode of calculating the necessary space for the burial ground of a populous district, I will take a town of 35,000 inhabitants. Accordingly of this number it may be reckoned there will yearly die 1000. Of the number 500 will be adults, 50 children, from 7 to 14, and 450 children from 0 to 7 years. For the adults, allowing more than the most economical space, I calculate graves of 48 square feet Wirtemburg (_i. e._ 54·72 square feet English); for the children between 7 and 14 years, 24 square feet (27·36 English feet); and for those under 7, 20 square feet (22·80 English). For the adults I take a period of 10 years, for the youth 8 years, for the infants 7 years, as the time during which periods the grave must not be opened.” According to this calculation the space required for the interment of the several classes would be—

English Numbers English
Square Dead. Years. Square
Feet. Feet.
1. Adults. 54·72 × 500 × 10 = 273,600
2. Youth. 27·36 × 50 × 8 = 10,944
3. Infants. 22·80 × 450 × 7 = 71,820
———————
Total 356,364

“According to the usual calculation the requisite space would be:—

39·90 × 1,000 × 10 = 399,000.

So that, by the above calculation and classification, there is a saving of 42,636 square feet.

“I must, however, beg to be understood that this calculation is only meant to serve as an example, and that the factors on which it is grounded must undergo the necessary variations, according as the soil is more or less favourable to decomposition, and therefore requiring a longer or shorter period of rest; and according to the greater or less consistency of the soil, and therefore requiring the space between the graves to be greater or less; and, lastly, according as the average mortality varies, and especially the rate of mortality of the three classes of ages.”

These factors would give different results for different populations, according to their different proportions of death. As an example of a town population, in Whitechapel the proportion of deaths for every 35,000 of the population will be 1125 deaths yearly. As an example of a rural population, for every 35,000 of the population in Hereford, there will only be 562 deaths annually, and the space required for interments for the two populations will be as follows, at the actual rate of deaths per 35,000 amongst the population in the Whitechapel Union in 1839:

English Total Average
Square Number of Age of Area in Square
Feet. Deaths. Grave. Square Feet.
Feet.
1. Adults. 54·72 × 568 × 10 = 310,810
2. Youths. 27·36 × 31 × 8 = 6,785
3. Children. 22·80 × 524 × 7 = 83,639
————— ———————
1,123 401,234 39·07
————— ——————— —————

Rate of deaths per 35,000 in the Herefordshire Unions in 1839:

English Total Average
Square Number of Age of Area in Square
Feet. Deaths. Grave. Square Feet.
Feet.
1. Adults. 54·72 × 382 × 10 = 209,030
2. Youths. 27·36 × 16 × 8 = 3,502
3. Children. 22·80 × 164 × 7 = 26,174
——— ———————
562 238,706 44·62
——— ——————— —————

This gives for a rural population 976 graves per acre. For a town population 1,117 graves per acre.

But in consequence of the smaller proportion of children dying in the rural district, a larger space is requisite than would appear from a comparative number of the interments if the graves were of the same size. The average size of the different graves may be taken as an epitome of the strength of the same numbers of the two populations: that of the town grave being in round numbers 39 feet, while the rural grave is 44 feet.

Nevertheless, the extent of land requisite for cemetery, on a decennial period of renewal, for a population of 20,000 in a rural district would be only 4–4/10 acres, whilst for 20,000 of such a town population as that of Whitechapel, it would be 7–4/10 acres.

§ 146. In 1838 the deaths in the metropolis were nearly 52,000; and for round numbers the average maybe taken as 50,000 annually. Such an amount of mortality would require on the scale proposed by Dr. Riecke, for the several classes of graves, about 48 acres, or a space of nearly the size of St. James’s Park within the rails, annually. On the same scale, supposing the interments generally renewable in decennial periods, the space required for national cemeteries in the metropolis would be 444 acres, or a space coextensive with Hyde Park, which has 350 acres, and the Green Park and St. James’s Park put together; or rather more than one-fourth more than the Regent’s Park, which has 350 acres; or one-fourth less space than the Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens taken together. But besides the spaces for the cemeteries, spaces would be requisite as belts of land surrounding them, and to be kept clear of houses.

§ 147. The proper distance of places of interment from houses, is calculable according to the number of interments. On this subject there have been some, though not complete observations. There is a church-yard at Stuttgart, in which 500 bodies are interred yearly, at depths varying with the age, according to the scale of regulations stated, with no more than one corpse in each grave, yet a north-west wind renders the emanations from the ground perceptible in houses distant from 250 to 300 paces. The stench of the carrion pits at Montfaucon is almost insupportable to a person not used to it, at a distance of 6500 feet, and with certain winds at double that distance, and under some circumstances even to the distance of five miles. Besides the surface emanations, the pollution of the subsoil drainage and springs have to be regarded. Captain Vetch states, that on some plains in Mexico, where animals have been slaughtered and buried in pits in permeable ground, the effects on vegetation were to be seen along the edges of a brook for a distance of three-quarters of a mile. In some parts they actually slaughtered and buried animals for the purpose of influencing the surrounding vegetation. By the best regulations in Germany, as already stated, wells are forbidden to be sunk near grave-yards, except at certain distances, such as 300 feet. _Ante_, §§ 13, 14.

§ 148. On such data as have been obtained, the distance of a cemetery ought to vary according to its size, or the number of the population for whom burial is required. The cemetery for a small population of from 500 to 1000 inhabitants, should, Dr. Reicke considers, be not less than 150 paces; for 1000 to 5000 inhabitants, not less than 300 paces; for above 5000, not less than 500 paces. In Prussia, the distance from houses at which cemeteries may be built, is fixed at not less than 500 paces; at Stralsund, in Prussia, at 1000 paces.

§ 149. It is recommended that in general public cemeteries should be placed at the east or the north, or the north-east of a town: the south and south-west winds, being usually moist, hold the putrefactive gases in solution more readily than the north, or north-east winds, which are dry. The higher the elevation of a cemetery, the nearer may it be permitted to a city, as putrefactive gases are lighter than the atmosphere and ascend. For the same reason, cemeteries lower than the houses should be at a greater distance. A site, with a slope to the south, is deemed the best, as it will be drier and warmer, and facilitate decomposition.

§ 150. Competent witnesses declare, that by a careful preparation of the ground, and without any appliances that would be otherwise than acceptable to the most fastidious minds, the escape of miasma may be so regulated as to avoid all injury to the health, and springs may be protected from pollution by drainage; and that by these means the necessity of far distant sites, and the inconvenience and expense of conveyance of the remains, and obstructions to the access of friends to the place of burial, may be avoided.