Report to the board of police of Glasgow, by the medical officer and the master of works, on intramural burying grounds.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the board of police of Glasgow, by the medical officer and the master of works, on intramural burying grounds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    REPORT. Glasgow, December, 1869. Under a remit from the Board of Police, we have very carefully considered the state of the various Intramural Burying Grounds of Glasgow, and in doing so have been assisted by Returns obtained on an order of the Board, through Mr. Lang, as well as by the very careful and elaborate Report of a Committee of the Town Council, bearing date 25th June, 18G8. We have also visited most of these burying grounds, and have availed ourselves fully of the services of the Sanitary Inspectors, to ascertain the practices followed in burials, particularly of the poor. From these sources of information we are able to present the following suggestions and recommendations, which, however, are here submitted very briefly, as the details on which they are founded are accessible to the Board, and need not be repeated at length. In a community occupying a vast amount of surface closely packed with dwellings, such as the City of Glasgow, in which about 14,000 deaths, on an average, take place annually on a superficial area of 5763 acres, inclusive of the 728 acres beyond the Parliamentary Boundary, it seems impos- sible to regulate intramural interments upon any principle of immediate application, without a degree of practical inconvenience, and even serious suffering and pecuniary distress to those who can least afford it, that cannot be contemplated without leading to some modification of the principles. If, for example, we were to forbid intramural interments entirely, the consequence, as matters stand at