On the past and present state of intramural burying places : with practical suggestions for the establishment of national extramural cemeteries / by Geo. Alfd. Walker.

  • George Alfred Walker
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the past and present state of intramural burying places : with practical suggestions for the establishment of national extramural cemeteries / by Geo. Alfd. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    r4 THB WlCKEDNKSS AND IfOLLY OK THB VUA.CT1CE, has still its advocates, nay, its eulogists. Facts, however, too notorious to be longer denied, and proofs of mischiefs resulting, too numerous and too terrible to, be overlooked, brought entire conviction to the minds of the people—in the year 1849. I hesitate not to declare that a large proportion of the 68,432 persons who perished in Lon- don in that year were sent prematurely to their last account. And what was the condition of matters—what were our municipal, our parochial, our governmental arrangements or provisions during the existence of the most destructive epidemic of modern times? Why, during a period of general consternation and alarm, the bodies of those who were slain by the pestilence were deposited in the so-called burial-places of this metropolis in spaces utterly incapable of receiving, as I had years since proved, the ordinary mor- tality, amounting to some 5'2,000 per annum. Yet between 2,000 and 3,000 bodies were deposited weekly (not buried, be it remembered, for that term would be a misnomer) in and under the streets of London during the prevalence of the cholera—the mort de chien, or the dog's death, as it is very properly called •, and this iniquitous, this abominable and deadly work, was persisted in during the whole of that terrible time; persisted in in defiance, nay, in utter con- tempt, of the most sincere and the most energetic protesta- tions of the Society* of which I have the honour to be the Pre- sident (D.); in spite of the continuous complaints, the urgent remonstrances, and the denunciations of the press. During many weeks this unequal, this murderous battle was fought by the inhabitants of London—fought, be it always remembered, with an invisible, a non tangible enemy. This beleagured city was attacked, not by forces from without, but by enemies within—enemies whom cupidity and superstition * The National Society for the Abolition of Burial in Towns.
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