Interment and disinterment : a further exposition of the practices pursued in the metropolitan places of sepulture, and the results as affecting the health of the living : in a series of letters to the editor of the Morning Herald / by G.A. Walker.

Date:: 1843

Credit: Interment and disinterment : a further exposition of the practices pursued in the metropolitan places of sepulture, and the results as affecting the health of the living : in a series of letters to the editor of the Morning Herald / by G.A. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$can be no doubt that the effects qf exhalations from church-yards on the health of individuals exposed to them, particularly in[crowded localities, are most pernicious. I have no hesitation, therefore, in expressing my decided opinion that the interment of the dead among the living should be no longer permitted.” I have the honour to remain, Sir, Your most obedient servant, GEORGE ALFRED WALKER. December 10, 1842. Letter VIIT. \_From the Morning Herald, January 5, 1843.] Sir,—I am glad to find that one effect of the publication of this series of letters in your valuable journal has been to cause alarm among a small section of those who profit by the continuance of the practices which it has been my object to denounce and destroy. The “ .<4»fi-Abolition of Intra-mural Interment Society,” recently established, have, by their Committee, put forth a pamphlet in defence of the existing system of sepulture. The efforts of their oblique “ Bornoyeur” are worthy of a better object. It is to be regretted that an attempt should be made to defend that which is indefensible. The character and complexion of this advocacy may be judged of from the simple circumstance, that instead of attempting to disprove in detail the FACT3 given in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, he contents him- self with denying their correctness in the gross—a course of proceeding which I need scarcely say is within the reach of any one who is not overburdened with scruples in the application of the terms “ fool,” ” liar,” and “ libeller,” in which this “ polite letter-writer” so exuberantly indulges. But, Sir, when I tell you that this advocate of practices which afflict while they disgust—this apologist, nay eulogist, of a system which at once insults the memory of the dead, and saps the healthful existence of the living ; when I tell you, Sir, that this individual himself, a so-called minister of the Gospel, has either accepted his office from those “ whose praise is profit',” or that he is the self-elected champion of enormities at the bare mention of which every good man would indignantly recoil, I am sure you will agree with me, that I ought not to suffer myself to be drawn aside from what I believe to be my duty, by such attempts at controversy as are made by this Reverend pamphleteer. To return, therefore, to my subject. In my former communications, I have briefly and rapidly noticed the system of interment too frequently practised in London. I assert, without fear of contradic- tion, that in many large towns similar practices are pursued, and the same injurious results must have followed. If the condition of the burial-places in England be such that great moral and physical injury must necessarily be inflicted upon its inhabitants, in Scotland* and in Ireland they are even in a worse state. “ I am persuaded [says an indisputable and excellent authority on this subject] that the remains of 130,000 Irish Roman Catholics are annually consigned to the earth unattended by a clergy- man. I believe, that in the county of Mayo alone, the number so bereft of Christian burial is not less than 7,000 in each year. Many of the burial-places present spectacles truly revolting. Often have I seen graves turned up by swine, and grave- yards unprotected by any enclosure whatever.”f It now remains for me, previously to entering upon a recital of cases proving the direct effects of emanations from the dead upon the living, to explain, as clearly as I possibly can, the manner in which gases pass off fiom the surface of grave-yards, and why it is, that excepting • The following among many other statements in my possession, proves this allegation: — “Churchyard Desecration at Leith —From the over-crowded state ofone of the burying grounds in this town, a system has been going on, and is still in active operation, which has aroused a general feeling of indignation among all classes of our townsmen We allude to the practice of parting the surplus mould to the beach, literally scattering the ashes of our fathers upon the wide world of waters ! We understand that from 15 to 20 cart-loads of churchyard earth are weekly deposited in the sea. A few days ago we witnessed pieces of coffins, coffin handles, and other memorials of the grave, strewed about upon the sands, to be washed away with the dust of the dead, by the next returning tide. Time was when the ‘ narrow house’ was indeed a resting-place, but now the sacred ashes of those whom we hold most dear are forbidden the repose of the grave 1 We trust that this will immediately be put a stop to, and new ground be provided for a receptacle for the dead.”—Scotsman. t Letter from Eneas Macdonnell, Esq. to the Editor of the Times, Feb. 1, 1841. U$