Introductory report, suggesting the outline of a scheme for extramural interment : submitted to the Improvement-Committee of the Hon. the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London / by the Medical Officer of Health.

  • Simon, Sir John, 1816-1904.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory report, suggesting the outline of a scheme for extramural interment : submitted to the Improvement-Committee of the Hon. the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London / by the Medical Officer of Health. 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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    As regards the second point adverted to—the esta- blishment of special reception-houses for the dead, I do not hesitate to say that, if they could be brought into general use, their institution would confer great advantages on the poor. But against this event, at least as an immediate one, I grieve to see strong probabilities. A first proposal made to some mourning house- hold, that they should trust to strangers' hands the custody of their unburied dead, would in most instances greatly and suddenly clash with their customs, and prejudices, and affections. Whatever success you might have in conquering this difficulty would of necessity be slow: and my practical fami- liarity with the poorer classes makes me so little hopeful of their immediate acquiescence in the plan, that I should hardly feel justified in urging you to incur any very large expense, or to embarrass your- selves at starting with any elaborate machinery, for the sake of so scanty an expectation. The reception-houses of Germany, as you proba- bly know, are founded with a double intention; partly for the purpose which I am here chiefly con- sidering—that the dead may be removed from an injurious contiguity to the living; partly also that the bodies may be vigilantly observed, in case of suspended animation. With the latter view, many of them are specially furnished and specially offi- cered. In that at Frankfort, for instance, each body is placed in a separate, warmed and ventilated