The first [-fourth] of a series of lectures delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, Nov. 27, 1846 [-August 13, 1847], on the actual condition of the metropolitan grave-yards.

  • Walker, George Alfred, 1807-1884.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first [-fourth] of a series of lectures delivered at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, Nov. 27, 1846 [-August 13, 1847], on the actual condition of the metropolitan grave-yards. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that the lids of coffins frequently become convex, and sometimes are rent asun¬ der, and the gases thus and otherwise disengaged become diffused and mixed with the atmosphere, and enter the lungs in every inspiration. “ That in warmer climates, and in our own, exhalations from dead bodies have in many instances seriously injured health, and in some have immediately destroyed life. In confirmation of the latter assertion, your Petitioner would humbly direct the attention of your honourable House to the death of two men upon the opening of a grave in Aldgate church-yard, in the month of September, 1838, and to a yet more recent instance, in the death of William Green, a grave¬ digger of St. Margaret, Westminster, and the subsequent illness and death of the surgeon in attendance, and his female domestic, who both sank within a few days of the gravedigger. “That your Petitioner is convinced, from long observation, that the keeping of dead bodies for a period of many days, and during warm weather, more particularly in densely populated and ill-ventilated neighbourhoods, is a practice highly injurious to the health of the living, and requires the interference of your honourable House. “ That, from sources of information on which your Petitioner has the fullest reliance, he is convinced that the evils arising from the present system of interment are not confined to the Metropolis, but exist in a proportionate degree in the cities and populous towns throughout the kingdom, and in some of the dependencies of the British empire. “ That your Petitioner believes he is performing a public duty in thus ex¬ pressing his conviction, that the majority of the places for the interment of the dead are so many centres of infection, constantly giving off noxious effluvia, which, according to the circumstances of locality, atmosphere, and the power of resistance in those subjected to its influence, operate as a slow or energetic poison. “Your Petitioner therefore humbly and earnestly prays, That a Com¬ mittee of your honourable House may be appointed, or such other means employed as your honourable House in its wisdom may deem necessary, for the purpose of instituting a full and searching inquiry into the condition of the burial-places of the United Kingdom, your Petitioner believing that such evi¬ dence will be elicited as will convince your honourable House of the necessity of a revision or abrogation of the existing laws relative to burial, or of the total and absolute prohibition of the interment of the dead in the midst of the living.” The result of this Petition wras the appointment of a Select Committee, of which W. A. Mackinnon, Esq., was named Chairman. The Committee com¬ menced the examination of witnesses on the 17th of March, and concluded their labours on the 6th of May. The Report of that Committee stated, that “ after a long and 'patient investi¬ gation, your Committee cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that the nuisance of interments in large towns, and the injury arising to the health of the community from the practice, are fully proved.” The resolution of the Committee shows thut all the allegations contained in my Petition were substantiated, whilst the testimony accorded in the Report was to myself an acknowledgment of the services I had rendered.