provide assistance, equivalent at least to the difficulty which its
adoption must occasion them. Beyond this, I believe you would wish to
disturb as little as possible the ordinary routine of interment; and I
have aimed, therefore, at suggesting assistance only in such kind, and
in such degree, as may least interfere with any interests of trade,
least derange any established habits, least offend any prejudices of the
people.
* * * * *
III. There is no part of the subject which I have considered with more
anxiety than that which relates to delays of interment, and to the
prolonged keeping of dead bodies in the rooms of their living kindred.
Evils arising in this source are unknown to the rich. Soldered in its
leaden coffin, on tressels in some separate and spacious room, a corpse
may await the convenience of survivors with little detriment to their
atmosphere.
Not so in the poor man’s dwelling. The sides of a wooden coffin, often
imperfectly joined, are at best all that divide the decomposition of the
dead from the respiration of the living. A room, tenanted night and day
by the family of mourners, likewise contains the remains of the dead.
For some days the coffin is unclosed. The bare corpse lies there amid
the living; beside them in their sleep; before them at their meals.
The death perhaps has occurred on a Wednesday or Thursday; the next
Sunday is thought too early for the funeral; the body remains unburied
till the Sunday week. Summer or winter makes little difference to this
detention: nor is there sufficient knowledge on the subject, among the
poorer population, for alarm to be excited even by the concurrence of
infectious disease in a room so hurtfully occupied.
I have no means of telling you, with statistical precision, in how many
of your annual deaths the corpse is detained in dangerous proximity to
the living. But I have already quoted an official classification of
deaths, by which it would appear that more than two-thirds of your
deaths are of the artisan class or below it. Among them at least, it
would be exceptional for the corpse to have a room to itself. On an
average, then, there would probably be lying within the City at any
moment, from thirty to forty dead bodies in rooms tenanted by living
persons.
This very serious evil is well known to all persons who have taken an
interest in the sanitary advancement of the poor; and ineffectual
endeavours have been made for its diminution. The law does indeed
empower your Officer of Health, under certain circumstances, to order
the removal of a corpse from any inhabited room. And, under the
Nuisances Removal Act, the General Board of Health may be authorised,
during times of epidemic disease, to issue directions and regulations
for the speedy interment of the dead. Both laws have remained
inoperative, and are likely to remain so.
If one were starting anew--legislating for a people with unformed
habits, nothing might be easier than to devise regulations of a perfect
kind with regard to the sanitary management of the dead. But our case is
widely different. The evils against which we have to contend are among
the deepliest-rooted habits of the country. In defence of what exists
there are many stupid and ignorant prejudices: but, interwoven with
these are feelings of tenderness and affection, to which all
consideration and reverence are due;--feelings which would be shocked
and outraged by any abrupt endeavour to reduce the care of the dead to a
system of fixed regulations.
For myself, having the deepest sense of the evil in question, and having
officially the power to order the removal of the dead, I may repeat that
I have never yet exercised my authority. Practically speaking, I can
hardly conceive an instance in which I should attempt to do so. It would
require the strongest case that could be shown of actual mischief in
progress--of disease and death multiplied day by day through the
presence of some particular dead body, to justify interference even in
that single instance. Nothing like the operation of a general law would
be tolerated;--nothing like including the dead in a compulsory plan of
hygienic police.
After very careful consideration of the subject, I may confess myself
even more impressed with its difficulties than when I first began to
give it my attention; and in the few suggestions which follow I cannot
pretend to do more than intimate where, in my opinion, a beginning may
usefully be made towards an improvement which it will take many years
to accomplish.
Legislative remedies, proposed for the evils which I am bringing under
your notice, have been of two kinds--viz., _first_, to restrict the time
during which it should be lawful to keep a body unburied; _secondly_, to
promote the use of reception-houses (as they have been called) whither
bodies might be removed from within all dwelling-places, and be kept
under certain regulations during the days preceding their interment.
As regards the first point;--there are many foreign countries (and even
some parts of the United Kingdom) where either law or custom has made it
imperative to bury within two, three, or four days of death. Our habit,
unfortunately, is to keep the corpse unburied for twice as long. A week
may probably be considered our medium interval between death and
interment; and with this delay, I need hardly tell you, the body becomes
putrid--sometimes intensely so, before the time for its removal arrives.
Among the wealthier classes, as I have said, this delay is practically
unimportant; except in so far as every repetition maintains the
pernicious custom. Scarcely on account of any risk arising to themselves
in emanations from the dead, but mainly for the sake of influence and
example, would one wish the educated classes of the community to adopt
the usage of earlier burial. Our present practice is upheld by no law of
necessity; nor for the most part does it represent any extravagance of
grief, or fond reluctance of separation. Chiefly it subsists by our
indolent acquiescence in a habit, which former prejudices and former
exigencies established. Fears of premature interment, which had much to
do with it, are now seldom spoken of but with a smile. The longer
interval, once rightly insisted on as necessary for the gathering of
distant friends, has now, in the progress of events, become absurdly
excessive: in a vast majority of cases, all whose presence is needed,
live within a narrow circle; and the more distant mourner, who, fifty
years ago, would have spent several days in coming from Paris or
Edinburgh, can now finish his journey in twelve hours. It is much to be
wished that, under these changed circumstances, an altered practice
might ensue in the upper classes of society, fixing their time of burial
within three or four days of death. Such example of wealthier
neighbours, aided by greater enlightenment and education among
themselves, would greatly tend to detach the poor from many observances
and delays, in relation to the dead, which, in their narrow dwellings
cannot continue with impunity.
But, as regards these poorer classes, cannot anything be done in
connexion with your new arrangements, to abridge the period of delay? As
for any positive regulation, limiting the time during which it should be
allowed to retain dead bodies in certain dwelling-houses,--such could
only be enforced by an extensive organisation of sanitary police, which
you would have to call into existence for the purpose, and which, in the
present state of public opinion, would encounter insurmountable
difficulties on every occasion of its authoritative interference.
It is by indirect means and inducements alone, that I can hope at
present to effect the desired alteration; and by them, I think,
something can be ensured toward shortening the delays of interment.
First, I believe that everything which cheapens the cost of burial, will
conduce to such a result; for, among the poor, one considerable cause of
procrastination must often be the immediate absence of money. The plan
of conveyance and payment which I have suggested, would at least ensure
you against any increase of this difficulty, and might readily be
applied to diminish it. For, under such a system of single payment for
grave and conveyance, it would be practicable, and, I think, most
advantageous, to fix two prices, with a difference of at least five
shillings between them; to charge the lower fee whenever the funeral
should occur within eighty hours of death, the higher whenever this
period should be exceeded. If, by the general adoption of the former
alternative, the Cemetery receipts should be diminished in respect of
artisan funerals, even to the utmost extent--say five or six hundred
pounds per annum--this money, or much more, would have been
advantageously expended in purchasing so great a reform. If, on the
contrary, the immediate option of the working classes should be in
favour of continuing a system so injurious to themselves and to their
neighbours, there would be no injustice in leaving them the incumbrance
of a cost, from which it would require only their own will to escape.
The difference of price would soon be recognised as a municipal tax on
delays of interment;--a tax, rendered legitimate by the public evil
which it is designed to correct, and guarded against remonstrance,
because any man may avoid it who will. And since the delays in question
often arise in a passive habit of the people, founded on no deliberate
intention or reason, I cannot but believe that a well-marked difference
of fee would, as it were, startle the poor into considering the
question, which would come to be of daily argument in their houses:--‘Is
it worth while that our funeral cost should be increased by the amount
of one or two days wages, in order that we may retain within our
dwelling-rooms four days longer, that which every one tells us is
hurtful to ourselves and to others?’
It has been suggested to me, that many delays occur owing to Sunday
being considered specially as a funeral day among the labouring classes;
that an equal distribution of burials over the week would be preferable
to this waiting for a particular day; and that the closure of your
Cemetery on Sundays might accordingly be beneficial for the purposes
under consideration. Many arguments will doubtless occur to you, both
for and against the desirability of Sunday interments; but this probably
may be regarded as a point of detail, more fitly to be considered when
your scheme is complete, or even when it has actually given you some
experience of its operation.
As regards the second point adverted to--the establishment 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 household, 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 familiarity 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 yourselves at
starting with any elaborate machinery, for the sake of so scanty an
expectation.
The reception-houses of Germany, as you probably know, are founded with
a double intention; partly for the purpose which I am here chiefly
considering--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 officered. In that at Frankfort, for
instance, each body is placed in a separate, warmed and ventilated cell;
cords are attached to the fingers in such manner that the slightest
movement occasions the ringing of an alarum; night and day watch is kept
in a central apartment which looks into each cell, and has the several
alarum-bells hung round it; adjacent is a room designed for acts of
resuscitation, with bath, galvanic apparatus and the like, always in
readiness for instant use; and, so long as any corpse lies within the
reception-house, the medical superintendent of the establishment never
goes beyond its walls. Dr. Sutherland, whose report to the General Board
of Health is full of interesting information on the burial-institutions
of the Continent, praises the completeness and ingenuity of these
contrivances; adding, however, that ‘after careful inquiry at all the
cities where he found them to exist, he could not learn that any case of
resuscitation had as yet occurred.’ I may add, too, as regards my own
personal experience in this country, that, with extensive opportunities,
it has never happened to me, either to see any case of suspended
animation where doubts of death and question of interment could arise,
nor to hear in professional circles of any such occurrence, I therefore
think it quite unnecessary to recommend any arrangement of
reception-houses, with reference to the resuscitation of persons
apparently dead.
The object for which I would desire their institution, is exclusively
that of receiving dead bodies out of the houses of the poor, in order to
mitigate those evils which arise in prolonged retention of the corpse.
That this object is in itself very desirable, and that under the
prevalence of epidemic disease its accomplishment might be of urgent
necessity, you will not doubt: and the responsibility for fulfilling
it--or at least for giving all facilities to its fulfilment, is so
distinctly imposed on you by the letter and spirit of the law, that you
will probably wish to take measures accordingly.
The extent, then, to which my information on the subject would lead me
to recommend provision to be made, is this: I would advise that
accommodation of an appropriate character (savouring in style rather of
an ecclesiastical construction, than of the workhouse or
dissecting-room) be arranged for the reception of fifty coffins. Tor
this purpose I would suggest--not the building of several separate
reception-houses within the City of London, in order to their being
respectively adjacent to the portions of population which might use
them,--but rather the establishment of one only, and that on the site of
your Cemetery. Thus the conveyance of bodies which would take place
under your auspices, might be made with greater economy, since it could
work into the plan I have already suggested. The advantage of having
only a single edifice (especially since its use is likely to be limited)
and of including its superintendence in the general organisation of
your Cemetery, cannot be questioned. And it seems to me, likewise, that
a building designed for the reception of many dead bodies, cannot
conveniently be established in the heart of the City.
I would of course recommend that the use of this building should be
entirely optional with the poor, and that its advantages should be
allowed gratuitously to persons burying in your ground: so that any one
who, in respect of his cemetery-fee, would be entitled to have a corpse
conveyed thither for funeral purposes, might claim this conveyance as
soon as he chose after the occurrence of death, and might have the
coffin kept with all proper formalities in the reception-house, till the
moment fixed for its interment.
On further particulars connected with this part of your arrangements, I
do not think it requisite at present to dwell; especially because, while
I regard the establishment of a reception-house to be quite
indispensable to the complete fulfilment of your new responsibilities, I
still look upon it as an institution to be gradually developed in the
course of years, and according to circumstances yet undetermined, rather
than as something which ought at once to assume its permanent character
and proportions.
* * * * *
Here, too, in concluding this introductory report, I may observe that I
have endeavoured as far as possible to avoid encumbering it with detail.
For myself, in its construction, I have thought it indispensable to
pursue the subject into minuter ramifications, to consider a vast number
of circumstances here scarcely mentioned, to make myself acquainted with
the burial customs of other countries, to review a great variety of
opinions and arguments which have been advanced on the several matters
alluded to, and to consult with persons practically versed in them. But
to have brought all this material before you, would have prolonged my
report to an inconvenient extent with no proportionate utility.
Further, as regards these details of the subject, there are many parts
on which I cannot address you with the confidence that belongs to
personal knowledge. The general principles which I have set before you,
do indeed lie within range of my official and professional observation.
But the next stage of your inquiry relates to matters of special pursuit
with which I am only indirectly conversant: and whatever information I
may have compiled for myself from other sources, you will probably best
obtain at first hand. Practical experience in the construction and
working of Cemeteries has now for many years been the growing knowledge
of persons connected with their administration by ties of business, or
by official appointment. In many instances it has been dearly purchased,
and notorious failures have arisen from its absence. Regard being had to
the magnitude of your undertaking--hitherto unprecedented in the
country, and to the immense interests involved in your success, I cannot
but earnestly hope that such experience may be made available for your
information.
At an early period you will have to determine what appointments will be
requisite, with a view to the architectural and other designs of your
cemetery, to its economical planning and decorations, to the
superintendence of its daily working, to its financial management, to
the conveyance of bodies, and to all intramural organisation connected
therewith. Minute details will be best considered when these
appointments are made, and when you will naturally have the benefit of
such practical experience as may best assist your deliberations.
For the task on which you are engaged extends, I need hardly say, far
beyond the purchase of certain acres for your burial-ground. It implies
for its completion, that you shall possess an adequate plan on which the
interment of your population may be managed during many succeeding
generations; a plan constructed, first of all, with entire regard to the
general good of the public, and next, with as little violence as may be
to those habits, prejudices, and interests, which are involved in the
present system of interment.
The construction of such a plan constitutes a very large question of
municipal policy;--one which, because of its solemn subject, and because
of the degree in which human feelings and affections are involved in it,
requires to be handled with peculiar discretion and delicacy; but which
not the less requires to be contemplated in a large and comprehensive
manner.
I have therefore thought I should best fulfil the object of your
reference, by bringing before you those general principles which lie at
the root of all minute considerations: in order that, having first
determined on them, and having taken one collective view of the subject,
you may better know at what time, and in what order, and to what extent,
you would wish the minor details to be developed for your information.
I have the honour,
&c. &c.
THE END.
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