A supplementary report on the results of a spiecal (sic) inquiry into the practice of interment in towns made at the request of Her Majestys' Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, / by Edwin Chadwick.

  • Great Britain. Poor Law Commissioners.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A supplementary report on the results of a spiecal (sic) inquiry into the practice of interment in towns made at the request of Her Majestys' Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, / by Edwin Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    of Emanation!} from Human Remains examined. occurred during I lie hottest season of the year, and therefore that the putrid emanations might be believed to be in their most powerful and injurious state, I would reply to this by asking the simple question, what occasion was there for the disinterment ? Parent Duchatelet maintains complete silence on this point; but to me the following notices appear worthy of attention. In the year 1554, Houlier and Fernel, and in the year 1738, Lemery.Geoffroy, and Hunaud, raised many complaints of this churchyard ; and the' two first had asserted that, during the plague, the disease had lingered longest in the neighbourhood of the Cimeticre de laTrinite, and that there the greatest number had fallen a sacrifice. In the years 1737 and 1 746 the inhabitants of the houses round the churchyard of St. Innocens complained loudly of the revolting stench to which they were exposed. In the year 1755 the matter again came into notice: the in- spector who was intrusted with the inquiry, himself saw the vapour rising from a large common grave, and convinced himself of the injurious effects of this vapour on the inhabitants of the neighbouring house.* Often, says the author of a paper which we have before often alluded to, the complexions of the young people who remain in this neighbourhood grow pale. Meat sooner becomes putrid there than elsewhere, and many persons cannot get accustomed to these houses. In the year 1779, in a cemetery which yearly received from 2000 to 3000 corpses, they dug an immense common grave near to that part of the cemetery which touches upon the Rue de la Lingerie. The grave was 50 feet deep, and made to receive from 1500 to 1600 bodies. But in February, 1780, the whole of the cellars in the street were no longer fit to use. Candles were extinguished by the air in these cellars; and those who only approached the apertures were immediately seized with the most alarming attacks. The evil was only diminished on the bodies being covered with half a foot of lime, and all further interments forbidden. But even that mast have been found insufficient, as, after some years, the great work of disinterring the bodies from this churchyard was determined upon. This undertaking, according to Thouret's report, was carried on from December, 1785, to May, 1786 ; from December, 1786, to February, 1787 ; and in August and October of the same year: and it is not unimportant to quote this passage, as it clearly shows how little correct Parent Duchatelet was in his general statement, that those disinterments took place in the hottest seasons of the year. It is very clear that it was exactly the coldest seasons of the year which were chosen for the work; and though in the year 1787 there occurs the ex- ception of the work having been again begun in August, I think it may be assumed that the weather of this month was unusually cold, and it was therefore thought the work might be carried on without injurious effects. It does not, however, appear to have been considered safe to continue the work at that season, since the report goes on to state that the operations were again discontinued in September. Against those statements of Parent Duehatelet, as to the innocuousness * According to a memoir on this subject, read at the Royal Academy of Sciences, by M. Cadet de Vaux, in the year 1781, « Le mephetisme qui s'etoit degage d une des fosses voisines du cimetiere, avoit infecte toutes )es caves: oncorhparait aux poisons les plus subtils, it ceux dout les sauvages impregnaut leur fleches mcur- trieres, la terrible activite de cette emanation. Les mure baignes de l'humidite dunt elles les pe'uetroit, pouvoit communiquer, disoit on par le seul att6uchement les accidens les plus redoutable. See Mcmoires de la Societe Royale de Medecine, torn. viii. p. 242 ; also Annales de Chimie, torn. v. p. 158. As an instance of the .state of the cellars around the grave-yard, it is stated, that a workman being en- gaged in one of them put his hand on the wet wall. He was warned that the moisture on the walls was poisonous, and was requested to wash the hand in vinegar. He merely dried his hand on his apron: at the end of three days the whole arm became numb, then the band and lower arm swelled with great pain blisters came out on the skin, and the epidermis came off.