Report on the interment of the dead / Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association.

  • Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Report on the interment of the dead / Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ground to ensure good drainage; and to prevent any difficulty arising in this respect, stringent regulations should be made to limit the depth of graves to the point of sufficient outfall. Such a difficulty should he avoided, when possible, by choosing elevated ground ; a gentle slope appears to he the most eligible. General Remarks on Interments. If two or more bodies are interred together, the decay cannot proceed so rapidly, even in porous ground, as in graves having only one body in each. Bricked graves are generally well cemented on the inside, and the chief result is a retardation of decay. They are less injurious, in a sanitary point of view, than ordinary graves in an ill-adapted soil and a crowded yard, which allow the escape of gases upwards ; but they are certainly not less injurious than graves constructed as recom¬ mended in the preceding chapter. They may, however, be regarded as favouring the preservation of bodies, and, of course, they could not be used in the ordinary period of rotation. If there should be an escape of gas in such graves (there being no passage of water, and, usually, several bodies interred in each), it would be more likely to rise upwards than in the common graves with only one body in each. Hence the coverings of earth for bricked graves ought to be as deep, at least, as in common graves. The same remarks will apply in the case of lead coffins, which simply retard decay. According to the views expressed above, the use of charcoal or other disinfectants becomes unnecessary, although when an excessive number of bodies are interred in one grave, it is of the greatest service. Disinfectants are chiefly valuable before burial, to prevent infection and unpleasant odours. In a properly regulated Grave-yard none is needed after burial. The plan of burying in alternate graves is considered objectionable, as it involves the disturbance of the ground near bodies which are par¬ tially decomposed, and approaches closely to the plan of burying many in one grave. Nor does it offer any advantage whatever. It will now be necessary to make some observations on the three sections into which the grave yard is proposed to be divided.