On the past and present state of intramural burying places : with practical suggestions for the establishment of national extramural cemeteries / by Geo. Alfd. Walker.

  • Walker, George Alfred, 1807-1884.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the past and present state of intramural burying places : with practical suggestions for the establishment of national extramural cemeteries / by Geo. Alfd. Walker. 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.

    14/38 (page 12)
    laid ! They were poor, and never inquired after—appa- rently of less value than the missing penny in the balance- sheet of a banker. The above is but a small item in our account with intramural sepulture. Sufficient, however, has been said to demonstrate its destructive consequences to the people's health, and its degrading influence on the moral character of all connected with it. Self-interest and self- respect imperatively require a remedy, for we can no longer remain between the unpleasant alternative of being plun- dered by the living, oi* poisoned by the dead. If the prediction published in 1839, continuously enforced and supported, as rt has since been, by the most startling and astounding evidence, was at that period justifiable, how much more loudly and earnestly may I repeat my warnings and denunciations in the beginning of the year 1852? With how much louder a voice may not the humble pioneer of that day again exclaim, I am so fully convinced of the neces- sity for legislative interference to destroy the present dan- gerous system of inhumation, that I hesitate not to express my opinion that the Government of the country will ultimately be driven to the adoption of means for enforcing the pro- hibition of interment IN THE VICINITY OF THE LIVING.^ (Vide Gatherings from Grave-yards.) The numerous and startling facts contained in the above named work at once excited public attention. Many of my statements were re- ceived with incredulity, but as time wore on and the public and parliamentary mind became, degree by degree, satu- rated with the proofs, all except the interested, the pre- judiced, or the unreflecting, were convinced that this sani- tary reform, wbich lies at the root of all other sanitary reforms, could no longer be delayed. Yet it was delayed by the opposition of interested parties, and on the plea of vested rights, and it required an agitation, constantly kept up during many years before my prediction was fulfilled.