Gatherings from grave yards : particularly those of London : with a concise history of the modes of interment among different nations, from the earliest periods. And a detail of dangerous and fatal results produced by the unwise and revolting custom of inhuming the dead in the midst of the living / by G.A. Walker.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gatherings from grave yards : particularly those of London : with a concise history of the modes of interment among different nations, from the earliest periods. And a detail of dangerous and fatal results produced by the unwise and revolting custom of inhuming the dead in the midst of the living / by G.A. Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    It would seem that interment of the dead within Churches or Vaults, or in Burying Grounds, sur- rounded with houses, or in the immediate vicinity of densely populated Cities or Towns, is so familiar from its frequent or daily occurrence—accidents clearly traceable to the influence of putrefying efiluvia so seldom, comparatively, arise from the practice of inhumation—that the most perfect indifference appears to prevail upon the subject; no danger seems to be dreaded, no fear excited, no apprehension even entertained of the injurious and destructive agencies which are constantly in opera- tion, and armed with invisible and irresistible powers. It would not be difficult to shew, that some of the most afflictive visitations of Providence, have ori- ginated in the contamination of the atmosphere, from putrefying animal substances—and that to the neighbourhood of the Grave Yard may be attri-' buted the violence, if not the origin, of some of the most destructive diseases which have depopulated the human race. In this Work will be found a comprehensive his- tory of the modes of Interment among all nations, from the remotest antiquity; shewing that the wisest among mankind, not only perceived the dangers to be apprehended from the burial of the