Gatherings from grave-yards; particularly those of London ... by Geo. Alfd. Walker. Opinions of the London and provincial press.

Date:
[1849?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gatherings from grave-yards; particularly those of London ... by Geo. Alfd. Walker. Opinions of the London and provincial press. 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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    GATHERINGS FROM GRAVE-YARDS; ^arttcularls of Hontron: WITH A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE MODES OF INTERMENT AMONG DIFFERENT NATIONS FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS, AND A UETAILi 0? BAMEMUe A12I) fATAh M3UIL.TS ]PB®a)n(CE]D BY THE UNWISE AND REVOLTING CUSTOM OF INHUMING THE DEAD IN THE MIDST OF THE LIVING Price 8s. 6d., neatly hound in cloth. By GEO. AIjFD. WALKER, Surgeon, MEMBER OF SEVERAL LEARNED AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, OPINIONS OF THE LONDON AND PROVINCIAL PRESS. We will not attempt to offer any comments on the facts which have here been detailed ; they speak for themselves. ... It only remains for us to say, that it will be found well worth the perusal of every person at all interested in the preservation of the health, decency, and cleanliness of the metropolis ; and may, perhaps, prove not unacceptable to the general reader, as presenting a com- plete and curious history of the different modes of interment which have been re- sorted to among different nations, as well as for its novel description of the burial places of London, which, we believe, have never, until now, formed the subject of any work. In taking our final leave, we must, in justice to Mr. Walker, state that the book is clearly and vividly •written, and the author deserves great credit for the industry and zeal which he has displayed in his by no means agreeable re- searches among the grave-yards ; we hope, however, that he may reap a full reward for his labours, by seeing the disgusting nuisance against which he has declared war at least mitigated, even if not altogether put a stop to.—Dr. Johnson 's Medico-Chirurgical Review, Jan. 1, 1840. In contemplating the advancement of any great public good, it is ever a most gratifying task to be able to connect each onward step with the praiseworthy efforts of its promoters. Rarely does it happen that labours such as these originate with, or are maintained by, a single individual; but in the consideration of the subject to which we shall beg leave to direct the attention of our readers, we are enabled at once to trace back the origin, development, and increasing advocacy of one of the most important questions in relation to public hygiene to the labours of one individual, a member of our own profession. .... In Mr. George Alfred Walker we recognise the untiring and successful opponent of a custom so baneful, and, from the limited views of parochial economists, so general, amongst us. The labours of the author of “ Gatherings from Grave-Yards’’ are too generally and too favourably known both to the profession and the public, to need any recital at our hands ; but it is -with pleasure that we are enabled to record his unwearied perseverance, as we also hope ere long to record the complete fulfil- ment of the excellent project whose advocate he is. Those who have perused the works of Mr. Walker must have become fully conversant with the extent to which intra-mural interment is carried, and the deleterious agency which such practices produce. That the source of much of the disease occurring in the crowded neigh- bourhoods of London, more especially in those immediately adjacent to large paro- chial church-yards, is to be found in the noisome effluvia and gaseous exhalations generated by the continued decomposition of animal matter very near, and by no means unfrequently upon, the surface of the ground, is most incontestably proved. —Provincial Medical Journal, June, 1843. 'Z03