Burial-ground incendiarism. The last fire at the bone-house in the Spa-Fields Golgotha, or, the minute anatomy of grave-digging in London / [George Alfred Walker].

  • George Alfred Walker
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Burial-ground incendiarism. The last fire at the bone-house in the Spa-Fields Golgotha, or, the minute anatomy of grave-digging in London / [George Alfred Walker]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Perhaps there are few subjects on which there is less room for disputa- tion than the question of the interment of the dead within the precincig of large towns, and in densely inhabited localities. It is difficult to suppose that two enlightened individuals could be found, who hold a difference of opinion on so self-evident a proposition, as that a burial-ground, crowded - with the accumulating decay of years of mortality, if situated in a confined and thickly populated neighbourhood, must prove a serious source of conta- mination to the atmosphere of the place. It is absolutely impossible but that the emanations which take place from a soil, in great part formed of the dust of mortality, in every state of decay, must prove more or less inju- rious to all who live within the sphere of their influence. No fact is better ascertained in relation to the progress of epidemic or infectious diseases, than that to isolate the affected persons, to surround them with a sufficiency of space so as to admit of free ventilation; in other words, to dilute the poison, whatever that may be, is the most effective method to arrest its course, and avert its consequences. The converse of this ascertained fact is a natural sequence—that to crowd human beings together, and further to contaminate the atmosphere in which they are crowded, with such gaseous exhalatiors as the grave-yards of the Metropolis, and of large towns generally, are con- tinually pouring forth, must be a ready means of generating disease, and facilitating its progress. The fact, moreover, admits of direct proof, and, mainly through the exertions of Mr. G. A. Walker, the intelligent author of “‘Gatherings from Grave-Yards,”? and other works of the same nature, has abundantly received it. A Committee of the House of Commons, specially appointed to inquire into the subject, expressly state in a report to the House, that “after a long and patient investigation, they cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that the nuisance of interments in large towns, and the injury arising to the health of the community from the practice, are fully proved.”’ “The indecencies attendant upon such practice, the violation and exposure of the half-decayed remains, the breaking-up of coffins, the scattering of their contents, the burnings which from time to time are had recourse to in some of these receptacles, for the purpose of making room for fresh interments, all of which abominations pass under the eyes of the surrounding population, are fraught with a moral contagion little less injurious to the minds of the recipients than the pestilential effluvia are to their bodies; and yet, in the face of all this, in despite of the opinions of the most competent authorities, . in the very teeth of evidence, sifted by the searching examination of a Par- liamentary Committee, and of facts declared by them “ fully proved,” indi- viduals are to be found so deadened to moral feeling, or so miserably biased by interested motives, as to band together for the maintenance, not merely of a particular nuisance of this description, but of the system itself. It is, however, a matter of substantial reality, that with the view of rendering nugatory the valuable and truly philanthrophic exertions of Mr. Walker, and of getting up an opposition to any legislative measure which might be based on the labours of the special Parliamentary Committee, an ‘‘ Anti- Abolition of Intra-Mural Society” has been established. Z : ; . . That this indefatigable opponent of grave-yard abuses should meet with vitu- peration and contumely, is not a matter of surprise. Happily, his energy is not likely to be foiled by such weapons, and we. hope to be able to announce before long that his unwearied exertions will be rewarded in the speedy and complete removal of the abominations against which he has so long con- tended.—Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, April 29, 1846. Mr. Walker deserves infinite credit for searching into the causes of, and bringing before the public the revolting grievances that occurred some time | since in the Spa-Fields church-yard. We are much afraid, from its nature, this praiseworthy and most excellent pamphlet cannot hope for that circulation that should reward the author for his trouble. The book will be found useful alike to the medical practitioner or the unprofessional, and should occupy a place as well on the shelves of the several Boards of Health as on the table of the House of Commons.—Court Journal, April 18, 1846.
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