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

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Longman, 1839 - Burial - 258 pages
 

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Page 169 - The putrid emanations arising from church yards are very dangerous; and parish churches, in which many corpses are interred, become impregnated with an air so corrupted, especially in Spring, when the ground begins to grow warm, that it is prudent to avoid this evil, as it may be, and, in some cases, has been, one of the chief sources of putrid fevers, which are so prevalent at that season...
Page 173 - This space measures in length 59 feet 3 inches or thereabouts, and in width about 28 feet 8 inches, so that its superficial contents do not exceed 1,700 square feet. Now, allowing for an adult body only twelve feet, and for the young, upon an average, six feet, and supposing an equal number of each to b...
Page 5 - ... the ceremony. There were about one hundred and eighty communicants. A quarter of an hour after the ceremony, before they had quitted the church, more than sixty of...
Page 173 - ... have increased the exhalations ; then the air is so corrupted, that the most necessary aliments will only keep a few hours in the neighbouring houses : this proceeds either from the soil being so completely saturated that it cannot retain or absorb any longer the putrescent dissolution, or from the too circumscribed extent of the ground for the number of dead annually interred. The same spot is repeatedly used ; and, by the carelessness of those who inter the dead, the graves are, perhaps, often...
Page 5 - ... it was at length perceived, by the rays of the sun, that they issued from the grave of the lady who had been buried the preceding fortnight. The people not belonging to the vestry were dismissed, and four men employed to open the grave and the coffin ; in doing which two of them dropped down, and expired upon the spot; and the other two were only saved by.
Page 5 - Before her death, she begged as a particular favour, to be buried in the parochial church. She had died on the Wednesday, and on the following Saturday, was buried according to her desire. The...
Page 173 - ... there deposited the medium space occupied by each would be nine feet: if, then, every inch of ground were occupied, not more than 18!) (say -200 in round numbers) would be placed upon the surface ; and admitting (an extravagant admission most certainly) that it were possible to place six tiers of coffins upon each other, the whole space could not contain more than 1,200 ; and yet it is stated with confidence, and by credible authority, that from 10,000 to 12,000 bodies have been deposited in...
Page xvii - Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them ? mine ache to think on't.
Page 67 - ... Burgundy. A sexton, while letting down a corpse into the vault, accidentally broke a coffin which contained the body of a fat man that had been buried twenty-three days. A discharge of sanies followed, which greatly annoyed the assistants: and, "of one hundred and twenty young persons of both sexes, who assembled to receive their first communion, all but six fell dangerously ill, together with the Cure, the grave digger, and sixty other persons.
Page 97 - With that which is thrown up by a person labouring under yellow fever. By varying the intensity and the dose of the poison thus obtained, it is possible to produce fever of almost any type, endowed with almost any degree of mortal power.

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