ARE CEMETERIES UNHEALTHY f 659 



precise experin> mts recently made by MM. Jules Reiset, Muntz, and 

 Aubin, on the proportion of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, which 

 go to show that the proportion of this gas in the air of Paris is no 

 more considerable than in the country, we have a right to affirm that 

 positively no danger to the public health exists from this source. 



The truth is, that most of the accidents which happen in burial- 

 places must be attributed only to confined carbonic acid. These acci- 

 dents are, moreover, much less numerous than is supposed. Different 

 authors do not rej^ort more than twelve or fifteen cases, and the theory 

 that cemeteries are centers of infection has been built upon this small 

 basis. Such accidents have been attributed to " pestilential emanations, 

 to certain subtile and deleterious gases, to unhealthy miasms," etc. In 

 reality, the accidents noted have been caused by the carbonic acid 

 which has settled in the pits or vaults by virtue of its superior specific 

 gravity. The same happens much more frequently than in cemeteries, 

 in lime-kilns, marl -pits, some cellars, fermenting vats, everywhere, 

 in short, that carbonic acid is liable to accumulate within a limited 

 space. 



The absence of any facts relative to other gases than carbonic acid 

 that might be disengaged in the course of cadaverous decomposition 

 ought to have made those who are so sure of the dangerous character 

 of cemeteries more circumspect ; notwithstanding there are no such 

 facts, these persons, besides magnifying the dangerous consequences 

 of the liberation of carbonic acid, speak also of the no less fearful 

 dangers w^hich result from the generation of " certain gases and of 

 certain volatile products." Only two gases have been found to be 

 present to an appreciable extent in the confined air of mortuary vaults, 

 or in the atmosphere immediately surrounding a body in decompo- 

 sition as, for instance, within the inclosure of a leaden coffin. These 

 two gases are poisonous when breathed in a certain quantity ; they 

 are ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen, forming, when they combine, 

 sulphohydrate of ammonia. The most delicate reagents disclose no 

 trace of these gases in the free air, nor even in the atmosphere of the 

 cemeteries of Paris, although such tests often, when applied in the 

 same manner, indicate their presence in water-closets, sinks, cellars, 

 and sewers. In the absence of ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 we might (though no one has yet done so) imagine the presence of the 

 ptomaines, those alkaloids of dead bodies recently discovered by Pro- 

 fessor Selmi. We anticipate this accusation, by observing that the 

 presence of ptomaines in the open air has never been detected. It has 

 been proved that they are not always poisonous ; and they exist only 

 in inconsiderable quantities. So far as is known, the ptomaines may 

 be simply resultants of the transformation of other principles during 

 extraction, for " they sometimes exhale a perfume like that of certain 

 flowers, as the orange or wild-rose, and of certain aromas " odors 

 which it is well known are not found among those of cadaverous pu- 



