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day, the risks that were being incurred by the then custom of 
inhuming the dead in the midst of the living. Overwhelming 
evidence was brought forward, proving that severe epidemics were 
caused by the careless overcrowding of the graveyards and church 
vaults of London. Three years later, a government inquiry was 
instituted, and soon afterwards reports were issued by Lords 
Carlisle and Ashley, Mr. Edwin Chadwick, and Dr. Southwood 
Smith ; these sufficiently showed the great need that existed for 
instant reform. Since 1843, many of the general and paroshial 
burying grounds have been closed, but it was not until 1855 that 
the present law, known as the ‘“ Burials Act,’’ came into force. 
This act gave power to the local authorities to shut up, and 
regulate all the graveyards which were ‘‘ conducted in such a 
manner as to be dangerous to health, or offensive or contrary to 
decency.”” The parochial boards and Burgh Councils were em- 
powered to take ground for the providing of cemeteries for the 
people. I quote from Dr. Duncan’s pamphlet, ‘‘ on the reform of 
our present method of disposal of the dead,” the following para- 
graph: ‘Private cemetery companies have been originated in our 
large cities to provide for the graveyard accommodation of the com- 
munity, provision for which has been neglected by the public 
bodies, which ought to have provided it under the powers of the 
Burials Act of 1855. The shares in these companies were early 
taken up by the commercial classes, because it was known that 
large profits could be realised. In graveyards as on house property, 
the greatest profits are extracted from the pockets of the poor. 
These profits are got because the cemeteries so provided by private 
enterprise are not under the regulations of the Burial Grounds Act. 
Although originated by humane and public spirited citizens, they 
are now conducted on purely commercial principles. and are per- 
mitted to ignore laws of sanitary science and considerations of 
public decency, to which, were they under a public censorship, 
they would be compelled to attend.” The above state of 
things, and also the absurdity of attempting to keep our dead 
as long as possible, then seal them up in oaken and leaden coffins, 
led Mr. Francis Haden, of London, to write letters to the Times in 
1875. Mr. Haden says ‘‘ How then are we to bury our dead ? 
Clearly within a reasonable time of their dissolution, and in coffins 
(if we must have coffins) of such a construction as will not prevent 
their dissolution. No coffin at all, would, of course, be best, or a 
coffin of the thinnest substance, which would not long resist the 
action of the earth, or a coffin, the tops and sides of which admitted 
of removal after the body had been lowered into the grave, or a 
coffin of some light, permeable material, such as wicker or 
lattice work, open at the top and filled in with any fragrant 
