32 CREMATION. 



patient is favourable to the further developeraent of such bacterial 

 life. In some virulent cases of infectious and contagious diseases 

 certain articles which have been used by the patient are burnt with a 

 view to render them harmless. In those cases where the patients 

 recover there is a lamentable want of efficient and sufficient isolation. 

 Where death ensues matters are much worse. The body is in most 

 cases treated as if it had lost its power to injure the living. Much 

 unnecessary and purely conventional treatment ensues. I pass by the 

 hideous proceedings conducted by the undertaker, as also the " correct 

 thing" in black ganuents. Both are in a state of transition, the 

 result of which may be left to the influence of universal education. 



If in the country, the corpse will in most cases be carried to the 

 highest point of the hamlet, where stands the village church. The 

 building itself has in most cases been used as a receptacle for the 

 deceased members of influential families. Over the tombs of these 

 decomposing bodies the living assemble more or less frequently. 

 Many of the vaults are during wet seasons partly iilled with 

 water. There is no mistaking the odours often perceived in such 

 charnel houses. It is of course impossible to hazard a guess as to 

 how many lives have been sacrificed as a result of such association 

 with the dead on the part of the living. That they have been 

 numerous cannot reasonably be doubted. Outside the building 

 matters are worse. Here the rainfall has full play to percolate 

 through and distribute the contents of the graves into the neighbour- 

 ing wells, whence is drawn the drinking water for the living, who, in 

 numberless cases, literally drink the dead in solution. 



The normal increase of our population may be taken to be about a 

 quarter of a million a year. With such a rapid increase of out resident 

 population, the difficulty of obtaining water free from organic impuri- 

 ties is increasing to a serious extent, involving the outlay of vast sums 

 of money. If, as we know it to be the case, water flowing from lime- 

 stone ranges is, as a rule, highly charged with carbonate of lime, 

 whilst that obtained from soils containing but small quantities of iron 

 is found to be a solution of iron, how much more easily must the 

 decomposing substance of the dead body be borne through the pores 

 of the earth by the circulation of water? Just as surely as poison, 

 when injected into the blood, is rapidly distributed through the whole 

 system, so do the poisons of disease circulate in water round the 

 dwellings of the living. 



At the base of a hill within a few miles of this building flows a 

 spring of ordinarily clear water, prized for drinking purposes. Some 

 time ago a heap of farm yard manure was placed on high ground, a 

 considerable distance from the spring. The hill is mainly composed 

 of sand and sandstone. Shortly after the manure was so placed the 

 water assumed the colour of pale tea, with an odour not to be mis- 

 taken, and obviously due to the manure heap. 



In the case of suburban cemeteries the results are such as must ere 

 long necessitate a radical change in the disposal of the dead. To 



