96 Princij)les of Landscape- Gardening 



of quicklime ; independently of the existing prejudices against its introduction 

 in coffins, it is found to cause the solution of the softer parts of the bod}', 

 which, unless the coffin is watertight, and this is rarely the case with the 

 coffins either of the poor or of the middling class, oozes out to such an 

 extent that the undertaker's men can scarcely carry the coffin, on account of 

 the flow of matter and the odour. 



The health of the living is chiefly affected by a certain description of 

 gas, respecting which it is necessary to enter into some detail. The de- 

 composition of the muscular part of the human body takes place with 

 different degrees of rapidity in different soils, and at different depths in 

 the same soil. It is most rapid in sandy soils somewhat moist, within 3 

 or 4 feet of the surface, and in a warm climate ; it is next in rapidity in chalky 

 soils ; much slower in clayey soils ; and slowest of all in peaty soil, saturated 

 with astringent moisture. In general, dry soil, and a moderate distance ot 

 3 or 6 feet below the surface, are favourable both to decomposition and human 

 prejudices. In such soil, in the climate of London, the muscular part of the 

 human body will have become a black mould in between six and seven 

 years ; but, practically speaking, the bones may be considered as indestruc- 

 tible. In the progress of decay, the first change which takes place im- 

 mediately after death is, the escape of a deleterious gas from the mouth 

 and nostrils, but generally in so small a quantity as not to be perceptible 

 for three or four days. In some cases, it is perceptible in a much shorter 

 period ; and in all a gas accumulates within the body, which escapes sooner or 

 later according to the progress of the putrescent process. If the body is 

 buried in the free soil, in a wooden coffin, to the depth of 5 or 6 feet, the gas 

 escapes into the soil, and is, in part at least, absorbed by it, and con- 

 sequently does not contaminate the air above the surface ; but, if a leaden 

 coffin is used, and the body is deposited in a vault, catacomb, or brick 

 grave, the gas escapes within the coffin, and either remains there till 

 the coffin decays, or escapes through crevices in the lead, and through 

 small holes bored on purpose by the undertaker in the outer wooden 

 coffin and leaden inner coffin, and concealed by the name-plate. (^Beport on 

 the Health of Towns, Walker, ^c.) By the last mode the gas begins to escape 

 before the corpse is taken from the house ; and its effect is often felt there, 

 as well as when the service is being read over it in the chapel, and even after 

 it is deposited in a vault, the catacombs of which, though apparently her- 

 metically sealed, are seldom air-tight. Sometimes the body, especially of 

 a corpulent person, swells so much before it is removed from the house, 

 that it is ready to burst both the inner and the outer coffin ; and in that case 

 it requires to be tapped, and the gas burnt as it escapes, or the operation 

 performed close to an open window. Even in some of the public catacombs 

 of the new London cemeteries explosions have been known to take place, 

 and the undertaker obliged to he sent for in order to resolder the coffin ; which 

 shows the disgusting nature of this mode of interment, and its danger to the 

 living. To inhale this gas, undiluted with atmospheric air, is instant death ; 

 and, even when much diluted, it is productive of disease which commonly ends 

 in death, of which there is abundant evidence in Walker's Grave-Yards and 

 the Parliamentary Tleport quoted. The gas abounds to a fearful extent in 

 the soil of all crowded burial-grounds, and has been proved to be more or 

 less present in the soil thrown out of graves where bodies have been interred 

 before. Even in the new London cemeteries, when interments are made in 

 family graves, or common graves, which have been filled in with earth, such is 

 the smell when the grave-diggers arrive within 2 or 3 feet of the last deposited 

 coffin, that they are obliged to be plied constantly with rum to induce them 

 to proceed. This is more particularly the case when graves are dug in strong 

 clay, because the gas cannot escape laterally as in a gravelly or sandy soil, but 

 rises perpendicularly through the soil which has been moved. The remedy 

 for this evil is, never to allow a family grave, or a common grave, in which an 

 interment has been made, to be excavated deeper than within 6 ft. of the last 



