Burning the Dead. 19 



for the dead bodies of those whom we have known during 

 life, which has operated, and will continue to operate, to 

 prevent any material change being effected in the prevalent 

 mode of disposing of the dead. It is true that the practice 

 of intra-mural interment has been abolished in England in 

 certain localities, and that the mounds of human putrefac- 

 tion which only quite lately were to be seen in the most 

 populous portions of London and other large cities, are no 

 longer permitted to exist. But the alternative to the narrow 

 old-fashioned churchyard, is only the larger area of the 

 cemetery, and, already, some of these places of sepulture 

 are, by the increase of population, becoming as much 

 enclosed as the old churchyards, and are almost as much 

 crowded with bodies. In this part of the world, we have 

 benefited by the experience of the old country, and, in 

 Victoria at least, there are no such things as churchyards, 

 as we understand the phrase. But, in all other respects, we 

 bury our dead pretty much as they have been buried in the 

 old country for the last 1,500 years. We enclose them in 

 wooden boxes, and lay them in the earth to rot. During 

 the last seven years I have had the opportunity of examin- 

 ing some hundreds of bodies in all stages of decomposition, 

 and I have probably, in studying the phenomena of putre- 

 faction as a part of my professional duty, become so 

 accustomed to the sight of this form of fermentation, that I 

 am now less conscious of the repulsiveness which charac- 

 terises this chemical process, than those who witness it only 

 occasionally. But I am not the less aware of the extent to 

 which the atmosphere must of necessity be polluted by the 

 gases arising, slowly but surely, through the earth, out of 

 the graves of the thousands of bodies which are annually 

 interred in this large city. I am not going to assert that a 

 foul smell is, of necessity, directly injurious to health. I 

 am aware that many persons whose occupation renders it 

 necessary for them to breathe the gaseous products of putre- 

 faction, enjoy what appears to be good health. Indeed, a 

 gentleman some time ago read a paper before the Royal 

 Society, in which he took considerable pains to show that 

 vile smells were rather salutary than not, and another 

 gentleman, shortly after, made a good point in the course of 

 a forensic address, by relating an anecdote, in which a robust 

 nightman, who had never known nausea before, fainted 

 from suddenly, in the course of his duties, coming upon a 

 stratum of frangipanni. But as we know that sulphuretted 



c 2 



