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 tlie graveyards and cliurch 

 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 parochial 

 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 providmg 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 Tivies in 

 1875. Mr. Haden says " How then are we to bury our dead ? 

 Clearly witnin 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 



