SCIENCE. 



FEIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



The recent completion of the new crematory 

 at Mount Olivet, near Brooklyn, lias again revived 

 the subject of ' cremation versus inliumation.' An 

 article by Dr. Rohe of Baltimore, recently pub- 

 lished, takes the ground that there is no necessity 

 of any radical change in our method of burial. 

 "VMiile we are inchned to agree with him in his 

 conclusions, we must take exception to a number 

 of his statements. He says that, although the 

 impression is general that cemeteries have an un- 

 favorable influence upon the health of those living 

 in the vicinity, there is very little trustworthy 

 evidence to that effect. There is, we think, 

 abundant evidence that in times past great injury 

 to health has been caused by the burying of the 

 dead in gTeat numbers within city walls. Within 

 recent times, when cemeteries are, as a rule, re- 

 moved from the abodes of men, and are maintained 

 in a far more sanitary way than formerly, these 

 injuries have been reduced to a minimum. The 

 history of New York City gives us proof of this. 

 AVhat is now Washington Square was seventy 

 years ago the potter's field : from it arose most 

 sickening odors at times. Troops stationed near 

 it were seized with diarrhoea and fever, from 

 which they did not recover until removed to 

 another place. Trinity church cemetery was 

 always regarded by the late Dr. Elisha Harris as 

 contributing to the spread of cholera during epi- 

 demics of that disease in New York. He says, 

 "Trinity churchyard. New York, has been the 

 centre of a very fatal prevalence of cholera when- 

 ever the disease has occurred as an epidemic near or 

 within a quarter of a mile of it." Other instances, 

 almost without number, might be quoted as 

 tending to show the prejudicial effect which some 

 cemeteries have had upon the public health. 



Dr. Rohe further states that " the generally ob- 

 served good health of workmen in cemeteries 

 and knackeries contradicts the opinion that the 

 gaseous emanations from decaying animal matter 

 are necessarily dangerous to health." This argu- 

 ment is one which needs great caution in its 

 No. 147. — 1885. 



handling. It is one which is applied to ever\' 

 pursuit in life when for any reason that pursuit 

 is charged with being detrimental to health. 

 Thus scavengers, factory hands, and even children 

 brought up on swill-milk, are, by those whose 

 interest it is to make the claim, always represented 

 as being in typical health. Statistics are appealed 

 to oftentimes to bear evidence to the fact that the 

 mortality in such a business is very small, when, 

 as a matter of fact, the occupation of the decedent 

 is stated as ' clerk ' or ' laborer,' and the particular 

 hne of his occupation does not appear. Dr. Wicker, 

 in his * Sepulture and its methods,' calls attention 

 to the depreciation in health of those who spend 

 much time in the dissecting-room, suffering also 

 from derangements of the digestive organs and 

 diarrhoea. He has also found that those engaged 

 about knackeries suffer similarly. " They begin 

 to emaciate and present a cadaverous appearance, 

 slight wounds fester and become difficult to heal, 

 and, upon the whole, they are ashort-hved class." 

 That there is some danger to be apprehended 

 from the f ouhng of water in wells situated near 

 cemeteries, is shown by the fact that sanitary 

 authorities find it necessary to hmit the distance 

 within which wells may be dug. Dr. Ranch be- 

 lieved that the water-supply of Chicago was at 

 one time affected by the proximity of an old 

 cemetery to its source. This question, like all 

 others, has two sides ; and while there is at the 

 present time no urgent reason why earth-burial 

 should be abandoned, in this country at least, 

 there are many reasons why cremation should not 

 be discouraged. The sentiment in its favor is 

 certainly growing, and many of its promoters are 

 among the best thinkers of oiu- day. We certainly 

 believe that those who prefer incineration to in- 

 humation should have every opportunity to gTatify 

 their wishes, and, if necessary, that they should be 

 protected by legal enactment. 



In volume XIX. of the new edition of the ' Ency- 

 clopaedia Britannica,' published during the present 

 year, in the article ' Polar regions,' by Clements R. 

 Markham, p. 326, we find the following paragraph 

 on the geographical work of the Greely arctic expe- 

 dition : "Lieutenant Lock wood made a journey 

 along the north coast of Greenland, and reached 



