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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
such interval. In Naples it has been customary to bury in pits of 
earth with which lime has been mixed ; to bury so many bodies 
in one section on a given day, to allow that section to rest for a 
year, then to remove the whole of the earth of the section with 
its organic remains, to refill with new earth and bury again for 
the next year in the new earth. In this country such a prompt 
system would not be tolerated ; but the method of burial in a 
destructive, but more slowly destructive, bed would meet pro- 
bably every view, without creating undue prejudice at the com- 
mencement of the reformation. In some localities a natural 
soil would yield all that is wanted for a perfect burial in earth. 
In other localities the earth would have to be specially con- 
structed, and a series of carefully conducted experiments on the 
destructive powers of various earths are required before a per- 
fect system can be evolved. It will probably be found, I repeat, 
that an earth composed of equal parts of fine carbon soil, sand and 
lime would be the most rapid of all combinations . for the de- 
struction of the animal matter with absorption of the products 
of decomposition. In a cemetery correctly constructed with 
twelve feet of prepared earth as its basis, such soil might remain 
undisturbed, except for purposes of burial, for many years. 
Long enough, certainly, for the burial-place of the majority of 
the dead to be forgotten and for the dead body to pass into 
entire reunion with the earth from whence it sprang. After a 
given and due time, without any injury to sentiment, the 
soil could be removed in sections, and be resupplied with new 
material for new burials. 
I have described the artificial soil which would prove the 
most effective for the purposes of burial from the facts I have 
gleaned during direct observation of the action of different 
substances on dead organic matter. Specimens of such matter 
buried in pure carbon, in virgin carboniferous earth, in a mix- 
ture of carboniferous earth and sand, and in this latter mixture 
to which lime had been added, were found to undergo resolution, 
in the last most effectively, in the first the least. A fresh car- 
boniferous earth answers exceedingly well, far better than simple 
vegetable carbon. The rapidity with which it deodorizes even 
decomposing animal matter is most remarkable. It may be said 
to act in a matter of minutes. The rapidity with which it 
produces destruction of the organic substance, especially if it 
be kept dry, is equally surprising. The complete decomposition 
may be included in from twenty to thirty weeks. 
It is worthy of remark, however, that all the parts of an 
animal body are not equally destroyed. The integumentary 
parts and the membranes are much more slowly destroyed than 
the muscular, and the muscular are more slowly destroyed than 
the nervous. The bony parts are more resistant to destruction 
