256 PARK AND CC/nCTCRY. 
as faithfully as possible, both as regards the depth 
of the grave and the inclosure of the body. The 
duration of vitality of the various pathogenic bac- 
teria vary considerably. Thus the microbes of 
cholera lived only twenty-eight days, and those of 
pneumonia a similar period. Typhoid bacilli, of 
which there has been an especial dread in connect- 
ion with cemeteries, perished after 96 days of bu- 
rial; and those of tuberculosis aft&r from 95 to 123. 
Tetanus bacilli are supposed to live and propa- 
gate indefinitely in the soil, and, indeed, after 264 
days they were found in a highly virulent condition; 
but after 361 days they could no longer be detect- 
ed. The germs of anthrax alone survived a year 
and more, and may be well reckoned the most per- 
sistent of all. 
Attention was also paid to the possible spread 
of the germs through the adjacent soil and into 
streams of water. Generally speaking, they did 
not spread, or none of them but those of anthrax. 
The last named were found in the soil at some 
distance from the body, and also in the water. 
None of the others wer»-1»o be found, not even 
a few inches from the infected carcass. It, 
therefore, seems safe to conclude that burial is, in 
general, a sanitary method of disposing of dead 
bodies, and that cemeteries are not to be regarded 
as centers of infection or contagion. A field in 
which a host of cholera patients had been interred 
would in a month’s time become perfectly fit for 
use as a garden or a pleasure ground. Of course, 
for other reasons, many people will perfer inciner- 
ation. But this one oft-repeated argument a- 
gainst cemeteries may now be altogether dismissed. 
New York Tribune. 
Adolph Strauch’s Monument. 
The Hon. John B. Peaslee, Cincinnati, O., has 
paid a warm tribute to the late Adolph Strauch, the 
landscape architect, in the Cineinnati Enquirer, for 
a copy of which we are indebted to Mr. Geo. Van 
Atta, superintendent Cedar Hill Cemetery, Newark. 
In the letter explaining the verses Mr. Peaslee related 
an interview with Mr. Strauch as follows: 
“At that interview Mr. Strauch showed us the 
report of the French Commi^ion appointed by the 
F'rench Government to visit and examine the parks 
and cemeteries of the world, in which the commis- 
sion declared that Spring Grove was the most beau- 
tiful of all cemeteries. This justifies the line: “The 
most beautiful of earth.” Superintendent Strauch 
then requested me to write a magazine article on 
Spring Grove and his experiences when he began to 
remove the fences around the graves and otherwise 
to change, I should say, revolutionize the grave- 
yard, in accordance with the “park plan,” as he 
called it, which was original with him. I agreed 
to do so. He then went on to say that when he 
began this important work, letters threatening his life 
were sent him, and that article after article appeared 
in the Cincinnati papers condemnatory of his course, 
that he had kept all these letters and newspapers 
and would look them up and turn them over to me 
for my use in preparing the article. This fully 
justifies the first verse of the second part of the 
poem. Finally having long felt that Adolph 
Strauch, who did so much to delight and refine 
our people and to improve our beloved city, should 
be held in the same grateful remembrance and be 
named in the same category with those great-souled 
personages, who have given of their wealth to ad- 
vance the interests of Cincinnati, I have classed 
him with them. 
ADOLPH STRAUCH. 
I. 
Great genius of the West, 
By thy consummate art 
A graveyard, cold and drear. 
Was changed into a park. 
Spring Grove’s thy monument. 
Most beautiful of earth. 
Thy marv’lous talents gave ^ 
Its wondrous beauty birth. 
Thou true to nature formed 
Its vistas, groups of trees. 
Its grottoes, knolls and dells. 
Bright streams and mimic seas. 
Park cemeteries are 
Original with thee. 
Where e’er their scen’ries charm. 
Thy monuments wall be. 
Thy teacher Nature was. 
Thy implements, her trees. 
Her grass and vines and shrubs. 
All living plants that please. 
Thy work was not confined 
To “cities of the dead,” 
In other landscape scenes 
Thy master mind is read. 
Marks of thy skill abound 
In Eden’s sylvan groves, 
On Clifton’s leafy heiglHs, 
Where’er the footmam roves. 
II. 
The people of our land 
And hosts beyond the sea 
Owe debts of gratitude. 
Great nature’s child to thee. 
Forsaken, cursed, despised. 
When thou, O Strauch, began 
To make an Eden fair 
This sepulchre of man. 
Thou’rt HOW enrolled upon 
Our city’s honor banner. 
With Woodward, Hughes, McMicken, 
Springer, Sinton, Hanna, 
West, Longworth, Davidson, 
Probasco, Thoms and Brown, 
Groesbeck, Nichols, Schmidlapp, 
And others of renown. 
