Part 36

No. XIII.--Comparative Mortality in Different Seasons of the Year.

SPRING QUARTERS.

+-----------------+--------------------------+--------------------+ | | EAST LONDON UNION. | WEST LONDON UNION. | |DEATHS in five +--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |Autumn Quarters | Saint |Cripple-| Work- |North.|South.|Work- | |as follows:-- |Botolph.| gate. |houses. | | |house.| | +--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |April, May, June,| | | | | | | | 1849| 85 | 130 | 39 | 77 | 110 | 34 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1850| 80 | 90 | 19 | 74 | 71 | 27 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1851| 115 | 101 | 48 | 92 | 79 | 21 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1852| 110 | 131 | 38 | 70 | 121 | 31 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1853| 129 | 131 | 51 | 89 | 90 | 46 | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |Total of five | =519= | =583= | =195= | =402=| =471=| =159=| |Seasons | | | | | | | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+

+-----------------+-----------------------------------------+------+ | | CITY OF LONDON UNION. |Totals| |DEATHS in five +------+------+------+------+------+------+ for | |Autumn Quarters | S.W. | N.W. |South.| S.E. | N.E. |Work- |entire| |as follows:-- | | | | | |house.|City. | | +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ |April, May, June,| | | | | | | | | 1849| 56 | 55 | 58 | 45 | 50 | 26 | =765=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1850| 34 | 39 | 40 | 43 | 50 | 22 | =589=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1851| 44 | 38 | 75 | 70 | 56 | 28 | =767=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1852| 47 | 51 | 41 | 47 | 59 | 28 | =774=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1853| 45 | 47 | 59 | 50 | 47 | 33 | =817=| +-----------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ |Total of five | =226=| =230=| =273=| =255=| =262=| =137=|=3712=| |Seasons | | | | | | | | +-----------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

No. XIV.--Comparative Mortality in Different Seasons of the Year.

SUMMER QUARTERS.

+-----------------+--------------------------+--------------------+ | | EAST LONDON UNION. | WEST LONDON UNION. | |DEATHS in five +--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |Autumn Quarters | Saint |Cripple-| Work- |North.|South.|Work- | |as follows:-- |Botolph.| gate. |houses. | | |house.| | +--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |July, Aug., Sep.,| | | | | | | | 1849| 171 | 199 | 73 | 148 | 295 | 33 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1850| 102 | 93 | 26 | 74 | 65 | 18 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1851| 123 | 105 | 38 | 76 | 73 | 11 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1852| 160 | 116 | 26 | 74 | 77 | 31 | | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | 1853| 126 | 151 | 20 | 66 | 52 | 31 | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+ |Total of five | =682= | =664= | =183= | =438=| =562=| =124=| |Seasons | | | | | | | +-----------------+--------+--------+--------+------+------+------+

+-----------------+-----------------------------------------+------+ | | CITY OF LONDON UNION. |Totals| |DEATHS in five +------+------+------+------+------+------+ for | |Autumn Quarters | S.W. | N.W. |South.| S.E. | N.E. |Work- |entire| |as follows:-- | | | | | |house.|City. | | +------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ |July, Aug., Sep.,| | | | | | | | | 1849| 145 | 77 | 86 | 77 | 73 | 18 |=1395=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1850| 39 | 39 | 43 | 31 | 43 | 22 | =595=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1851| 40 | 39 | 53 | 36 | 42 | 27 | =663=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1852| 44 | 32 | 49 | 26 | 54 | 28 | =717=| | „ „ „ | | | | | | | | | 1853| 39 | 41 | 42 | 32 | 48 | 22 | =670=| +-----------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ |Total of five | =307=| =228=| =273=| =202=| =260=| =117=|=4040=| |Seasons | | | | | | | | +-----------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

ON THE PRESENT BURIAL-PLACES OF THE CITY.

TO THE IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE OF THE HON. THE COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS OF THE CITY OF LONDON.

December 10th, 1852.

GENTLEMEN,

In order to an application of the Metropolitan Burials Act by the constituted authorities of the City, you have requested me to report how far, in my judgment, the existing burial-places within this jurisdiction are fit for further reception of the dead.

I have little to add to the information which I have laid before the Commission in my successive annual reports--especially in that of 1849, and which long since induced me to express my conviction ‘that the City of London could no longer with safety or propriety be allowed to furnish intramural burial to its dead.’

It would, indeed, be ridiculous if I should pretend to you that this part of the subject requires any further inquiry. Putrefactive decomposition of one kind and another is the principal cause of town-unhealthiness. Against its occurrence round about our houses all your legislation is directed. The human body, once destitute of life, furnishes no exception to the laws of organic decay: under the common laws of chemical change, it soon dissolves itself into products neither less offensive, nor less poisonous, than those of any brute’s decomposition. And you cannot take a juster view of the subject--you cannot arrive at stronger arguments for the immediate abolition of intramural interment, than by forcing yourselves to discard for a moment all memory of the fading human outline which masks this dreadful nuisance, and to conceive it as a mere bulk of animal matter, planted every year to undergo decomposition within the City, beneath our Churches, and before our thresholds.

The right of interment in the City may at present be claimed in respect probably of more than three thousand corpses per annum. The number actually interred of late years has, I believe, not exceeded an average of two thousand per annum.

Dead bodies thus buried contribute importantly in their neighbourhood to the vitiation of air and water. Those that lie shelved in vaults, eventually, if not at first, spread through the atmosphere every product of their decomposition. Those that are dug into the soil have their decay modified by its influence, mingle with its drainage the products of their transformation, and thus (as I have shown in my remarks on the Bishopsgate pump water) find their issue in the nearest land-spring of the spot, polluting the drink of the population. Further, in all the more frequented burial-grounds, the soil seems to be saturated with animal matters only partially transformed; and at every new disturbance by the spade, a fresh quantity of this unctuous clay comes upmost, tainting the air with materials of fœtid decomposition, often to the great distress of persons who dwell in the vicinity.

On such grounds as these, I cannot hesitate in renewing my report that the City of London is absolutely unfit to serve as a further burial-place for the dead; and this, whether by inhumation or in vaults, whether in parochial burying-grounds, or in those of other communities.

Regard being had to the object of your reference, you would probably not desire me at present to enter on the ulterior questions of extramural interment.

On such representations as I have made, the Court of Common Council (acting under the Metropolitan Act already referred to) has authority to determine in respect of the City of London, whether the existing places of burial, either from their insufficiency, or from their dangerousness to health, are so unfit for their purpose as to render it necessary that other burial-space be provided.

Should they affirm this view, they can then ‘authorise and direct the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London to exercise for the said City and Liberties all the powers and authorities vested in Burial-Boards under the Act.’

This course being taken, the Commission (subject to approval from the Secretary of State) will have authority to make all arrangements requisite for the final closure of burial-places within the City.

In approaching the subject of extramural sepulture, with its innumerable details of inquiry, for site, for conveyance, and for burial--details which form the knowledge and experience of a special class of persons, the Commission may perhaps first consider whether works so foreign to their usual functions shall be undertaken by themselves directly, or shall be made matter of contract with existing Cemetery Companies, or other associations or individuals. Till this decision is made, it seems impossible to conjecture what topics you may wish to entertain, or within what limits the industry of your officers may most usefully be exercised.

There are many very important parts of the subject with which it may hereafter become my duty to deal; but till the preliminary questions are settled, it would be idle to detain you with sanitary considerations belonging to a later stage of your inquiry.

As my Report for 1849 had long been out of print, I subjoin an extract from it of so much as relates to the matter in hand.

The passages here referred to form a separate section of the First Annual Report; and therefore need not be reprinted in this part of the present volume.--J. S., 1854.

NOTE.

On considering the above Report, the Improvement Committee of the Commissioners (to whom the subject had been specially referred) at once resolved to report to the General Court that, in their ‘judgment, steps should be taken for closing the several burial-places within the City;’ and at the same time they desired that the Officer of Health would prepare for them his opinion on those ulterior arrangements which such closure might render necessary.