IS LONDON IN DANGER?

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

IS LONDON IN DANGER?

THE DEAD ARE ALLEGED TO BE A

MENACE TO THE LIVING

Where is London to bury its dead? That is a question that is puzzling members of the London County Council and many others interested in the health of the living as well as the proper disposal of the deceased.

Careful estimates show that each year there are interred within the limits of the county of London about 130,000 human bodies. Thus a population corresponding to such flourishing towns as Cardiff or Brighton is buried at or near the City of London every twelve months.

The true significance of these figures can only be appreciated when one considers that if London's dead for one year were interred in one long trench it would extend from London to Nottingham. Good authorities say that in from five to ten years London will have no place for public burials. Sir Arthur Arnold, of the London County Council, in speaking of this important question, said to a 'Daily Mail' reporter:— • 'The principal fact relating to the disposal of the dead is that in the county of London every year there are 130,000 bodies to be disposed of. At present the system of cremation is carried out by a very small, but a constantly increasing, number of persons. I believe that during the past year the number of bodies cremated at Woking averaged about ONE PER DAY. 'It has been stated on high authority thai one-eighth of the deaths in London are caused, by . diseases which render bodies highly dangerous and infectious after death. 'And this condition is at its maximum a few weeks after death, so that the earth to earth burial which has been recommended as a reform is an exaggeration of the danger. It is more widely felt now than before that the dead must be dangerous to the living, and that the only way of averting the danger is by such a system as that carried on by the Cremation Society of England. 'The condition of the London cemeteries within the county suggests the imminent necessity for some change of method. 'Brompton Cemetery, which has been for about forty years or more the property of the Government, has but a very small SPACE OF UNOCCUPIED GROUND, which is about thirty-eight acres in extent, and the course I should like to suggest would be that the cemetery should be made over to the London County Council, and that there be erected a place of cremation in which that method could be carried out in regard to those bodies for which responsible .relatives desired that method of disposal.

'The cost should be fixed at a sum sufficient only to cover the actual expenses. That cost would depend somewhat upon the number of bodies cremated. It would then be found to be less than that of the present system, partly because there would be rto necessity for the elaborate caskets now used.

'But of course the main question is one of the interment of the 130,000 dead bodies annually within or near the confines ot this vast city. The injury to public health caused by burial grounds is very great. There is important medical evidence that states that the germs of zymotic diseases

are continually conveyed by worms from buried-^ corpses to the surface of burial grounds.

'It Is estimated by Lord Playfair that within the last sixty years alone 8,000,000 dead bodies have been crowded into the churchyards and cemeteries of London.

'The Cremation Society of England, of which Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent surgeon, is president, and the council of which includes the Duke of Westminster, Sir Douglas Galton, and other distinguished persons, have always been careful to advocate' purely voluntary system of cremation.

'Cardiff, Leamington, Leicester, Hull and other boroughs have obtained power to erect places for cremation.

'I have heard It said that up to the present time cremation has beeri adopted only by titled .persons and persons' of intellectual distinction. There is some truth in that remark, but I see no reason why the advantages of this method of disposal" of the dead should not be available in th° case of any of those by whom it may be desired.'—'Daily Mail.'