The Ecclesiastical Art Review
340 REVIEWS.
London: John Bray, 125 Fleet Street.
This journal, which was started to supply a want, has proved to be a great success. Religion and Art have been connected in all ages. There is nothing sectarian in the objects of the journal, and the current number contains a valuable article on ” Relics of Religious Art in India.” The following extract from a paper on ” How we Bury our Dead ” contains some excel- lent sanitary observations:?” Quite recently a Government inquiry was held respecting the sanitary condition of the Bat- tersea Cemetery. Mr. Philip H. Holland, Medical Inspector for the Home Office under the Burials Acts, conducted the same.
It must be mentioned that this inqtiiry was not spontaneous on the part of the Government. Not until a communication had been addressed by Mr. J. E. Gorst, Q.C., to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, complaining of the existing evil, were any steps taken to protect the public health. Mr. Gorst pointed out that albeit the area of the cemetery in question was but eight acres, nevertheless sixteen thousand bodies had already been depo- sited therein, twelve thousand of this number occupying a space of less than four acres, while the number of funerals was annually augmenting. The superintendent of the pestiferous cemetery, in answers to interrogatories put to him by the medical inspector, made the shocking confession that ‘ it was customary to bury four bodies of adults, or five of children, in the same grave, with a foot of earth 1 etween each coffin.’ The cemetery official was then told what either he had known or should have known previously, namely, that such a practice ‘ was contrary to law, as the same grave should not be again opened for fourteen years.’ Upon evidence being taken jpro and con., the represen- tative of the Government decided that ‘ it was quite clear the cemetery could not be closed at present’; adding, that ‘ for the future only one body must be buried in a grave.’ Some one then added that this decision would have the effect of tempo- rarily closing the burial ground in a year or eighteen months. This pregnant record shows how indifferent the authorities are to sanitary questions of great importance; how slowly they move when even action is taken ; and how official inquiries, like Burial Acts, are productive of but little fruit, if, peradventure, they do not end in nothing.”
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