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37
INTRAMURAL BURIAL.
composition. There are, indeed, few of the older
burial-grounds of the City where the soil does not
rise many feet above its original level, testifying to
the large amount of animal matter which rots beneath
the surface. The vaults beneath churches
are, in many instances, similarly overloaded with
materials of putrefaction, and the atmosphere,
which should be kept pure, and without admixture
for the living, is hourly tainted with the fœtid emanations
of the dead. For the most part, houses
are seen to rise on all sides in immediate contiguity
to the burial-ground, forbidding the possibility of
even such ventilation as might diminish the evil,
and the inhabitants of such houses complain bitterly,
as the well may, of the inconvenience which
they suffer from this confined and noxious atmosphere.
With respect to burial in vaults, which prevails
to a very great and dangerous extent in this
City, I may observe that, among persons who are
ill-informed on the subject, there exist erroneous
notions as to the preservation of bodies under
these circumstances. They are supposed, from
the complete closure of their coffins, to remain unchanged
for ages, like the embalmed bodies of Egypt
and Peru; or, at least, if perhaps they undergo
some interior and invisible change (as the chrysalis
within its sheath), that there is no interference with
the general arrangement, no breach in the