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38
INTRAMURAL BURIAL.
ness of the envelope. Nothing can be less correct
than this supposition.
It is unnecessary that I should detail to you
the process of decay, as it occurs within the charnelhouse,
nor need I inquire for your information
whether indeed it be true, as alleged, that part of
the duty of a sexton consists in tapping the recent
coffins, so as to facilitate the escape of gases which
otherwise would detonate from their confinement.
It is sufficient that I should state, that whether
such be or be not the duty of the functionary in
question, a time certainly comes, sooner or later,
when every corpse buried in the vault of a church
spreads the products of its decomposition through
the air as freely as though no shell had enclosed it.
It is matter of the utmost notoriety that, under all
ordinary conditions of vault-sepulture, the wooden
case of the coffin speedily decays and crumbles,
while the interior leaden one, bending with the
pressure of whatever mass may be above it, (or
often with its own weight,) yields, bulges, and
bursts as surely as would a paper hat-box under
the weight of a laden portmanteau.
If the accuracy of this description be doubted,
let inquiry be made on a large scale after the
coffins of 40 years back—let it be seen how many
will appear! If, on the contrary, its accuracy be
granted, then I apprehend nothing further need be
urged, to establish the importance of abolishing a
system which maintains on so large a scale the