BURIED ALIVE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2252, 27 October 1875, Page 2

BURIED ALIVE.

A. church is. really a congregation 0f ... living souls, and the' bodies' 'which. .those^ souls inhabit may be buried -'• before the^ T - :- debt of nature falls due, if disease. breaks! out and pestilence' stalks abroad to decimate the population. We read a revolting account of the state of thing 3 at-a- . grave-yard near West Lobe, in the county of Cornwall. In this cemetery, attached to Talland Church, .^Booo Corpses have been interred in little -more {than half an acre of ground. The, gra^es^are shallow, owing to .the friable nature of the soil ; . there are no spaces between the graves] so -' ' that whenever a person has to be : buried, the remains of others must, Of necessity, be disturbed; ; The repeated burials have raised thesoU so-high that thie church appears itself to be buried in a pit, and the atmosphere is ,so foul that, the; sacred - edifice is wholly unfit \ for public service. A : horrible ; slime:-- oozing from the graves -invades the belfry, and .the. sexton is f obliged to keep disinfectants for the safety of- the ringers. Even the primroses, placed injthe church for its decoration on Easter Day, were black by: the r following evening, from Jthe abundance of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in the air. On Ash Wednesday the con-; : gregation : were 'unable, to remain in' church.' Dr Holland, the Government Inspector, is of opinion that "something-- . must be done" to provide a cemetery f ' for the united townships of ■ East and West Lode; but the ratepayers resist the spending of money, and a -motion -in favor of taking steps for the formation of a burial board was actually defeated ! Dr Holland will report to the Home Secretary of State, We could : cite, equally dig- -... gusting cases nearer Lqndon, and in ; London itself! indeed; must (be done, and that right soon. -The bid, 'close coffin system must be abandoned, and either wicker baskets be used| or, still better, the decomposition of; nature be accelerated by chemical reagents* ■-