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15
upon the sanitary state of clerkenwell.
premises, into which the dung may be thrown, and carted away, without being
stirred up. But the cow-premises will probably always form nuisances, so long
as they are allowed to exist in the Metropolis.
CHURCHES.
In my inspection of the churches in the district I found their condition
satisfactory, with the exception, however, of the state of the vaults. In the
vaults of St. James's and St. John's Churches, and in those of Pentonville
Chapel, many hundreds of bodies are contained in coffins, which are closely
packed together. Complaints have been made regarding the existence of an
offensive effluvium in Pentonville Chapel and the surrounding neighbourhood.
On examination I was unable to detect this: the vaults were found
in good order, and well ventilated. Yet the effluvium may have arisen from
the noxious gases evolved during the decomposition of the corpses, although
only perceptible at those times at which a coffin bursts from the pressure of
the included gases, which was probably the cause of the effluvium in the
instances alluded to. No communication exists between the air-supply of
this chapel and the interior of the vaults.
The vaults of St. John's Church are very imperfectly ventilated, although
no offensive odour is perceptible.
In St. James's Church the air-supply for the interior is derived from the
vaults, a state of things which should not be allowed for one moment.
I regret also to state, that burials within the vaults of St. Mark's Church
still continue to take place. Why should this poor and densely populated
district be so far behind the other districts of the Metropolis, that burials shall
still take place within it?*
In regard to the remaining of the corpses in the vaults, this should not be
allowed. There should be no possible chance of the dead exerting a noxious
influence over the living. The corpses should be removed to some open
burial ground, and there allowed to rest and harmlessly decay.
Whilst speaking of burials, I would suggest that in all cases a stratum of
charcoal should be laid at the bottom of the coffin, by which the noxious
emanations may be absorbed as soon as formed, and thus every possibility of
their doing injury, wherever preserved, may be prevented.
A question requiring very serious attention arises in connexion with the
occupation by a family of a single room only. If a poor man gets married,
he is pretty sure to have a large family of children; and at the present rate of
mortality of children from zymotic diseases, several will die of these maladies.
Hence, when a death occurs, the living and the dead must be together in the
same room; the living must eat, drink, and sleep by side a decomposing corpse;
and this in usually a small ill-ventilated room, overheated by a fire required
for cooking, and already filled with the foul emanations from the bodies of the
living and their impure clothes. This is an everyday occurrence in Clerkenwell,
and constitutes a formidable evil; for what can be more calculated to
drown the finer feelings of human nature, to harden the heart, and to favour
deeds of violence and even murder, than this bringing up of childhood and
youth in the immediate presence of the dead ?
These fearful occurrences could scarcely be avoided even by preventing a
*By an order from the Secretary of State, issued on November 20th, at the
instance of the Vestry, these burials have been interdicted.