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at the bottom. The new coffin is then filled up with a mixture of
yellow deal sawdust and charcoal and the lid fastened down.
When possible, care is always taken to keep the remains of each
individual separate; but when they are mixed up and indistinguishable,
square cases, about the size of an ordinary coffin, are filled with
them and some of the charcoal and sawdust mixture; such cases
would often contain all that is left of the bodies of from seventeen to
twenty people.
Mr. Ayton considers that the more perfect the coffin, the greater is
the danger to the remover, and this is especially so with leaden coffins;
these are frequently found to be full of a horribly offensive black liquid.
The action of lime upon the lead coffins, for any length of time,
impairs their hermetic efficiency, and makes the operation of removal
difficult and dangerous.
No permanent ill effects have been experienced either by Mr. Ayton
or his employes in these removals; the men say they feel less ill from
the nature of the work than from the smell of the disinfectants used:
these have usually been McDougal's powder and ordinary carbolic
powder, but Mr. Ayton says that in any future operations he shall use
sanitas, which he thinks quite as effectual, and, moreover, is free from
the disagreeable odour of the others.
The men are always allowed to smoke as much as they please. On
one occasion a plentiful allowance of rum was served out, but the
result was so unsatisfactory that it was never repeated.
The greatest difficulty is found in large closed vaults, which
frequently contain numbers of bodies in leaden coffins; many of them
get broken in the process of removal, the air of the vaults then becomes
foul and oppressive, and the men get faint but soon recover in
the open air. No permanent ill effects are known to have occurred
to any one.
About 14 years ago a portion of the Globe Fields Cemetery was
built over; the ground was excavated so as to allow the building of
piers upon solid foundations; arches were thrown over, and upon them
the main walls of the houses were constructed; the bodies were not
removed, but the ground was covered with a thick layer of concrete,
upon which the partition walls were built; as may be readily imagined,
the result has been disastrous; the houses are constantly under repair,
the floors sink, and the partition walls crack. The ground is just outside
this parish, so that my information is not very exaot, but I cannot