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41
dead house independent of the Workhouse, for the
purpose of depositing the bodies of these who died
in houses where there was little or no accommodation
for separating the dead from the living.
I was induced to do this from having observed the
great inconvenience and distress to which a large
class of our Parishioners are put, when a death
occurs in the household. I suggested that such a
dead house should be situated independent of the
Workhouse, as these of our Parishioners who most
objected to sending their dead to the Workhouse
were precisely these who with small incomes were
successfully resisting any application for Parish
relief, and who felt that to carry these whom they
most loved to the Workhouse in death was a
compromise with the principles they held most
dear.
The erection of a parish dead house, with convenient
means for keeping the dead, and of making
these examinations of the bodies by skilled
anatomists, which is the most precious means of
securing the health of the living, I felt was worthy
of the ambition of the most wealthy and one of the
most intelligent parish districts in London, and I
hoped would have been acted on and been an
example to the rest of the Metropolis. It was a
great satisfaction to me to find that my representation
to the Board of Guardians was so well
received, and to find them recommending the
subject to the serious consideration of the Vestry.