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Antiseptic Burial Soils.

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There is a similar instance of this veneration in the history of Bunhill Fields, where, in the vault of his friend, Mr. Stradwick, the grocer, on Snow-hill, in whose house he died, is buried, John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress. Modern curiosity has marked the place of his interment with a brief inscription, but his name is not recorded in the Register. So numerous have been, and still are, the dying requests of his admirers to be buried as near as possible to the place of his interment, that it is not possible to obtain a grave near him, the whole surrounding earth being occupied by dead bodies to a very considerable distance.

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People like to be buried in company, and in good company. The Dissenters regarded Bunhill Fields' burial-ground as their Campo Santo, and especially for Bunyan's sake. It is said that many have made it their desire to be interred as near as possible to the spot where his remains are deposited."—Southey.

EMBLEMS ON TOMBS.

The devices which we see on old tombs distinguish, by their emblematic differences, the dead which they inclose. The legs of crusaders were crossed; the right hand of prelates was raised as if in benediction; bishops bore the crozier in the left hand, abbots in their right; less dignified priests bore a chalice; kings and bishops had gloves on both hands. Officers of State and other noblemen are represented with a glove on the right hand, for the purpose of supporting a hawk, while the other glove is off and is held in the left hand. Lions at the feet typify vigilance and courage; and human heads may be seen under the feet of one of the figures in the Temple Church, denoting infidels slain in the Crusades. Dragons under the feet pierced, as for example by the staves of the abbots of Peterborough, express triumph over the devil; and sometimes an escalopshell would be engraven under the cross, to denote that the occupant of the tomb had in lifetime performed a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James at Compostella. There are recorded many instances of bad taste in tombs. It was, for example, a fashion at one time to represent on them a body in a state of corruption. There is one of a Duc de Croye in a church near Louvain, where a skeleton is represented with the worms preying on it.

ANTISEPTIC BURIAL SOILS.

In certain burial-places, human bodies are preserved for a century and more, which is attributed to the antiseptic properties of the soil. St. Michan's Vaults, Church-street, Dublin, possess this property. The soil and walls of this crypt are a compound

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of argillaceous earth and carbonate of lime. This admixture exercises a chemically absorbent influence on all ordinary earthy and atmospheric moisture. Every one knows that moisture is, perhaps, the greatest aid to decomposition. Amid the rains of winter or the heats of summer the vaults of St. Michan, with the exception of one small chamber, are uniformly free from damp; and the consequence is the phenomenon referred to. The portion which appears damp is destitute of any animal remains but bones. In some of the dry compartments which are rarely opened, the ornamental appendages of certain coffins shine as brilliantly as when originally deposited there a circumstance which strikingly attests the uncommon aridity of the walls and soil. The floor is covered with dust as dry as that overlying a country road in summer. Beneath the foundation is a bed of silicious sand. A nun, fully robed, was for half a century shown here, in high preservation.

A vault possessing antiseptic properties is also shown beneath the monastic chapel of the Kreutzberg, about two miles from Bonn. Here are the corpses of several poor monks, in open coffins, the bodies dressed in cowl and cassock, as on the day of their dissolution. Here they were deposited between the years 1400 and 1713, and the extraordinary state of preservation in which they have remained during that extensive lapse of time has been attributed mainly to the dryness of the sandy soil which surrounds them. The worsted stockings and grey leather shoes of some are undecayed; and the nails upon their bony fingers, and the grey hair on their craniums are perfect. Notwithstanding the bodies seem to be the size and weight of ordinary thin men, they are so light, that one can be raised with a single finger.*

Sand is an agent for correcting putridity: hence, probably, the practice of strewing floors with sand.

A correspondent of Notes and Queries relates (2nd S. vi. 156): "When I was a boy I was told, and I heard it with a strange sensation of dread, that if an individual took up a handful of dust thrown from a newly opened grave, he might know whether a good or wicked person had been formerly buried there; for, said the informant, if the dust stirs in your hand, you may be sure that it had once formed a portion of the body of a wicked man or woman; for "the wicked cannot rest anywhere," not even in the grave!

DECAY OF THE HUMAN BODY.

When putrefaction commences, there can, of course, be no longer any doubt of the departure of life-premising that the putrefaction is general, and not of a local kind. There is nothing * See the description, by Mr. Leslie, at page 162.

Emblem of the Resurrection.

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more appalling and humiliating than the decomposition of the dead. We may, indeed, persuade ourselves, that the dead are only silent and immoveable; but when changes gradually manifest themselves, and we can no longer recognise the familiar features we have so often looked upon, we see the greatness of that alteration, and feel what it is to die.

eye.

The peculiar cadaverous odour of the body is well known to most persons, and the appearances of incipient putrefaction need no explanation. The finer changes are, perhaps, best indicated by the placidity of the cornea, and the loss of transparency in the These can seldom be mistaken by medical men, though death may undoubtedly take place before they are strikingly apparent. Amongst other indications of decomposition the gravitation and transudation of the blood to the surface on which the body lies are important subjects for consideration, because they have been mistaken by persons ignorant of such matters for indications of injuries and bruises: indeed, they often present lines and marks closely resembling the extravasations produced by blows: hence they are termed sugillations, from the Latin sugillatio, a black mark.

M. Bouchut has, in a memoir on apparent death, for which he received a prize of 1,500 francs, replied to these questions: "What are the distinctive characters of apparent death? 2. What are the means to prevent premature interment?"

M. Bouchut states that the sounds of the heart, as indicated by the stethoscope, are never entirely wanting, except in real death; and that the longest interval between the loud beats of the heart is about six or seven seconds. He further insists on the complete dilatation of the pupil of the eye as a corroborative sign of death, remarking that, though contracted in the death-struggle, it afterwards and speedily becomes dilated; so truly may we say that "la pupille est la fenêtre de l'ame.”

Even the alterations which take place after the body is committed to the grave have engaged the attention of medical inquirers. It seems not very probable that the features of the dead can be recognised after fourteen or fifteen days' interment; and in three or four months all vestiges of the face are destroyed. -Abridged from Harrison on the Medical Aspects of Death.

EMBLEM OF THE RESURRECTION.

We see the Phoenix, with a glory of rays round its head, perched upon the palm-tree, the Tree of Life, as a symbol of the resuscitated and glorified body, in the mosaics of various Roman apsides, as in those of the churches of the Saints Cosma and Damiano. We also see a similar bird perched upon the Tree of Life in the Paradise represented in the apsis of S. Giovanni

Laterano. St. Augustin, however, considered the Peacock to be a symbol of the resurrection of the body, because its flesh was believed to be incorruptible. But the peacock never takes the place of the phoenix in the apsidial mosaics; nor does the phoenix ever take the place of the peacock on Christian sepulchral urns and other monuments.

Dr. Barlow, from whose communication to the Builder these observations are quoted, states it to be alleged that when the palm-tree has decayed, the Arabs cut it down to the roots, and burn it on the spot; and the ashes being covered with a layer of earth, a new shoot springs up, which in the course of a few years becomes a strong tree. It would seem that we have here the origin of the fabled phoenix rising renewed from the flames that consumed it, as the bird and the tree bear the same name. This is probably the reason why, in Christian symbolism, the phoenix with a glory of rays was employed to signify the glorified body in the resurrection.

Sir Thomas Browne, among his erudite guesses, describes the Phoenix as a bird of Paradise," and alike the emblem of the Resurrection and the Sun;" again, "that it was a palm-tree, and that it was only a mistake upon the homonymy of the Greek word phoenix, which signifies a palm-tree."-See Timbs's Popular Errors Explained, pp. 117-8.

The Church of St. Giles' in the Fields, London, has a "Resurrection Gate," with an elaborate bas-relief of the Day of Judgment. This curious work of art is stated to have been taken from the lich-gate of the former church.

FLOWERS ON GRAVES.

This rite scarcely belongs to the "Mysteries" of Death; its simplicity being an instinct of every stage of man's life—the very child seeking to

Pluck the frail flowers that gaily bloom,

And cast as they fade away,

In garlands on its mother's tomb.

Or in the more touching couplet describing some children at play among the tombs

Alas! unconscious of the kindred earth,

That faintly echoed to the voice of mirth.

A drooping flower is an emblem of early death, a thought which we remember to have seen amplified in some lines upon two young children of the Rev. Joseph Hamilton, D.D., interred at Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire :

:

As fades the flower in early spring,
When tempests sweep the land,

Flowers on Graves.

So droops the tender infant's form
When seized by death's cold hand.
Farewell, sweet babes, the loss is ours,
For you are gone to rest;

The Shepherd has but call'd his lambs,

To fold them to his breast.

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One who felt acutely the sorrows as well as enjoyed the ecstasies of life, has sung:

Flowers are the bright remembrancers of youth:

They waft back with their bland and odorous breath
The joyous hours that only young life knows,

Ere we have learn'd that this fair earth hides graves.
They bring the cheek that's mouldering in the dust
Again before us, ting'd with health's own rose,
They bring the voices we shall hear no more,
Whose tones were sweetest music to our ears:
They bring the hopes that faded one by one,

"Till nought was left to light our path but faith,

That we too, like the flowers, should spring to life,

But not like them again e'er fade or die.-Lady Blessington.

Of the Pagan custom of strewing graves with flowers, we find this beautiful record in Virgil; where Anchises, grieving for Marcellus, makes him say :

Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring,

Mix'd with the purple roses of the spring,
Let me with fun'ral flowers his body strew,
This gift, which parents to their children owe,
This unavailing gift, at least, I may bestow.

The rose has been for ages the favourite flower for funereal purposes. Among the Greeks, the relatives of the deceased wore garlands of roses during the days of mourning, as emblematical of the shortness of life, which passes as quickly away as would the beauty of those roses which form the mourner's crown. The tombs of the dead were decorated with roses, under the idea that they possessed the power of protecting the remains of the deceased, and were peculiarly acceptable as an offering to their manes. The Greeks also used the amaranthus, which is commonly regarded as the flower now known by the name of "everlasting." Parsley and myrtle were likewise funereal plants. The Romans were so fond of the rose, that we find inscriptions which refer to legacies left in their wills for the express purpose of providing roses, with which their tombs were annually to be decorated. This custom has descended to our times.

Lord Byron writes from Bologna, June 7, 1819: "Here, as in Greece, they strew flowers on the tombs: I saw a quantity of rose-leaves and entire roses scattered over the graves at Ferrara.

It has the most pleasing effect you can imagine."

The Romans are considered to have brought this custom intc England: such is the opinion of the Rev. Owen Manning, the

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