[9] Cremation is not opposed to Jewish doctrines.--'Jewish Chronicle,' April 10, 1874.
Fortunately for sanitary science, cases are upon record where a disturbance of the interred victims of infectious epidemics has been followed by a fresh outbreak, and thus we are fairly warned of the danger. In 1828, Professor Bianchi explained how the dire reappearance of the plague at Modena was due to an excavation made in some ground where, 300 years previously, the victims of the plague had been interred. At Eyam, in Derbyshire, remarks Mr. Cooper,[12] the digging up of the plague burial-grounds caused an immediate outbreak of disease. Mr. Cooper also describes how the excavations made for sewers in the site where the victims of the plague of 1665 were buried, enhanced the virulence of the cholera which visited London during the year 1854. Mr. Simon had previously warned the authorities of what would result from any disturbance of the spot.[13] Dr. Playfair also declares that the fever prevalent in Rome is due to the exhalations from the soil, which is saturated with organic matter.
[12] 'On the Causes of some Epidemics.' Glasgow, 1874.
[13] 'The plague-pit,' says the 'Lancet' of September 16, 1854, 'is situated within the area bounded by Argyll Place, King Street, Tyler Street, Little Marlborough Street being directly over the pit.'
In 1843, when the parish church of Minchinhampton was rebuilding, the soil of the burial-ground, or what was superfluous, was disposed of for manure, and deposited in many of the neighbouring gardens. The result was that the town was nearly decimated. I have lately made personal inquiries upon the spot, and find that the mischief which resulted has been even understated. The outbreak of the plague in Egypt in 1823 has also been traced to the opening of a disused burial-ground at Kelioub, fourteen miles from Cairo. Two thousand perished in the village, and Cairo suffered fearful mortality. The outbreak of plague from this cause is also vouched for by M. Pariset, who was sent to Egypt by the French Government to inquire into the cause of the plague. Even the exhalations of a single corpse buried twelve years have been known to engender a dangerous disease in a whole convent.[14]