An exposition of the dangers of interment in cities; illustrated by an account of the funeral rites and customs of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and primitive Christians; by ancient and modern ecclesiastical canons, civil statutes, and municipal regulations; and by chemical and physical principles. Chiefly from the works of Vicq d'Azyr ... and Prof. Scipione Piattoli ... / with additons by Felix Pascalis.
- Pascalis Ouviere, Felix, 1762-1833.
- Date:
- 1823
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An exposition of the dangers of interment in cities; illustrated by an account of the funeral rites and customs of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and primitive Christians; by ancient and modern ecclesiastical canons, civil statutes, and municipal regulations; and by chemical and physical principles. Chiefly from the works of Vicq d'Azyr ... and Prof. Scipione Piattoli ... / with additons by Felix Pascalis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![A ncient In term cuts* ]3 m some isolated cave, or in dry sand, or under sandstone impervious to water. But these cus¬ toms at length degenerated so much, that houses were filled with these vessels; they were kept as a most precious family deposit, and the most sa¬ cred civil pledge. This superstitious practice, however, could only have been prevalent among the great and the rich. (4) The people, that is the greater number, were contented with sim¬ ple inhumation; and there have been whole na¬ tions, among whom burial was practised generally and without interruption. Contagious diseases that broke out in the midst of the Egyptians, and baffled every remedy, led them to remove all the embalmed to a distance. The great number of dead after the carnage of battle, obliged them to have recourse to burning, and preserving the ashes. These examples were care¬ fully employed to destroy the too frequent custom of embalming, and succeeded the more easily as the reigning opinion regarded the latter practice as productive of disease. In a short time the face of things was entirely changed, and tombs and vases wrere used only for the ashes of the funeral pile. Even nations that till then had regularly practised burial, began to make use of fire to consume the dead. Long wars, frequent transmigrations, and the ruin or rebuilding of cities, had in the course of time, overturned wThole countries; and bones con¬ fided for years to the dust, were unavoidably dis¬ turbed and exposed. The fear of this profanation determined the general adoption of burning the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30796404_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
