BURYING WITHIN CHURCHES.

lent effects seldom happen, as people are generally on their guardagainst them. The less perceptible influences or' bad air provemore generally hurtful to mankind ; we shall, therefore, endeav-our to point out some of these, and to show whence the dangerchiefly arises.

Airs may become noxious many ways. Whatever greatly alters itsdegrees of heat, cold, moisture, «fee. renders it unwholesome : forexample, that which is too hot dissipates the watery parts of theblood, exalts the bile, and renders the whole humours adust andthick. Hence proceed bilious and inflammatory fevers, choleramorbus, &c. Very cold air obstructs the perspiration, constrin-ges the solids, and condenses the fluids. It occasions rheumatisms,coughs, and catarrhs, with other diseases of the throat and breast.Air that is too moist destroys the elasticity or spring of the solids,induces phlegmatic or lax constitutions, and disposes the body tointermitting fevers, dropsies, «fee.

Wherever great numbers of people are crowded into one place,if the air has not a free circulation it soon becomes unwholesome.Hence it is that delicate persons are so apt to turn sick or faint incrowded churches, assemblies, or any place where the air is injur-ed by breathing, fires, candles, or the like.

In great cities, so many things tend to contaminate the air, that it isno wonder it proves so fatal to the inhabitants. The air in cities isnot only breathed repeated!/ over, out is likewise loaded with sul-phur, smoke, and other exhalations, besides the vapours contin-ually arising from innumerable putrid substances, as dunghills,slaughter-houses, &c. All possible care should be taken to keepthe streets of large towns open and wide, that the air may have afree current through them. They ought likewise to be kept veryclean. Nothing tends more to pollute and contaminate the air ofa city than dirty streets.

It is very common in this country to have churchyards in themiddle of populous cities. Whether this be the effect of ancientsuperstition, or owing to the increase of such towns, is a matterof no consequence. Whatever gave rise to the custom, it is a badone. It is habit alone which reconciles us to these things ; bymeans of which the most ridiculous, nay pernicious customs, oftenbecome sacred. Certain it is, that thousands of putrid carcasses,so near the surface of the earth, in a place where the air is confin-ed, cannot fail to taint it; and that such air, when breathed intothe lungs, must occasion diseases.*

Burying ivitliin churches is a practice still more detestable. Theair in churches is seldom good, and the effluvia from putrid car-casses must render it still worse. Churches are commonly oldbuildings with arched roofs. They are seldom open above once aweek, are never ventilated by fires nor open windows, and rarelykept clean. This occasions that damp, musty, unwholesome smellwhich one feels upon entering a church, and renders it a very un-safe place for the weak and valetudinary. These inconveniencies

* In most eastern countries it was customary to bury the dead at some distance fromany town. As this practice obtained among the Jews, the Greeks, and also the Ro-mans, it is strange that the western parts of Europe should not have followed their ex-ample in a custom so truly laudable.