§ 127. It appears that the evil of the expensive interments consequent on the monopoly which the nature of the event, and the feelings of survivors, gives to the person nearest at hand for the performance of the undertaker’s service, is checked by special arrangements in America. In Boston, and most of the large towns in America, there is a Board of Health which nominates a superintendent of burial grounds, who is invariably a person of special qualifications, and generally a medical man. All undertakers are licensed by the Board of Health, by whom the licence may at any time be revoked. The sexton of the church which the deceased attended is usually the undertaker. The bills of the undertaker are made out on a blank form, furnished by the public superintendent of interment, to whom all bills are submitted, and by whom they are audited and allowed, before they are presented for payment to the relations or friends of the deceased. Previous to interment, the undertaker must obtain from the physician who last attended the deceased, a certificate specifying the profession, age, time of illness, and cause of death of the deceased. This certificate is presented to the superintendent of funerals. An abstract of these certificates, signed by the superintendent of funerals, is printed every week in the public journals of the city. The cost of a funeral for a person in the position of life of the highest class of tradesmen in Boston, is about fifty dollars, or 10l. English, exclusive of the cost of the tomb. The price of a good mahogany coffin would be fifteen dollars, or 3l. 5s. The price of a most elegant mahogany coffin would be perhaps double that price. The price of a pine coffin, such as are used for the persons of the labouring classes, would be about four dollars. There is a peculiarity in the coffins made in the United States,—that a portion of the lid, about a foot from the upper end, opens upon a hinge. This, when opened, exposes to view the face of the deceased, which is covered with glass. The survivors are thus enabled at the last moment to take a view of the deceased, without the danger of infection. In Germany, the coffins are nailed down, every blow of the hammer frequently drawing a scream from the female survivors.
§ 128. In the chief German states it is adopted as a principle, that provision shall be made, and it is made successfully, for meeting the necessities of the population in respect to the undertakers’ supplies of service and materials; and that on the occurrence of a death, those necessities shall not be given up as the subject of common trading profits to whatsoever irresponsible person may obtain the monopoly of them. At Franckfort provision is made for these services and supplies of material at the lowest cost to the public as part of a series of arrangements comprehending the verification of the fact of death on view of the body, the edifice for the reception and care of the dead previous to interment, and the public cemeteries, all under the superintendence of superior and responsible medical officers. The expenses of the supplies of materials are reduced so low under these arrangements, that they no longer enter into serious consideration as a burthen to be met on such occasions.
§ 129. At Berlin, a contract is made by the Government with one person to secure funeral materials and services for the public at certain fixed scales of prices. The materials and services are stated to be of a perfectly satisfactory character; and yet the undertaker’s charge for a funeral such as would here cost for an artisan 4l. and upwards, is not more than 15s. English money; the charge for a middle class funeral is about 2l., and for a funeral of the opulent class of citizens is about, 10l. And yet I am assured that the contractors’ profits on the extensive supplies required are deemed too high, and that the Government will, on the renewal of the contract, find it necessary to protect the poorer classes by a contract at a lower rate.
§ 130. At Paris, interments are made the subject of a fisc; but a contract is made with one head to secure services and supplies to the private individual at reduced rates, and so far the system works advantageously to the public.
§ 131. The whole of the interments are there performed, and the various burial and religious dues collected and paid under one contract, by joint contractors for the public service at regulated prices, called the Service des Pompes Funèbres. This establishment annually buries gratis, upwards of 7000 destitute persons, or nearly one-third of all who die in the city. The funerals and religious services are divided into nine classes, comprehending various settled particulars of service, for which a price is fixed. The appointed service for any of these classes may be had on the terms specified in a tariff. This is found to be a great benefit to testators and survivors, as it enables them to settle the ceremonial with certainty, and without the possibility of any extortion. The first class of funerals are of great pomp: they include bearers, crosses, plumes, eighteen mourning coaches and attendants, grand mass at church, 120 lbs. of wax tapers, an anniversary service, and material of mourning cloth; and also the attendance of Monsieur le Curé, two vicars, twenty-one priests, six singers and ten chorister boys, and two instrumental performers, at a cost of 145l., for a funeral superior in magnificence perhaps to any private funeral in England. The charge for the service and materials of the ninth class, in which there is the attendance of a vicar and a priest, and of a bass singer or chorister for the mass, is about 15s. of English money. In the service ordinaire there is less religious service, and that is performed gratuitously. The only charge made is the price of the coffin, which is five or seven francs, according to the size: the coffin is covered by a pall, and carried on a plain hearse, drawn by two black horses. This funeral is conducted by a superintendent and four assistants, exclusive of the driver. The following is the scale of charges, and the numbers interred under each, during two years:—
| 1st Class. | 2nd Class. | 3rd Class. | 4th Class. | 5th Class. | 6th Class. | 7th Class. | 8th Class. | 9th Class. | Total of the nine Classes. | Service Ordinaire. | General Total. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £. | £. | £. | £. | £. | s. | £. | £. | £. | s. | s. | ||||
| Religious Funeral Service | 24 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 11 | |||
| Anniversary Religious Service | 26 | 20 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| Undertaker’s Material and Service | 95 | 83 | 49 | 23 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 4 | |||
| Total Expenses | 145 | 122 | 72 | 40 | 26 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 15 | |||
| Number of { 1839 | 23 | 52 | 138 | 256 | 828 | 1,457 | 2,523 | 141 | 530 | 5,958 | 14,087 | 20,045 | ||
| Burials { 1841 | 30 | 47 | 188 | 201 | 816 | 1,655 | 2,377 | 78 | 715 | 6,107 | 14,185 | 20,292 | ||
§ 132. On the number of burials in Paris for 1841, the gross income would be about 80,000l. per annum. Out of this sum the contractor pays the fixed salaries of the staff of officers, which consists of a chief inspector of funeral ceremonies, of 27 other directors besides, 78 bearers, one inspector of cemeteries and four keepers; officers chiefly appointed by the municipality. The total amount of the salaries which he pays is 5862l., English money. He keeps an establishment of 30 hearses and 76 carriages, with suites of minor attendants properly clothed, and inters the 7000 of the pauper class gratuitously. The last contractor paid annually to the municipality 17,000l., which sum was chiefly devoted to ecclesiastical objects. The large profits which he realized led to considerable competition, and a new contract was recently sealed for nine years, securing for public purposes an annual income of 28,000l.
Besides this amount, there is a revenue of about 20,000l. per annum derived by the municipality from the sale of tombs, and from the tax on interments, which is twenty francs for the interment of every adult, and ten francs upon children under seven years of age. One-fifth of this revenue, or about 4000l., is devoted to the hospitals.
§ 133. The remains of those who die in the public hospitals in Paris, and are not claimed by their friends, are, after dissection, merely enclosed in a coarse cloth and deposited in the ground, without any funereal rites. This number amounts, as stated, to no less than 7000 annually. The total average deaths in Paris is from 28,000 to 30,000 annually. This, in a population of 900,000, gives about one burial to every thirty of the population annually, which is nearly as large a proportion of annual deaths and burials as that in Manchester. The deaths and burials in the British metropolis (though varying in different parts, from 1 in 28, as in Whitechapel, to 1 in 56, as in Hackney, chiefly according to the condition of the locality) average for the entire population of 1,800,000 inhabitants, one death or burial in every forty-two of the inhabitants, or one-fourth less of burials than at Paris in proportion to the population. In Paris the average number of inhabitants to every house is 36. If the mortality were there in the proportion of London there would be 7,000 fewer burials yearly. An assertion may be ventured, that more than this excess of mortality is ascribable to the still lower sanitary condition of the labouring population in Paris, which has its concomitant in a still lower moral condition than yet prevails amongst the population of our large towns.[[26]]
§ 134. In Paris the law requires that the dead shall be interred within twenty-four hours after the decease, but this law may be evaded by neglect to give notice of the death. The general practice, however, appears to be, that interments take place within two days.