| English Square Feet. | Numbers Dead. | Years. | English Square Feet. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Adults. | 54·72 | × | 500 | × | 10 | = | 273,600 |
| 2. Youth. | 27·36 | × | 50 | × | 8 | = | 10,944 |
| 3. Infants. | 22·80 | × | 450 | × | 7 | = | 71,820 |
| Total | 356,364 |
“According to the usual calculation the requisite space would be:—
39·90 × 1,000 × 10 = 399,000.
So that, by the above calculation and classification, there is a saving of 42,636 square feet.
“I must, however, beg to be understood that this calculation is only meant to serve as an example, and that the factors on which it is grounded must undergo the necessary variations, according as the soil is more or less favourable to decomposition, and therefore requiring a longer or shorter period of rest; and according to the greater or less consistency of the soil, and therefore requiring the space between the graves to be greater or less; and, lastly, according as the average mortality varies, and especially the rate of mortality of the three classes of ages.”
These factors would give different results for different populations, according to their different proportions of death. As an example of a town population, in Whitechapel the proportion of deaths for every 35,000 of the population will be 1125 deaths yearly. As an example of a rural population, for every 35,000 of the population in Hereford, there will only be 562 deaths annually, and the space required for interments for the two populations will be as follows, at the actual rate of deaths per 35,000 amongst the population in the Whitechapel Union in 1839:
| English Square Feet. | Number of Deaths. | Age of Grave. | Total Area in Square Feet. | Average Square Feet. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Adults. | 54·72 | × | 568 | × | 10 | = | 310,810 | |
| 2. Youths. | 27·36 | × | 31 | × | 8 | = | 6,785 | |
| 3. Children. | 22·80 | × | 524 | × | 7 | = | 83,639 | |
| 1,123 | 401,234 | 39·07 | ||||||
Rate of deaths per 35,000 in the Herefordshire Unions in 1839:
| English Square Feet. | Number of Deaths. | Age of Grave. | Total Area in Square Feet. | Average Square Feet. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Adults. | 54·72 | × | 382 | × | 10 | = | 209,030 | |
| 2. Youths. | 27·36 | × | 16 | × | 8 | = | 3,502 | |
| 3. Children. | 22·80 | × | 164 | × | 7 | = | 26,174 | |
| 562 | 238,706 | 44·62 | ||||||
| This gives for a rural population | 976 graves per acre. | |||||||
| For a town population | 1,117 graves per acre. | |||||||
But in consequence of the smaller proportion of children dying in the rural district, a larger space is requisite than would appear from a comparative number of the interments if the graves were of the same size. The average size of the different graves may be taken as an epitome of the strength of the same numbers of the two populations: that of the town grave being in round numbers 39 feet, while the rural grave is 44 feet.