BURY SAINT EDMUNDS, England, parliamentary and municipal borough in West Suffolk, situated on the Lark, 26 miles north west of Ipswich. It contains two fine churches, those of Saint James and Saint Mary. Among other buildings a shire-hall, a guild-hall, a corn exchange, athenaeum with library, etc. Agricul tural implements are manufactured, and there is a large trade in agricultural produce. Of many benevolent institutions the principal is a free grammar school founded by Edward VI. Bury Saint Edmunds sends one member to Parliament. It is. an ancient place, and de rived its name from Saint Edmund, a king of the East Angles, who was buried here. The barons in John's reign met here and swore to obtain the ratification of Magna Charta. Bury Saint Edmunds contains the remains of an abbey, once the most wealthy and magnificent in Great Britain, of which all that remains is the noble Norman tower or Church Gate, one of the best specimens of early Norman archi tecture in England, and the western gate, deco rated in style. Pop. 16,785.
coleopterous in sects of the family Silphidce. The carrion or sexton beetles are useful in burying decaying bodies of birds, mice, etc., in which they lay their eggs. The larva are crustaceous, flat tened, with the sides of the body often serrated, black and of a fetid odor. They undergo their transformations in an oval earthen cocoon. In Necrophorus the antenna have 10 apparent joints, and the rounded club is four-jointed. The genus Silpha, of which S. lappontca is a common species, differs in the third Joint of the antenna being no longer than the second but shorter than the first. In Necrophilus the third joint is as long as the first. N. surinameesis has a yellow thorax with a central irregular black spot. Catops and its allies live in fungi, carrion and ants nests, and are small, black, oval insects. There are between 800 and 900 species of the family, many of which are small and live in caves (see CAVE-DWELLING ANI MALS) or in nests of ants.
localities of sepul ture of the dead. The custom of burying the dead in public places prevailed among the most ancient nations, including the Romans, who afterward, in the flourishing periods of the republic, burned their dead and kept the ashes in tombs, collected in urns. The ancient Ger mans buried their dead in groves consecrated by their priests. With the introduction of the Christian religion consecrated places were ap propriated for the purpose of general burial; and it was regarded as ignominious not to be buried in consecrated earth. The deprivation
of the rites of burial was therefore part of the punishment of excommunication. The Romans provided their gravestones, upon which were inscribed the name of the deceased, and the wish, Sit illi terra levis ((May the earth rest lightly upon hire). This custom was preserved by the Christians. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans erected over the graves of men of rank, or persons otherwise remark able, pyramids, mausoleums or temples. After the introduction of Christianity little churches, called chapels, were erected over the dead. Early Christian martyrs were often buried in caverns, which by degrees were enlarged to spacious subterranean vaults. Subsequently others considered themselves happy if their bones were allowed to repose near the ashes of a martyr. As early as the 4th century the Christians built churches over the sepulchres of the holy martyrs; and in the belief that a place was sanctified by their ashes they anxiously sought out, on the erection of new churches in cities, or the transformation of heathen temples into Christian churches, the remains (relics) of the martyrs, and buried them under the altar of the new church to communicate to it a character of greater sanc tity. The Emperor Constantine, who died in 337, is supposed to have been the first person who ordered his tomb to be erected in a church. This was done in the Church of the•Apostles at Constantinople, of which he was the founder, and therefore probably considered himself as peculiarly entitled to this privilege. He was soon imitated by the bishops, and later all those who had enriched the Church were distinguished by this honor. The Emperors Theodosius and Jus tinian, indeed, forbade the erection of sepul chres in churches, but in vain. Leo the Philoso pher again permitted them to everybody. At present interment in churches is almost every where suppressed, or at least permitted only under certain restrictions. Even in Naples and Rome the general practice of erecting sepul chres in churches was forbidden in 1809, and the foundation of burial places without the city was provided for. The custom introduced by the communities of Moravian Brothers, who form their burial places into gardens, is now becoming general; and cemeteries, instead of exhibiting merely dull ranges of tombstones, are adorned with flower plots and ornamental shrubbery. The celebrated burying-place of Pere la Chaise, near Paris, is one of the most beautiful and interesting spots in the world. See also BURIAL; CREMATION; CATACOMBS.