Customary Aspects of Preserving the
Dead
Customary Aspects of Preserving the
Dead
Customary Aspects of Preserving the
Dead
• Growth of methods from the European
continent through the Colonial period.
– Nobility and high ranked people used to be
the only people who lay in state (reference
Chapter 3).
• Important individuals involved in
development of embalming were
physicians, surgeons, and barbersurgeons.
• Limitations of embalming.
– It was not accessible for everyone mostly
done for Nobility & Church Leaders.
– Little was known about preservation.
• Methods.
– During the 18th century, because body
preservation techniques were unknown they
deteriorated to “sawdust and tar” level.
– This was in part because during this period
embalming was lost exclusively by the
people in the healing arts.
Impact on Growing Cities
• The need appeared for embalming as a
consequence of the inability of the
poorest urban classes to pay funeral
expenses.
• The body remained unburied and
without the benefit of funeral
ceremonies until the money could be
raised and paid for the services
rendered.
– How do you feel about the body being held
until the family has the money for burial?
Impact on Growing Cities
• The impulse to give the dead a “decent
Christian burial” has always been
present in Western Society.
• Do you think that this is still a driving
force for the funeralization of our society
today?
Impact on Growing Cities
• In the early Colonies a great deal of
importance was attached to being
gathered together (not only to but with
our fathers).
• The traditional impulse to gather beside
the bier of the departed relative was
apparently not diminished by the
distance separating one family from
another.
Impact on Growing Cities
• Upon the death of a dear friend or
relative colonists would set out on what
might be several days journey to
participate in the funeral, comfort the
immediately bereaved, and share in the
social gatherings which automatically
followed the get-together of scattered
realities and friends who seldom met
except on an occasion such as this.
• There is an obvious connection to our
lives and social view of funerals today.
Impact on Growing Cities
• Now, in order to have these gatherings
take place, it became necessary, in many
instances, to use whatever preservative
methods were available at the time to
stop or retard the putrefaction of the
corpse while the funeral was delayed
because the funeral would have lost
most of its significance without a corpse
as the central figure.
• What does this then say about
cremation?
Varied Methods Used Before the 19th
Century
• Several crude methods were invented– Disemboweling and filling the cavity with
charcoal.
– Immersing the body in alcohol.
– Wrapping the body in a cloth soaked in
alum, or “sere sheet.”
• Most of these methods should sound
familiar because they had been done
before.
Varied Methods Used Before the 19th
Century
• One interesting note is that in a letter
dated 1773 to a Barber Dudourg, Benjamin
Franklin anticipated cryonics by nearly two
centuries.
• It was speculated on the possibility of
embalming in “wine.”
“I wish it were possible from this instance to
invent a method of embalming drowned
persons, in such a manner as that they may
be recalled to life, however distant.”
Varied Methods Used Before the 19th
Century
• Why do you think he was only interested in
the “drowned” persons?
• Lord Nelson was returned to England from
Trafalgar in a barrel of rum….
• A need for preservation produced a number
of ingenious efforts to find a satisfactory
preservative.
• Why do you think they favored alcohol?
Varied Methods Used Before the 19th
Century
• The stories of embalming “in” alcohol were
not few.
– Nancy Martin, age 27, died at sea. Her father
didn’t want her buried at sea so he “thrust” her
body into a cask of alcohol and returned her to
her home country.
– Even when the body was sent elsewhere for
burial, it was encased in a metal container,
usually of lead, soldered air-tight, and again
encased in an outside coffin of wood.
Role of preservation of the Dead in
the 19th Century.
• Embalming was done in part because it
was a reliable method for transporting the
body greater distances.
• As people moved further and further away
from their “home” they still wanted to be
buried at “home”.
• This need became the driving force behind
the move to American Embalming.
Corpse Coolers and Cooling Boards
• In May, 1846, two years before the Fisk
Metallic Burial Case, two Baltimore
undertakers Robert Frederick and C.A.
Trump, received a patent for a
“Refrigerator for Corpses.”
• Three years earlier, the first “corpse
preserver,” based on the principal of ice
preservation was granted to John Good of
Philadelphia.
Corpse Coolers and Cooling Boards
• From the Description of the Frederick and
Trump innovation on pg. 200 what were
the problems:
– Wetting the body (more susceptible to
decomposition).
– Some designs were lost because of the space
needed and the amount of ice to preserve.
– It was discovered that the trunk or abdomen
and chest was the only area that needed to be
frozen what about the larger individuals.
Corpse Coolers and Cooling Boards
• So they created the Corpse Cooler:
Corpse Coolers and Cooling Boards
• Worked on the principle of ice
refrigeration.
• The body was laid out on the cooling
board.
• It was a concave metal ice-filled box
which fit the torso.
– It was equipped with a lid, spigot, and
handles.
– It was made of zinc and wood.
• After the embalming table was invented it
was still called a cooling board for a quite a
long time.
• Advantages
– portable
– economical
– could be used after the body was dressed
Shortly before the funeral the body could be
removed from the cooler and placed in the
coffin to preserve the most lifelike appearance.
• Disadvantages
– messy
– water dripped as it melted
– ice needed changing
• Other Alternatives:
-Corpse Preserver
Howard V. Griffiths
Altoona, PA~1870
-Corpse Refrigerator
Charles Kimball
Quincy, MS~1868
(as used in
city morgues)
Airtight Receptacles
• With the introduction of airtight
receptacles an increase in emphasis on
preservation embalming grew in
reputation.
• From the last chapter you remember
that the “air tight” receptacles were
created for the purposes of:
– Preservation
– Protection
– Aesthetic Presentation
Airtight Receptacles
• A new corpse container appeared:
Airtight Receptacles
• Patented in 1863 by Dr. Thomas Holm
– It was an invention that was designed
specifically for battle use in “the carrying of
badly-wounded dead bodies hurriedly
away.”
– “Deodorization” substances were introduced
by way of aperture and a tube for the
purpose of preserving the body for a short
time
– After the body was inserted a large draw
string drew the opening together…..
Chemical Embalming
• Influences on development
– More effective preservation for anatomical
studies
– Provided for a longer viewing period
– Added element of disinfection(remember the
disease factor: Smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet
fever, yellow fever, etc.)
– Civil War- How do you think the Civil War
had an influence?
Chemical Embalming
• Dr. Richard Harlan
– Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the
Philadelphia Museum.
– Member of the City Health Council (Health
Department).
– Journeyed to England to observe and study
the methods of epidemic disease control.
– While there became acquainted with
leading figures in medical and sanitary
science.
Chemical Embalming
• Dr. Richard Harlan
– Embalming as a sanitary measure
impressed Harlan.
– When he returned from England he
translated from the FRENCH Mons. J.
N.Gannal’s History of Embalming. And had
it published in Philadelphia in 1840.
– Now with history and technique in hand,
what can you imagine is going to happen?
Chemical Embalming
• Dr. Valentine Mott
– Commented in a pamphlet:
“If you connect in your meritorious plan, the
practice of Mons. Gannal of Paris, of
injecting blood vessels with an antiseptic
fluid, the whole system of preservation will
be more fully carried out.”
Evolution of Techniques,Materials,
etc.
• All poisonous materials were used
including
– bi-chloride of mercury
– zinc-chloride
– various arsenic-based
compounds
• Techniques
– Hand pump
– Gravity pump
– Trocar
Innovators
• Dr. Thomas Holmes
– “The Father of American Embalming”
– Born in New York City in 1817
– Presumably graduated from the College of
Physicians.
– Later practiced as pharmacy and
experimented eclectically with a variety of
drugs and compounds.
Innovators
• Dr. Thomas Holmes
– Recognized the compounds used as
poisonous and injurious to the health of the
students dissecting the cadavers.
– Within his studies of mummy heads from
Thebs he concluded that embalming
without the use of poisonous substances
was possible.
– He began work on developing fluids that
were intended to be sold to surgeons,
anatomists and undertakers who under this
tutelage would have learned the art of
arterial embalming.
Innovators
• Dr. Thomas Holmes
– Because of the “exhibition” he was he was
arrested on the charge of “creating a
nuisance for his embalming activities in the
heart of the city, and was held to bail of
$300.00.
– His reputation as an embalmer skyrocketed with the embalming of Colonel
Elmer E. Ellsworth, the first ranking
casualty of the war. (he was shot while
defending the Flag in Alexandria.)
Innovators
• Dr. Thomas Holmes
– President Lincoln invited the viewing into
the White House’s East Room where
Cabinet Members, Leading Officers of both
services, Senators and Representatives
along with Distinguished members of the
Community came to pay respects.
– Mrs. Lincoln:
“the face of Ellsworth was natural, as though
he were sleeping a brief and pleasant
sleep.”
Innovators
• Dr. Thomas Holmes
His claims to fame:
– At the age of 76 reported that he embalmed
4,028 soldiers and officers, field and staff.
– Presumed to have embalmed the body of
President Abraham Lincoln
• Used the femoral artery to embalm.
– Commissioned as one of the embalmingsurgeons of the Civil War.
• The Civil War was the first war to see
embalmers waiting and working in camps,
on battlefields, in government hospitals and
in nearby railroad centers to serve the needs
of the military and families of the fallen.
• Because of the number of embalmers
operating there was a lack of definite, full
and uniform regulations governing
embalming personnel….which led to abuses.
• Dr. Richard Burr
– The bad apple!!!!
– Was charged with fraud and attempted
extortion.
– Because of the charges and endorsement
was issued…
“All permits for embalming-surgeons within the
lines of the armies against Richmond have been
revoked and the surgeons ordered without the
lines.”
• “Order Concerning Embalmers”
– Issued in March 1865 by the War
Department.
– Forced an examination and licensing of
people.
– All embalming was done for a uniform fee
(including services and merchandise.)
Embalming Devices, Fluids and
Techniques
• J. Anthony Gaussardia
– Received the first patent for arterial
injection of a chemical compound.
– He was not concerned with viewing, just
preservation.
– As an embalmer, which will you be most
concerned with? Is it really possible to do
both well?
Embalming Devices, Fluids and
Techniques
Embalming Devices, Fluids and
Techniques
• St. Clair’s Patent
– Immersed the body in plaster of paris and
hydraulic cement.
– Parts of the cadaver punctured with tubes
coming out so that the gases could escape.
• The Civil War
– Before the war, embalming was done for
anatomical purposes.
– After the war, embalming was done for
preservation and family viewing.
– Cavity embalming was done post Civil War
with a trocar.
• Definition of a trocar- an
elongated hollow needle, swordlike object through which fluids
might be injected into and
throughout the trunk cavity of
the dead human body.
Role of medical practitioners
• What was the importance of medical
practitioners in embalming?
• Preserving anatomical remains aided
the development of embalming fluids.
• Anatomical research aided in the more
efficient arterial embalming.
• Chemists assisted in the development of
effective fluids.
Development of Schools and the
Spread of Embalming
• Role of chemical manufacturers
– Provided traveling salesman to promote
their chemicals.
– Provided training to those who purchased
their embalming chemicals.
– Provided warehousing of chemicals and the
development of chemicals.
Introduction of Embalming Schools
• Separation from chemical companies.
• Improvement of quality of instruction.
Key Persons in mortuary science
education in the 19th century.
• Auguste Renouard- opened the
Rochester School of Embalming in 1882.
• Dr. Richard Harlan- he translated
Gannal’s history of Embalming into
English.
• Joseph H. Clarke- he added an
embalming school at the Pulte Medical
College in Cincinnati, OH.
• A. Johnson Dodge- he opened the Dodge
School of Embalming in Boston, which
was superseded in 1910 by the New
England Institute of Anatomy, Sanitary
Science and Embalming.