Development of Embalming

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CHAPTER 8
Development of Embalming
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Customary Aspects of Preserving the Dead
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Customary Aspects of Preserving the Dead
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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
  barber-surgeons.

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• 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.

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• This was in part because during this period
  embalming was lost exclusively by the people in
  the healing arts.

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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
  didnt 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Corpse Coolers and Cooling Boards

• So they created the Corpse Cooler

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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.

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• 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.

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• Disadvantages
• messy
• water dripped as it melted
• ice needed changing

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• Other Alternatives
• -Corpse Preserver
• Howard V. Griffiths
• Altoona, PA1870
• -Corpse Refrigerator
• Charles Kimball
• Quincy, MS1868
• (as used in
• city morgues)

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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

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Airtight Receptacles

• A new corpse container appeared

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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..

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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?

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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.

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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.Gannals 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?

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 sky-rocketed with
  the embalming of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, the
  first ranking casualty of the war. (he was shot
  while defending the Flag in Alexandria.)

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Innovators

• Dr. Thomas Holmes
• President Lincoln invited the viewing into the
  White Houses 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.

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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 embalming-surgeons of
  the Civil War.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.)

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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?

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Embalming Devices, Fluids and Techniques
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Embalming Devices, Fluids and Techniques
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• St. Clairs 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.

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• 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.

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• Definition of a trocar- an elongated hollow
  needle, sword-like object through which fluids
  might be injected into and throughout the trunk
  cavity of the dead human body.

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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.

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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.

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Introduction of Embalming Schools

• Separation from chemical companies.
• Improvement of quality of instruction.

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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 Gannals
  history of Embalming into English.
• Joseph H. Clarke- he added an embalming school at
  the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati, OH.

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• 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.