Development of Embalming- Test 2 Flashcards
Custom and tradition seems to be the origin for attempts to preserve dead bodies temporarily so that some kind of proper treatment could be made.
Role of Preservation of the Dead in the 19th Century
- Growth of methods from the European continent through the colonial period.
- Limitations imposed on wakes
- British Tradesman undertaker took control in Europe from the barber surgeon.
Customary Aspects of Preserving the Dead
- European Customary Aspects of preserving the dead
- Colonial America customary aspects of preserving the dead.
Growth of Methods from the European Continent Through the Colonial Period
- To preserve and distribute portions of the bodies
- To preserve the bodies of the noble class, wealthy merchant class, religious leaders, and military leaders
- Combined with the impulse to give the dead a decent Christian burial
European Customary Aspects of Preserving Dead
These were of religious notables to churches and shrines as relics.
To Preserve and Distribute Portions of the Bodies
For long extended wake periods. These were often as long as eight days.
To preserve the bodies of the noble class, wealthy merchant class, religious leaders, and military leaders
The poorer classes were often victimized by having their dead preserved and left unburied until they could pay for their funeral expenses to their burial societies.
- Origin of the insurance industry was based in the European burial societies.
Combined with the Impulse to give the Dead a Decent Christian Burial
Extended into the 19th century:
- Bodies were crudely preserved long enough for relatives and friends to travel distances for the funeral.
- The desire to be buried in the family cemetery plot especially during the American Civil War. Shipping union and confederate dead back to home states necessitated that some attempt at preservation be made (only for officers).
Colonial America Customary Aspects of Preserving Dead
Because of putrefaction caused Americans to seek out some kind of technology to temporarily preserve the dead (Especially on farms and in rural areas)- Used ice at the start.
Limitations Imposed on Wakes
In Europe, body preservation techniques tended to deteriorate by the turn of the 18th century to the “sawdust and tar” level because this person took control from the Barber Surgeon while these standards were lowered. This had little impact on America.
British Tradesman Undertaker
Because of the industrial revolution, particularly in the north east, caused the people to seek out technology to temporarily preserve the dead as a status symbol, emphasizing taste and style (This was due to the rising American middle class and the growth of the cities (industrial revolution)).
Impact of Growing Cities
- Sealing bodies in airtight coffins
- Wrapping bodies in shrouds soaked in alum
- Immersing bodies in barrels of alcohol (John Paul Jones).
- Disemboweling and filling the cavities with charcoal.
Various and Crude Methods used During the Colonial America Period to Deter Putrefaction, prior to 1800
Even though arterial injection was popular and France and England about the time of the American Civil War, most attempts to deter putrefaction were based on the rudiments of refridgeration.
Cabinet Makers, Church Sextons, and Livery Men had no Scientific Training as did their European Counterpart in Chemistry and Anatomy
Dominated funeral service from 1830-1880 (Cooling boards were still used inot the 20th century).
The Refridgeration Concept
Ice in metal lined boxes placed over the body torso. By refridgerating the viscera, putrefaction was deterred.
Methods and Materials Used
Of Philadelphia, PA, developed the first “corpse preserver” in 1843, but because of poor design (too cumbersome) his patent was allowed to lapse in 1850.
John Good
Two baltimore undertakers who are credited with the first successful“corpse cooler.” Patented in May 1846 the successfully marketed to a substantial number of udertakers. It consisted of a common cooling board (originally made out of wicker) on which the body was dressed and placed, then a concave metal ice filled box, which fit the torso, was palced on top. The device was equipped with a lid, drainage spigots, and lifting handles.
Robert Frederick and C.A. Trump
Of Quincy, Mass. In 1868 invented a metal box like refridgerator with two compartments, one for the body and the other for ice. It was cumbersome for funeral service and was used for hospital and city morgues.
Charles Kimball
Of Altoona, PA and Poughkeepsie, NY, each filled separate patents for a more portable corpse cooling device. They utilized various sets of ice cases made of zinc and wood that fitted various parts of the body, head, torso and limbs. These had some success competing against Frederick and Trumps device.
Howard V. Griffith and R.C. Andrus
- Wooden framed, lined with tin or metal, to hold ice with drainage spigots and with drop down legs.
- Wood framed wicker panels, some with drop down legs, some not, having adjustable brass headpieces to hold the head.
Various Designs of Cooling Boards
The deceased was dressed and placed on the cooling board, the board was then draped. Caskets, or coffins, were used only at the time of the service and not used in the wake.
At This Time, There Were no Funeral Homes
Became the first embalming tables particularly when embalming was done in homes prior to World War I.
Cooling Boards
Prior to the Civil War, and even up until 1880, they were still a problem. There is some evidence that they were still used up until World War I (1918) in some areas of the US. The disadvantage was that these crude cooling devices were cumbersome and barely adequate in deterring putrefaction.
The Advantage of Cooling Devices was in Their Simplicity and Utility
Increased emphasis on preservation during the mid 19th century.
The Role of Airtight Receptacles in the Development of Embalming
It became obvious that these devices actually encouraged putrefaction. This could be observed by the bereaved looking at the deceased’s face through the port hole in a Fisk style mummy case.
Airtight Receptacles
- Some were filled with poison gas
- Some were filled with brine, alcohol, etc.
- Some were filled with deodorizing substances introduced bt a tube or funnel into the burial case.
Attempts Made to Modify Airtight Burial Cases to Deter Putrefaction:
Although decay was deterred, putrefaction was encouraged plus the fact that these cumbersome, troublesome concepts seldom worked.
Destined Airtight Receptacles to be Flops
- The rise of medical schools and research
- The desire of undertakers to wake the deceased in a casket
- As in Europe, a Sanitation movement
- The impact of the Civil War
4 Influences that led to the Development of Arterial Embalming in the Middle of the 19th Century
Demanded more and more cadavers for medical study. As in England and France, arterial embalming enters America by way of the anatomist employed by medical schools, only later to enter funeralization.
The Rise of Medical Schools and Research
Rather than on a cooling board, and the gross inadequacy and bulkiness of corpse coolers, caused them to seek new technology to extend the wake period.
The Desire of Unertakers to Wake the Deceased in a Casket
Especially as the United States shifted from a rural to an urban environment. The industrial revolution complicated the sanitation problem, in fact it made it worse. The element of disinfection became crucial with the spread of disease such as smallpox, T.B., diptheria, scarlet fever, cholera, influenza (1918-19), etc.. (NE US cities had many crowded tenements that especially fostered outbreaks of smallpox and TB).
As in Europe, there was a Sanitation Movement
May have been the most significant influence on the development of embalming. (Shelby Foote- Historian)
The Impact of the Civil War
- Tremendous numbers of dead bodies in such a small geographical area presented a sanitation problem.
- The desire of union and confederate families to have their dead soliders (usually officers) returned home to family burial plots.
- Promotion by opportunistic medical embalmer-surgeons following both armies promoting their unique skills after major battles (Thomas Holmes).
- Transportation by rail and steamboat of large numbers of war dead required some effort to be made in terms of disinfection, preservation, and sanitation. This was demanded by railway baggage handlers.
The Impact of the Civil War
- Devices consisted of crude fluid pumps or the gravitation method.
- These fluids were mostly a combination of arsenic-alcohol and metallic salts in water.
- The technique was injection and drainage at the femoral artery with cavity embalming a post Civil War development. (Much stronger fluids than what is used today).
Embalming Devices, Fluids, and Techniques
Father of American Embalming, 1817-1900
Dr. Thomas Holmes
Thomas Holmes worked as a _______ assistant in New York City from 1840-1846. He was a self-taught embalmer and embalmed eight cases. He also trained others to embalm prior to the Civil War.
Coroner’s
Thomas Holmes may have graduated from where, which he attended in 1844-1845, but the evidence is inconclusive. He did advertise himself as a physician in various New York City directories around 1853.
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University
Thomas Holmes was an accomplished embalmer who did formuate a fluid made of arsenic and zinc-chloride that he named this. He sold it after the Civil War for 3 dollars a gallon (did not patent this).
Inominata (No Name Embalming Fluid)
Thomas Holmes patented this for filling the vascular system with fluid in 1861. He also patented this, which he will fill with deodorants and preservatives for shipping deceased soldiers home in 1863 at the peak of the Civil War.
Injection Pump Apparatus and the Portable Elastic Bag (Body Bag)
He was unquestionably one of the embalmer-surgeons commissioned, that is designated or officially permitted by military authorities, to prepare, coffin, and ship military dead. (Basically a contract embalmer).
Holmes was Never Commissioned into the Army as a Medical or any Other Kind of Officer
Thomas Holmes has claimed to embalm _____ officers (lieutenants and up) and soliders both field and staff. It is unlikely that he alone could have accomplished this but with the help of many capable assistants it could have been done.
4,028
Holmes reputation as an embalmer (camp follower) sky rocketed with his embalming of this person, who was shot May 24, 1861 in Alexandria, VA. This was an officer in the “zouave regiment” and a close personal friend of Lincoln, was the first ranking casualty of the Civil war. Lincoln promoted his funeral for propaganda purposes.
Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth
Went into battle with very ornate and outlandish uniforms. Colonel Ellsworth went to the tavern to demand that a confederate flag be removed from the roof. He took it down and was shot by the tavern owner (Marshall). Then one of his men shot the tavern owner (Marshall’s Tavern Alexandria, VA).
Zouave Regiments
Holmes squandered his money in the later part of the 19th century on promotions and ideas relating to the art of embalming. He died in 1900, this was his last request.
Not to be Embalmed
Of Washington DC has the first patent no. 15972 for emablming dead bodies filed in 1856. It involved injection of an arsenic-alcohol mixture, then electrically charging the body, washing the body in a serious of various chemical compounds and then placing the body in a coffin filled with arsenic alcohol solution.
J. Anthony Gaussardia
Surgeons and embalmers of Washington, D.C.
Brown and Alexander
Thought to be the stepson of Brown, embalmed the two year old son of Abraham Lincoln in 1863 with metallic poison. Little Willy Lincoln was waked and then shipped to Springfield, IL. Also embalmed President Lincoln in 1865. Lincoln was not interred for 21 days. His funeral train traveled from DC to New York to Albany to Harrisburg to Springfield, IL. His body was viewed by 1,500,000 people along the way. Casket (Mfg by Crane and Breed) from Harvey Livery.
Henry Pratt Cattell 1838-1915
The first black embalmer, employed by the large undertaking establishment owned by W.R. Cornelius in Nashville, TN. He embalmed between 1863 and 1871 for his firm.
Prince Greer
This is because most of the large Civil War battles were fought in northern Virginia, Maryland, and southern Pennslyvania. Most of the embalmers were either doctors or chemists who would work in conjunction wtih undertakers contracted to clear the dead from battle fields. Many were virtual camp followers who would arrive after major battles offering their services (Usually to officers).
The Earliest Center of Embalming in America was Washington D.C.
A war department general order issued March 1865. It established a system for determining, through examination, the qualifications of persons who sought to embalm military dead and provide licensing for successful candidates. This license was to be issued only to those furnishing a bond to insure faithful performance of their duties. The order also established a uniform fee for service and for all funeral merchandise.
Order Concerning Embalmers
The order came at the end of the Civil War. A government agency, not a state agency, was defining professional requirements for embalmers.
Significance of the Order Concerning Embalmers
- Dr. E.C. Lewis
- Dr. Daniel H. Prunk
- Dr. C. B. Chamberlain
- Dr. F.A. Hutton
- Dr. Richard Burr
- Dr. Thomas Holmes
- Dr. William Bunnel
Prominent Medical Practitioners that Developed Techniques and Chemical Formulations During the Civil War, Advancing the art of Embalming
From the Civil War to the end of World War I, 1918, the rise of arterial embalming was an accepted funeralization procedure, seems to go through three stages:
- Resistance to chemical preservation
- Rise and decline of the medical specialist embalmer
- Development of a commercial enterprise
Development of Schools and the Spread of Embalming Between 1865 and 1900
Came from the public of percieved the embalming process to be a mutilation of the body considered by most christians as the temple of the holy spirit. Resistance also came from the undertaker who resisted any technological advancement especially when it allowed medical specialists to enter the field and share in the profits.
Resistance to Chemical Preservation
Content with the inadequacies of ice preservation. The concept of “conserving the remains” with ice and a cooling board, in its simplicity, at a reasonable price, was still felt to be the way to go.
Undertakers
After the Civil War, the medical specialist abandoned embalming for more lucrative pursuits. The void was filled by those undertakers who learned this skill on the battlefield. Many of these contract wartime undertakers, now skilled, established themselves in business after the war.
The Rise and Decline of the Medical Specialist Embalmer
These undertakers promoted themselves as embalmers shaming the so called undertakers who could not embalm. This person from pittsburg, PA, was one such undertaker, active as a contract Government undertaker, established himself after the war and included embalming in his services.
Hudson Sampson
In the compounding and distribution of embalming fluids, with the attendant rise of mortuary schools.
The Development of a Commercial Enterprise
- Provided traveling salesmen to promote their chemicals. (metallic poisons, arsenic)
- Provided training and instruction to those undertakers who purchased their embalming chemicals and gave out diplomas
- Provided warehousing of chemicals and development of new chemicals through research and development (R&D)
Role and Impact of the Commercial Manufacturers in Advancing the art of Embalming
- Instruction in embalming technique
- End of the traveling road show type of instruction
- The professors
Introduction of the so Called Embalming Schools
Done by Civil War embalmers who allied themselves with chemists who supplied formulations, basically metallic poison and metallic salts in solutions, to undertakers who would take a course of instruction not more than seven days in length.
- At the conclusion of the course, these traveling embalming instructors would award the “now skilled undertaker” with a diploma.
- Thomas Holmes was one such embalmer selling his fluid and pump apparatus.
Instruction in Embalming Technique from 1865 to 1882
In 1882, serious efforts wer made to establish one month courses of instruction in a stable setting, this marked the beginning of the:
End of the “Traveling Road Show Type of Instruction”
The title given to these traveling instructors that demonstrated techniques in arterial and cavity embalming, sold fluid and granted diplomas.
The Professors
- Professor E.H. Crane
- Professor George M. Rhodes
- Professor Sameul Rogers
- Professor Felix A. Sullivan
Professors
A medical embalmer during the Civil War who patented and sold Crane’s electro dynamic mummifier in 1868. His fluid was metallic poison solution that he sold to undertakers in Michigan.
Professor E.H. Crane
In 1876 bought the rghts from Crane and sold the fluid as Professor Rhodes’ Electrical Balm.
Professor George M. Rhodes
Sold his fluid called fluid Allekton. In 1878, he patented the trocar; an elongated, hollow needle, sword like, through which fluids could be injected into and throughout the cavities of the dead.
Professor Samuel Rogers
Had the largest traveling embalming school in the country from 1890 to 1900. He was so successful that he traveled to London, England and introduced chemical embalming to English undertakers. He was called the “Dean of Embalmers of the English Speaking People.”
Professor Felix A. Sullivan
- Champion Chemical Company
- Clarke Chemical Works
- Mills and Lacey Company
- Globe Casket Manufacturing Company
- Embalmers Supply Company
- Brooklyn Embalming Fluid Company
- Dodge Chemical Company
Prominent Chemical Suppliers in the Late 19th Century that Promoted and Developed Arterial and Cavity Embalming
Founded by Edward Hill and Scipio Baker (Still in business).
Champion Chemical Company
Founded by Joseph H. Clarke
Clarke Chemical Works
The company located in Grand Rapids, Michgan, was compounding and promoting Professor George Rhodes’ formula.
Mills and Lacey Company
Produced and sold professor Cranes’ Excelsior Preservation, an improvement on his dynamic mummifier.
Globe Casket Manufacturing Company
Produced “the non poisonous big four.” A secret formula containing no metal salts or formalin (ESCO, still in business).
Emblamers Supply Company
Promoted by Dr. Auguste Renouard (who later opened an embalming school).
Brooklyn Embalming Fluid Company
Founded by A. Johnson Dodge early in the 20th century. (Still in business) (He also opened a school).
Dodge Chemical Company
- Dr. Richard Harlan
- Dr. Auguste Renouard
- Joseph H. Clarke
- A. Johnson Dodge
- Dr. William Hartley
Influential Persons and the Efforts to Develop Fixed Stable Schools of Embalming in the Late 19th Century (After 1882)
Never opened any kind of school. His contribution occurred many years earlier in 1832 when he traveled to France to study European sanitation movement and plague control. As an educator he studied and brought Jean Gannal’s book History of Embalming to the United States and had it translated into English in 1840. The translation, published in Philadelphia became the standard of reference book in embalming until 1900. Carried Gannal’s concept of combining arterial embalming with funeralization for sanitary reasons and as a deterrent to putrefaction to the United States.
Dr. Richard Harlan (1796-1843)
Considered the dean of early embalming instruction, opened the Rochester School of Embalming in 1882.
Dr. Auguste Renouard
A coffin salesman for the White Water Valley Coffin Company in Connersville, Indiana, and associated with Professor Rhodes who tought him how to embalm and make fluid. Asked Dr. C.M. Lukens, an anatomist at Plute Medical College, to help him establish an embalming course. The first session opened in the Plute Medical College’s Amphitheater March 8 and ended March 31. Thus the three week embalming school was born later to be called Cincinnati School of Embalming in 1882. (Oldest mortuary school still in existence).
Joseph H. Clarke
Trained at a medical school in St. Louis, migrated to Boston and became principal of the Massachusetts College of Embalming in 1893 at the age of 45. In 1904, he became the active head of hte Barnes School of Anatomy, Sanitary Science, and Embalming. In 1907 he founded his own school called Dodge School of Embalming and in 1910 as principal changed its name to the New England Institute of Anatomy, Sanitary Science, and Embalming. He also founded the Dodge Chemical Company.
A. Johnson Dodge
Related to Hartley Miller Funeral Home. The school of Sanitation and Embalming located a monument and Wolfe street at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). First mortuary school in the state of Maryland 1895-1926. Course was 5 weeks long.
Dr William Hartley
- Chemical technoloy modernized as did the quality of the fluids
- Metallic poisons became deadly to their users because no one used protective gloves
- Metallic salts left the body soft and pliable
- Formaldehyde makes the body stiff
Metallic Poisons Were Replaced by Formalin Solutions by 1920
Most significant with the combination of arterial injection followed by cavity treatment (Trocar).
- Emblaming was done in the home- bathroom, basement, or barn.
- All of the equipment was portable- in a black suitcase.
- Embalming tables were cooling boards- folding tables.
- The chemicals were metallic poisons until 1920’s then formaldehyde.
- Gravitation method then hand pump and jug method.
- Bodies were dressed on cooling board and waked.
The Influence of Modern Embalming Practice
