Medical Examiners and the Rise of the English Undertaker Flashcards
- Funeral embalming for almost 1500 years was rarely practiced except for intramural internment of religious leaders, war heroes, and the nobility.
- During the Dark Ages, from 200 A.D. to 1200 A.D., there was considerable retreat in the study of medicine, surgery, and anatomy.
Embalming Enhanced the Growth of Medical Science
- The Roman Catholic Church
- Predestination
- Moslem Domination
The Reasons that, During the Dark Ages, there was Considerable Retreat in the Study of Medicine, Surgery, and Anatomy
Resisted any advancement in medical arts, dessection, surgery, or study of anatomy was a violation of the body “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” God would decide, through intercession with the saints, who would or would not survive sickness, plague, or war wounds.
The Roman Catholic Church
During the Protestant Reformation, 1400-1600 the concept of ______ was embraced, that is God had ________ the survival of individuals or the death of individuals thus medical study was a waste of time.
Predestination
During the ____ _____ of Eastern Europe and North Africa a similar philosophy existed. The Muslim Koran dictated that life, illness, and death were in the hands of Allah.
Moslem Domination
1400-1800- The European University system successfully triumphed over religious prejudice. To successfully study anatomy, one must devise a system of preservation of dead bodies. To make cadavers with minimal amount of mutilation three systems evolved.
Rebirth of Science (Renaissance- Age of Enlightenment)
- Evisceration and immersion
- Desiccation
- Arterial Injection
The Three Systems that Evolved: Rebirth of Science
Pickling (Vatting).
Evisceration and Immersion
Allowing remains to dehydrate on a plaster of paris cast. (Leonardo Da Vinci made many of these casts).
Desiccation
The most recent and most successful of the three, it was widely used after William Harvey discovered blood circulation.
Arterial Injection
- Oil of terpentine
- Camphor Spirits
- Oil of Lavender
- Oil of Rosemary
- Vermillion
- Vinegar
- Salt Peter
Or any combination of these.
Compounds and Chemicals used by Anatomists in the Early Middle Ages up to 1350
- Zinc
- Arsenic
- Aluminum Chloride
- Bichloride of Mercury
- Alcohol
- Alum
- Zinc Sulfate
Or any combination of these. These are the salts of heavy metals or metallic poisons.
Compounds and Chemicals used by Anatomists in the Later Medieval Period 1350-1800
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Dr. Frederick Ruysch
- Thomas Holmes
- Marcello Malphighi
- Girolamo Segato
- Dr. William Harvey
- Dr. Gabriel Clauderus
- Dr. William Hunter
- Jean Nicholar Gannal
- Thomas Greenhill
Medical Anatomists from the Middle Ages to the Age of Enlightenment 1400-1850
Was believed to have developed a system of arterial injection. He dissected at least 50 bodies and made at least 750 anatomical plates for study. Many still exist today in museums in Italy.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
“Father of embalming.” (World), A Dutch professor of anatomy at the University of Amsterdam who discovered a successful system of arterial injection which he combined with evisceration. He would, after treating the viscera, return it to the body cavities. Like most thinkers of this period he kept his procedure and his chemistry a secret.
Dr. Frederick Ruysch 1638-1731
“Father of Embalming in the U.S.”
Dr. Thomas Holmes
“Father of Histology.” An Italian thinker who founded microscopic anatomy (histology) and was the first to note the physiology of the capillary bed in 1660. (He used a microscope).
Marcello Malphighi (1628-1694)
A 17th century Florentine physician who injected remains with silicate of potash and then immersed (vatted) the body in a weak acid solution. The end result was a stone-like statue. (He used executed prisoners).
Girolamo Segato
The greatest of the historical physiologist; discovered blood circulation by injecting colored solutions into the arteries, and made his theories known to his students in 1618 at the Royal College of Physicians in England.
Dr. William Harvey (1578-1657)
A german anatomist who in the late 17th Century, in Altenburg, Germany, revealed in a publication the art of “arterial embalming without evisceration.” In his book he described:
- Surgical method
- Balsamic Spirits
- Cavity Treatment
- Desiccation
Dr. Gabriel Clauderus
A ___ ____ to inject major arteries.
Surgical Method
His chemicals which he called ____ _____ which were made from one pound of cream of tatar dissolved in three quarts of water and then he added 1/2lb of Sal-Ammoniac (Salts of Ammonia).
Balsamic Spirits
After injection he would gravitate his balsamic spirits over the viscera and vat the entire body for five or six weeks.
Cavity Treatment
He would _____ the body in an oven or in the hot sun. The end result was an excellent cadaver or medical study.
Desiccate
Like Malphighi, he revealed the secrets of nature through the use of the newly invented microscope. He discovered another life form, the single cell organism, he is the “Father of Microbiology.”
Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
He and his younger brother John Hunter (1728-1793), were prominent Scotch anatomists who published an injection technique for preserving human remains that became the standard of the day called “Hunterian Method of Preservation.”
Dr. William Hunter (1718-1783)
- Used the femoral artery for injection and femoral vein for drainage; area of the femorals called Hunter’s Canal.
- Chemistry: utilized chemicals popular in the early Middle Ages rather than salts of heavy metals; oil of turpentine, oil of lavender, oil of rosemary, and vermillion.
- Would remove the viscera from the thoracic and abdominal cavities only after the remains have firmed. The viscera would be vatted in pure vinegar.
- Formulated a crude hardening compound made of camphor, resin, salt, magnesium, and potassium to treat all cavities and orifices as well as the viscera.
- The finished cadaver was placed in a plaster of paris bed or shell and allowed to dehydrate for as long as 4 years.
Hunterian Method of Preservation
- Chemist in the French Army during the Nepoleonic Period. After discharge from the military, he gained employment making cadavers for anatomical study.
- He formed burial societies, making himself president, from the French nobility and the new rising merchant case. (Wealthy end of the middle class who were willing to spend money for funeralization).
- He was the first medical anatomist to combine embalming with funeralization which for him became quite profitable.
- Wrote a book called “History of Embalming” a classic in the profession.
Jean Nicholas Gannal (1791-1852)
Wrote “Treatise on the art of embalming” published in 1705. It contained severe criticism for the British tradesman undertaker’s inferior work. Greenhill defended the charter of the Barber Surgeon’s monopoly on embalming.
Thomas Greenhill
Did not share information with each other because of the many wars that took place.
“The Thinkers” of the Renaissance Period
All of the people mentioned, with the exception of Jean Nicolas Gannal, embalmed for medical study, not for ____ _____.
Funeral Purposes
This practice was the incorrect belief that bodily toxins, diseases, etc., could simply be removed by opening veins and draining.
Blood-Letting
Blood letting and the origins of other surgery as well as other forms of medicine can be traced to the only centers of knowledge:
The Medieval Monastery
By the __ _____, the church forbade monastic medicine, stating that monks should concern themselves exclusively with the care of the soul. The care of the body was up to God. After all, illness was just punishment for sin.
13th Century
The art of blood letting, monastic medicine, and what knowledge there was of embalming, was passed to the:
Barber-Surgeon Guild
Monopolized embalming in Europe through the Guild system. An example was in England where this monopoly was clearly stated in the 16th of the 27 classes. In the Barber Surgeons Charter dated October 20th, 1604, history tells us that embalming was practiced by the Barber-Surgeon as far back as 1400.
The Barber-Surgeon Guild
On January 7, 1646, this person, a British tradesman undertaker, challenged the right of the Barber-Surgeon to monopolize this practice unsuccessfully. The significance was that the monopoly was challenged in British Law.
Michael Makeland
Made no progess whatsoever in the development of licensing emblamers. As such and even today in the British Isles, no license or permit is needed from any governmental agency to perform embalming and never had been so required. British embalmers society- Must have so many bodies (Birmingham, England).
The Barber-Surgeon
Funeral undertaking as a clear-cut secular occupation had not appeared in Europe before 1600. Funeralization was church controlled.
Function: Secular Funeral Undertaking Prior to 1600
Embalming developed as a medical specialty, long prior to and independent of funeral undertaking. Before 1600, embalming was rarely done for funeralization mostly for cadavers.
Limitations: Secular Funeral Undertaking Prior to 1600
The role of the undertaker was defined as one who prepares the dead for burial and supplies funeral paraphernalia, many were church sextons.
- Heralds
Function: Secular Funeral Undertaking, After 1600
Were chartered in 1483 with their duties elaborately defined in 1600 as supervisors of funerals (secular funeral directors for pay).
Heralds
The role of the embalmer, a monopoly because of British Charter, was successfully being challenged by others who wanted to combine it with undertaking.
Limitations: Secular Funeral Undertaking, After 1600
It seems that the masses or lower classes were served by ___ _____ controlled by undertakers who were practicing a crude form of embalming, most inferior to the Barber-Surgeon. Examples are tar and sawdust.
Burial Societies
Peak of Heraldry and pomp was the later Feudal Period on through the Renaissance. The funeral marked the beginning of the Christian’s true life in heaven with the Savior, no expense was spared.
Feudal Funerals
This term, as it relates to modern useage goes back at least to 1698 and is so recorded in parsh registers as “one who performs funeral tasks.”
Undertaking (Undertaker)
For the poor, seems to occur by the middle of the 18th century (1750). Example Friendly Societies as descendents of the Leagues of Prayer and Burial Guilds continued to arrange for burial of the lower classes. Coffins were introduced.
Coffined Burial
Were entering undertaking in Europe in a full time or part time basis.
- Upholsterers
- Cabinet Makers
- Drapers
- Wax Chandlers
- Butchers
- Sexton
- Liverymen
This allowed British Medical Schools to use unclaimed bodies for cadavers. Many of these were arterially embalmed. (Prisoner and Debtors Prisoners).
The Warburton Act of 1832
The church both Protestant and Catholic throughout Europe had lost control of the funeralization process and the money that it generated.
Relationship of the Clergy and the Funeral Undertaker
- Spread of contagious disease overwhelmed the church’s capability to handle the deaths. Example: cholera, small pox, bubonic plague, influenza, etc.
- Intramural internment was giving way to extramural internment. No church control.
- Sanitation movement often at odds with the church over handling the dead.
- Rise of undertaking (secular undertaker) as a secular vocation not under church control by 1700.
- 1750-1850 particularly in England, Anglican clergy preached for simplicity and the relationship with the new secular British undertaker was poor.
Loss of Church Control of the Funeralization Process and the Money that it Generated
In 1839, Chadwick was commissioned to investigate the conditions under which the Urban English Worker lived, worked, and died. (He was the leader in the British sanitation movement) Chadwick published two reports.
Edwin Chadwick and the Poor Law Commissioners
- Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britian (1842)
- The Practice of Interments in Towns, a report on intramural internments and Burial Practices (1842).
Two Reports Published by Chadwick
- Discovered child murder for insurance collection from burial clubs (“Friendly societies” became the forerunner of industrial insurance).
- Embalming was of poor quality and decomposition of remains during long wakes was unsanitary and dangerous and contributed to the spread of disease.
- Graves were too shallow in extramural cemeteries giving off gas and odor of putrefaction. The same problem existed with intramural church interments. (Smell of death-odors).
- Competition was fierce among undertakers but the cost of funerals never decreased.
- Burial societies were operated and controlled by undertakers. Price fixing was common.
- The church of England was totally incompetent in record keeping and as a supervisory administrative force in the funeralization process.
- Undertakers had to be regulated, there were too many incompetents. Anyone could hang a sign out. There were no standards or cirteria to enter or practice undertaking.
Chadwick’s Findings
(Writer and social commenter of his time). His clear and concise works described the horrors of 19th century urband England relating to abusive practices, particularly against children. He also described British funeral practices, insurance fraud, and burial societies.
Charles Dickens
By 1900, the Anglican Church as well as the British Public Health Authorities had to rely upon the British Tradesman Undertaker, now far removed from his beginnings in the 17th century with skills beyond the competence of the average person, entrenched in the secular sector, and charging a fee for his service. The _____ had returned after 1500 years!
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