Test 2- Development of embalming Flashcards
European customary aspects of preserving dead
- to preserve and distribute portions of the bodies of dead religious notables to churches and shrines as relics
- to preserve bodies for long extended wake periods up to 8 days
- give the dead a decent Christian burial
Colonial America customary aspects of preserving dead
- extended into the 19th century
- bodies crudely preserved long enough for relatives and friends to travel distances for the funeral
- desire to be buried in the family cemetery plot; shipping soldier back home to be buried on family plot
“sawdust and tar”
body preservation deteriorated by 18th century in Europe bc British Tradesman Undertaker took control from Barber Surgeon. had little impact in America
Crude methods used in colonial American period to deter putrefaction
1-sealing bodies in airtight coffins
2-wrapping bodies in shrouds soaked in alum
3-immersing bodies in barrels of alcohol
4-disemboweling and filling cavities with charcoal
corpse coolers and cooling boards
- deter putrefaction used from 1830-1880
- cheaper and didn’t have to inject
- refrigerating the viscera putrefaction was deterred
Robert Frederick and C.A. Trump
Baltimore undertakers credited with the first successful corpse cooler
Charles Kimball
metal box like refrigerator for hospital and city morgues
cooling board
wooden framed, spigots, portable
-at this time no funeral homes; deceased dressed and placed on cooling board. caskets/coffins used only at the time of the service and not used in the wake
attempts made to modify burial cases to deter putrefaction
1-filled with poison gas
2-filled with brine, alcohol
3-filled with deodorizing substances
proved airtight didn’t work and push toward embalming
4 influences that led to dev. of arterial embalming
1-rise of medical schools and research demanded more cadavers for medical study.
2- desire of undertakers to wake the deceased in a casket rather than on a cooling board caused them to seek new technology to extend the waker period
3-sanitation movement
4- Civil War- most significant influence
Civil War influences on embalming
1-tremendous numbers of dead bodies presented a sanitation problem
2- desire families to have their dead soldiers returned home
3-promotion by medical embalmer surgeons following both armies promoting unique skills
4- transportation by rail and steamboat - demanded by baggage handlers due to sanitation reasons
Embalming devices and fluids
hand pumps and gravitation method
arsenic alcohol and metallic salts in water
injection/drainage at femoral artery with cavity embalming a post Civil War dev.
Dr. Thomas Holmes
- self-taught embalmer
- accomplished embalmer- made fluid with arsenic and zinc-chloride called inominata
- patented an injection pump apparatus and airtight portable elastic body bag for shipping dead soldiers home
- never commissioned into Army as a medical officer however he was one of the embalmer surgeons commissioned designated or officially permitted by military authorities to prepare coffin and ship military dead
- embalmed 4, 028 officers
- embalmed Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth
J. Anthony Gaussardia
1st patent for embalming fluid; dead bodies with injection of arsenic-alcohol mixture
Brown and Alexander
embalmed 2 year old son of Abraham Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln
