Development of Embalming Flashcards
The European customary aspects of preserving the dead include
Preserving parts of the dead nobility as relics
Preserving bodies of the nobles for long extended wake periods - up to 8 days
List the various crude methods used during the colonial American period to deter putrefaction prior to 1800
Sealing bodies with airtight coffins
Wrapping bodies in shrouds soaked in alum
Immersing bodies in barrels of alcohol
Disemboweling and filling the cavities with charcoal
Even though arterial injection was popular in France and England about the time of the Civil War, most attempts to deter putrefaction were based on this
Refrigeration
Two Baltimore undertakers credited with the first successful corpse cooler
Robert Frederick and C.A Trump
Invented a metal box like refrigerator used in hospitals and city morgues
Charles Kimball
Each filed separate patents for more portable corpse cooling devices made of zinc and wood that fitted various parts of the body
Howard V Griffith and R.C. Andrus
These attempts were made to modify airtight burial cases to deter putrefaction
Some filled with poison gas
Some filled with brine, alcohol, etc
Some filled with deodorizing substances introduced by a tube or funnel into the burial case
List the 4 influences that led to the development of arterial embalming
Rise of medical schools and research
The desire to wake the deceased in a casket rather than on a cooling board
Sanitation movement
This may have been the most significant influence on the development of embalming
Civil War
Why was the Civil War such an influence on the development of embalming
The tremendous number of dead bodies presented a sanitation problem
Family members desired dead bodies to return home to family burial plots
Medical embalmer-surgeons promotions
Transportation workers demanded it
Father of American Embalming
Dr Thomas Holmes
Accomplished embalmer who formulated a fluid made of arsenic and zinc-chloride called inomitata
Dr. Thomas Holmes
Never commissioned into the Army as a medical or any other kind of officer, but was definitely a sort of contract embalmer
Dr. Thomas Holmes
Claims to have embalmed 4,028 officers and soldiers both field and staff
Dr. Thomas Holmes
Last request was to not be embalmed
Dr. Thomas Holmes
Has the first patent for embalming dead bodies
J. Anthony Gaussardia
Embalmed Willy Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln
Henry Cattell
Embalmed President Lincoln, who was not interred for 21 days
Henry Cattell
The first black embalmer
Prince Greer
The earliest center of embalming
Washington D.C.
Because of this man, the first federal laws about embalming were established
Dr. Richard Burr
Chemical preservation was resisted initially because the public saw it as
Mutilation to the body
After the Civil War, the medical specialists abandoned embalming for more lucrative pursuits, which led to the undertakers who learned the skill where?
on the battlefield
The development of a commercial enterprise in the compounding and distribution of embalming fluids, the the rise of these
Mortuary Schools
