EMBALMING.
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Ithas been a custom among ancient nations to preserve the bodies of the dead for a long period of time. Even to this day we find traces of it in the mummies of Egypt and the sarcophagi of Etruria. Their method of achieving this result may not have been strictly in accordance with the principles of modern science; certainly their success would hardly be satisfactory to the more refined taste of our generation. Still their discoveries in this art have been such that they have commanded the respect of modern savants. They also show conclusively that the sciences of chemistry and physiology, even at that remote period, had attained a certain degree of prominence among their scientific men. Many of their discoveries were no doubt accidental, still we must give them credit for the spirit of investigation which actuated their researches, and carried them on undaunted through the many disappointments they must certainly have encountered before they satisfactorily solved the problem.
The imagination is carried back to the time when the mysterious worship of Osiris and Isis was flourishing on the banks of the river Nile, when the Sphinx uttered, or was thought to utter, the sacred oracles ofThormes, and before the pyramids had entombed a long generation of kings.
A great number of persons cannot revert to the science of embalming without placing it among the lost arts; to them a mummy is the contemporary of a mysterious past dimly perceived through the long vista of succeeding generations; a tangible proof of that much vaunted ancient civilization, which as they express regretfully will never be found again. A thorough elimination of the subject would convince those unsophisticated mourners that the loss is not quite an irreparable one. Let us divest a mummy of his bitumen-coated and fire-scorched bandages; we will then have before us a mass of blackened and hardened cement-like substance, shrunken and emaciated to almost a skeleton, and bearing semblance to the form of a human organism, only so far as the shape of the osseous frame has retained its symmetry. The lips have shrunk apart so far as to expose the row of white teeth, the sockets of the eyes are empty, the cheek bones are prominent, the whole covered with patches of the dark and almost petrified epidermis. Such is the picture a mummy presents to our view when denuded of its envelope
It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if some associate this repulsive image with the idea of modern embalming. Our present object in preparing bodies is two-fold: In the first place we desire to keep perfect for a certain length of time the remains of those who have been dear to us while living; but when desiccationhas begun, when the roundness of the lines loses itself into the more angular shrinkage of the tissues, then we may take, and without any feeling of horror, a last look at the body, and consign it, not to slow, foul corruption, but to the gradual drying of the organic substances, without the horrible accessions of decay and putrefaction.
In view of all this, and with the help of modern chemistry, it is not singular that the art of embalming should have received a new impetus in this country and Europe, especially here, where it is customary to send back and over long distances the bodies of those that have died far from home. This usage has already brought about some astonishing results. The large majority of our first-class undertakers have taken the matter in hand; they vie with each other in trying to perfect themselves in an art which is daily growing into favor. Almost every day a new antiseptic is, if not discovered, at least brought to exercise its functions in the preservation of organic substances. Of late, new methods have been inaugurated on all sides, and among the number there are certainly some which are deserving all the merits claimed for them.
It behooves all professionals to exert their ingenuity to bring this science to a satisfactory issue. Many of the preparations sold under the name of preserving liquid are good; others are not. How then are undertakers to discriminate? By what means can the merits of the one, and the utter worthlessness of the other, be determined? There is but one way, andthat is an infallible one, of finding out the best method and preparation, and that is simply by experimenting, until the real means, which is the only true one, has been hit upon.
It may also be objected to, with reason that a certain process has been known to work effectually in some cases, whereas the same method employed in a similar manner has proved a signal failure in another instance. To this but one cause can be assigned, and that is the utter ignorance on the part of the operator of the properties, antiseptic and otherwise, of the materials he is employing, also of the different conditions, which will according to existing circumstances modify their action and govern their effect. To use a certain preparation simply because it is highly recommended by some, without knowing the constituents thereof, is very little short of foolhardiness. How is it possible for the operator to employ it with discrimination and judgment? Should he be successful, well and good; the end would be obtained without he being the wiser for it. Should it be otherwise, and the result prove unsatisfactory, how is he to account for the failure, and how to guard against a repetition of the same in the future?
A good embalmer, one that really understands his business, does not have recourse to ready-made preparations for preserving bodies; but he chooses the chemicals according to the properties each is known to possess. His experience of their relative actions teach him beforehand how they will work out the result heanticipated. I do not mean that every undertaker and embalmer should be an Orfila in regard to Chemistry, nor is it expected that his knowledge of Anatomy should enable him to fill the chair of demonstrator in a dissecting room, but to achieve real, legitimate success, an embalmer ought to possess a thorough knowledge of the drugs he is manipulating, their individual effects, singly and collectively, and under different circumstances, upon subjects of different natures. A certain amount of the acquaintance with the anatomy of the human body is not only required, but strictly necessary; a gash of the knife upon some vessel of the arterial system might jeopardize the success of an otherwise satisfactory operation.
It is this rudimentary knowledge of Physiological Chemistry and Anatomy we shall endeavor to explain in this book, with complete instructions upon the best methods which have been heretofore and are now employed in the preservation of bodies.