Embalming.  The Preservation of the Dead.

I've always been a curious individual, always wondering how things are made or done. I became interested in embalming mainly because of the mystery behind it. There's very little quality information about it on the web, and funeral directors are generally pretty quiet about the subject. It's something that will eventually be done to most of us, so why the big secret?  If you've always wondered but were afraid to ask, this page is for you. 

Death to Dust

According to Kenneth Iserson in the definitive Death to Dust, corpses go through the following stages:

• When the heart stops beating the blood begins to settle into whatever parts of the body are closet to the ground.  The skin pales and starts to look waxy.
• In the state of livor mortis, which begins within an hour and gets fixed eight to twelve hours later, the skin discolors into a purple-red.  The eyes flatten and the extremities turn blue.  The body temperature has been cooling at a rate of about one to two degrees per hour, depending on the outside temperature and the amount of body fat.
• At first the muscles relax, but then they stiffen into rigor mortis, which generally shows up first in the face and soon spreads visibly over the entire body.  It can stay this way from one to three days before it relaxes again.  This softening results from the muscle fibers decomposing.
• It then putrefies, signaled by a greenish discoloration in the skin, starting in the lower abdomen.  Soon this will hit the entire body, and the face will swell and become unrecognizable.
• As putrefaction spreads, a foul odor develops.  Bacteria in the intestines produces gases that bloat the body and eventually turn the skin black.  The bloating also makes the tongue and eyes protrude, and pushes the intestines out through the rectum.
• Soon the skin blisters from these gases, detaches, and bursts, and then the internal organs break open and liquefy.  At this point, the body starts leaking from all the orifices.

Bodies decay in response to various factors.

• Warm temperatures accelerate decay, as does exposure to insects, and an exposed body can become skin and bones in a couple of weeks.
• Burial without a coffin will reduce the body to a skeleton in about ten to twelve years.
• Coffins can slow the decomposition down considerably, and some coffins opened a century or more after burial show the remains still intact - even in relatively good condition.
• Dry, hot climates can mummify the skin and organs.
• Bodies immersed in boglike conditions may be preserved indefinitely.  Corpses of bog people can be five thousand years old.
• A thorough embalming can slow decay for centuries, although most people only get a partial embalming.

Details.

Since most viewings are partial -  from the waist up - embalmers concentrate on the face and hands.  Apparently certain things present a problem, such as buckteeth and the fact that most faces are not perfectly symmetrical.  Some embalmers use cotton padding in the cheeks for fullness, although it can absorb a lot of moisture, but the task at hand is to make the corpse appear as close as possible to a person who's only asleep.  That means finding ways to reshape sunken features.  For example, eye caps (plastic forms) go under the lids, which are then sewed or glued shut.  (many embalmers prefer Superglue for this procedure.)  Cotton is often used to pack the throat and a plastic mouth former (for a natural shape) is sometimes used to fill out the jaw area. After the lips are sew shut, the face has to be covered with a cloth to prevent the corpse from exhaling microorganisms when moved.

Methods of Embalming

There are four basic methods of embalming but the one most often used is arterial embalming.

• The arterial method puts the preservative into the blood vessels.
• The cavity method injects it into the abdomen and chest.
• The hypodermic method places it under certain areas of the skin.
• The surface method applies creams or gels to the external body surface.

To get this done without a lot of mess, body orifices are packed and the body is dressed in plastic clothing.  Then the axillary artery and vein are located for inserting a drainage tube to remove blood.  After that, a decision is made about where on the body to inject the embalming fluid.  Different places are selected for different purposes and according to different body types.

Classifications

Most embalmers classify bodies as they come in to help determine how they will prepare them.  The classification type depends on how difficult it appears that the embalming will be, and that also influences the fee charged.  The strength of the embalming fluid increases from Type 1 to Type 5.

1. Some body heat retained
2. Bodies with moist and clammy tissue, dead from twelve to twenty-four hours
3. bodies dead more than twenty-four hours, but without advanced decomposition, or bodies that need reinjection of fluids
4. Certain types of diseases or forms of death, like asphyxia, that require specific types of preparation
5. Bodies in advanced stages of putrefaction, or with gangrene or ulcerated limbs

Trocar

The trocar is a long, hollow needle attached to a tube, and it has a variety of uses.  Generally, it's jabbed into the abdomen, two inches above the navel, and passed up to puncture the transverse colon (relieving gas), the diaphragm (to get through to the heart), and the heart (to drain the blood).  Once it penetrates the heart, it may lunge forward.  Apparently it requires a lot of confidence to do it right.  However, the trocar is also used simply to aspirate gases from the intestines and insert embalming fluid.
At the end of this internal exploration, any holes that were made are sewn shut or closed with "trocar buttons," which look like plastic screws.  Now head on over to Pushindaisies to purchase some trocar earrings.

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Preperation.

At anytime, day or night, the funeral professional may be called upon to do his or her job. People have a tendency to die at the most inconvenient times, and a mortician cannot wait until later to retrieve a body. This means lots of getting up at 1 AM and having to work on holidays. When someone dies and once authorization has been granted by the family, doctor, and/or by the medical examiner, the embalmer is called to make the "removal" of the body. After filling out the appropriate paperwork the embalmer takes the body to the funeral home, and if embalming is requested or required, begins the process.

An embalming report is filled out that logs all jewelry and personal items on the body; details any discolorations, cuts, bruises, etc. on the body; and documents the procedures and chemicals used during embalming. This report can become very valuable if a deceased's family bring a lawsuit against the funeral home.

All clothing, bandages, IV needles, catheters and such are removed. A strong disinfectant spray is used to clean the skin, eyes, mouth, and other orifices. If rigor mortis (the stiffening of muscles after death) has set in, it is relieved by moving the limbs and head about and massaging the muscles. If the decedent is a man, he is normally shaved at this point. Razor burn (yes, not even death can save you from this) is less likely before the arterial chemical firms the skin of the face). Even women and children are shaved to remove the fine "peach fuzz" we all have on our faces. This is done to avoid the makeup from collecting on the hair and making the makeup more noticeable.

Early Times.

In the late 1800's, embalming started becoming popular.  To transport bodies from the battleground back to there homes, bodies were drained of their fluids and divested of their organs.  Especially during the summer months, this was quite an ordeal, and embalming significantly enhanced the preservation of the corpse.
     In fact, after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his body was embalmed.  It was then placed in a casket for a two-week, seventeen-hundred-mile train ride (drawn by thirteen locomotives) to Springfield, Illinois.  Not only did it survive that, but the train also stopped in each town along the way so officials could open the coffin for the people to have a look.  Some seven million people viewed the preserved corpse, which influenced how embalming took hold in the country.

Photo of chair in which Lincoln was shot courtesy of Lydia

Burial Societies.

One surprise for me was the discovery of "burial societies."  The one I heard about observed the Jewish ritual of washing and preparing a corpse for burial.  With embalming forbidden, this all gets done quickly, but not by the mortician.  Volunteers from the community care for the dead as a religious duty.  Two or three people of the same gender as the corpse go to the funeral home to take care of details.  To proceed with the purification ritual, they remove everything from the body.  First they say a prayer, which continues while the body is washed - but never turned facedown.  Then they pour three bucketsful of water over it, saying, "He (or she) is pure."  Some then put a spot of egg white on the forehead (believed to have set apart the Jewish corpses during the European plagues).  In the final step, they clothe the body in a linen shroud, with a hood or veil that covers the face, and place it in a wooden casket that has no metal on it, not even nails.