Читать книгу Anatomy and Embalming - Charles Otto Dhonau - Страница 25

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Dr. Holmes was authorized by the U. S. Government to prepare the bodies of slain troops, so that they could be transported to their former homes. The practice of embalming for funeral purposes received its greatest impulse during the regime of Dr. Holmes, and it opened up an era of unprecedented discovery and success in preserving the dead body.

After Holmes, the man who cared for the dead began to feel that his was a professional work worthy of the name. The average undertaker, at the time just after the civil war, was a cabinet maker, whose chief function was to make the coffin or casket for the body, take the casket to the house and place the body in it. Then the larger undertakers in the larger cities found that they were compelled to preserve some of the bodies in some way so that distant relatives could reach the scene before the funeral. This probably was the result of betterments in transportation facilities which led people to travel more. Along with this, travelers frequently died away from home and had to be shipped. The baggage men rightfully objected to remaining in the same enclosed space with an unembalmed body and, altogether, a condition arose in which it was necessary to have some way to preserve the body.

As evolution is always a slow process, we cannot as we would like to do, chronicle the introduction of chemical embalming at this time, for refrigeration was the first thing thought of. The ice box, was the means by which bodies were kept for several days; the body being covered and left that way until a few hours before the funeral. This became so unsatisfactory specially when the sensibilities of the undertaker became sharpened, that they immediately looked about for a more convenient way to handle the situation. Spurred on by this demand, several concerns came into the market with preservative solutions with an arsenical base, and which were used principally for external application and cavity injection. All kinds of instruments were used with which to introduce the fluid into the body cavities until Captain George Billow, of Akron, Ohio, a civil war veteran, and at present a member of the Ohio State Board of Embalming examiners, contrived the pen point trocar, which is still in use among the profession.

With the introduction of the trocar, and the campaigns of the fluid manufacturers, trade periodicals and traveling men, cavity embalming became the means of preservation, until its limitations were learned.

Joseph Henry Clarke, who first traveled for fluid houses, and who was interested in the anatomy of the human body, since his connection with the U. S. hospital service in the Civil war, determined to introduce the arterial injection as the means of placing the fluid through the body. In collaboration with Dr. C. M. Lukens, the occupant of the chair of Anatomy at the Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati, Prof. J. H. Clarke opened a school of embalming naming it the Cincinnati School of Embalming. This took place during the year 1882. Prof. Auguste Renouard of Denver, Colorado, came into the field about the same time. Thus we have the beginning of the greatest revolution of all times in the care of the dead human bodies.

After Prof. Clarke and Prof. Renouard, came Prof. Frank Sullivan, and from time to time the list was augmented by the addition of others, a few of whom being Dr. Eliab Meyers, of Springfield, Ohio, Dr. Carl L. Barnes of Chicago, etc. With the efforts of all these men, the undertakers were led to use the arteries more and more until now, at the present time, this form of embalming is used exclusively through the United States, and Canada; European countries not having, as yet progressed as rapidly in that direction. The additions to the work from the time just previous to the start given to it by Prof. Clarke, number all the methods which we use today, including, the injection of any large artery in the body; the drainage of blood to further the obtaining of a complete circulation; the various processes by which discolorations are prevented and cured; the various processes by which bodies are disinfected; the various processes by which features are restored and many other of the vital operations of the present time. The undertaker having progressed from the cabinet maker, to a man of professional bearing having a good knowledge of all things pertaining to the dead human body, is now a man in whom the greatest reliance may be placed. Where previously, he was uneducated and uncultivated in matters pertaining to the body, he is now an authority to a great extent.

As a part of this historical contribution, we cannot overlook the very great advance made in the nature and composition of the preservative solutions used today. When formaldehyde was introduced, the high cost of it prevented its immediate use; but, later on, improved methods of manufacture brought the cost down to such a point where it became an essential ingredient in the fluids. Later when, on medico-legal grounds, arsenic was prohibited in the fluid (this action paralleling the action taken by France in the case of J. N. and Dr. Gannal), formaldehyde was depended upon for the maximum preservative action. Thus it still remains the base of most of the modern fluids. Several compounders have discontinued its use, preferring phenol, creosote, etc., but these chemicals have not as yet, made much progress against the formaldehyde.

In the early days, when the fluids were likely to be inadequate to care for certain conditions, the question as to which fluid is to be used was the principal care of the embalmer. Today, when the standard fluids are of the highest possible efficiency, it is a question of knowledge and technic on the part of the embalmer; it being a recognized fact that there is only about 1 chance in 1,000 for a standard fluid to contain inferior elements. In this way we may state that the burden of obtaining success has been shifted from the fluid, to the man using it; and it is then unnecessary to state that the best preparation along the line of education for the embalmer is advised, so that by his knowledge, he may do what he is expected to do by the people whom he is serving.