What was the main embalming ingredient first used in America?

barbs42

The inventive spirit was truly alive in the realm of embalming. Preserving the bodies of the deceased, whether for sanitation, viewing or religious purposes, has preoccupied mankind since ancient times. The first American settlers generally buried their dead quickly, thus avoiding the need for preservation. But because relatives sometimes had to travel long distances to attend funerals, early colonists experimented with several crude methods of embalming, according to 'The History of American Funeral Directing,' the seminal text of U.S. death history. Those techniques included disemboweling the corpse and filling the body cavity with charcoal; immersing the body in alcohol; or wrapping the deceased in a cloth soaked with alum. The tidier, simpler principal of refrigeration supplanted these methods once ice could be manufactured with ease. 'Cooling boards' and coffins with special ice cavities were the standard well into the mid-19th century, even as medical pathologists were making great advances in chemical embalming. Then came the Civil War. "It changed everything," says WSU's Williams. "The need to transport bodies of soldiers long distances back to their homes created widespread demand for chemical embalming. That was the beginning of modern mortuary science." The war gave Thomas Holmes, 'The Father of American Embalming,' the opening he was looking for to introduce safe, sanitary chemical embalming to the masses. Mary Todd Lincoln was said to be so impressed with his work that she later entrusted President Lincoln's body to embalmers after he was assassinated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalming#History [Link added Feb. 26, 2008 by Zbeckabee] Jun 26 00, 11:19 AM

zbeckabee

NOTE: Regarding Holmes from above post: Immediately prior to the American Civil War, Holmes experimented with arterial embalming based on the earlier work of Mons. Gannal of Paris. Through this experimentation, he developed an arterial solution, which went on to be manufactured commercially and was sold for $3.00 per gallon, and injection apparatus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holmes Feb 26 08, 3:36 PM