Improvements relating to the preservation or mummification of corpses / [José De Nueda].

  • De Nueda, José.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Improvements relating to the preservation or mummification of corpses / [José De Nueda]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Date of Application, 20th Sept., 1887 Specification Accepted, 21st Oct., 1887 A.D. 1887, 20th September. N° 12,769. COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. Improvements relating to the Preservation or Mummification of Corpses. I, JosiS de Nueda, of Madrid, Spain do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:— One of the most important questions from the point of view of public health, and 5 one which has occupied public attention for a number of years in all countries, is without contradiction the burial of corpses. As actually performed the burial of the dead in cemeteries situated near or in towns has fatal consequences which have been often proved, under the influences of the changes of temperature, of wet, of acids contained in the ground and of the gases 10 which are given off from the corpses, the zinc, and the rotting wood of the coffins, at the same time the decomposition of the corpses causes an effluvium to come from the ground that constitutes a permanent danger to the health of the living. For a long time a remedy has been sought for this state of things. The best solution would he evidently tne preservation of corpses, as practised in ancient times 15 by the Egyptians, who by the process to which they submitted their dead, prevented all unhealthy exhalations. Embalming would give the same results, but as it is executed at the present day it is too long and too expensive a method, to be practically employed in the generality of cases. 20 Another ancient method of performing obsequies, that consisted in burning the dead has been suggested, but cremation has numerous adversaries, in medical men who contend that this method renders the investigation of cases of poisoning impossible, and also in the feelings of a great number of people, who are unable to see without repugnance so fundamental a change in the usual mode of conducting tunerals. [Price &i.]