As fluid fills the body, blood drains out through a tube in the artery. ![]() The embalmer massages the corpse to help circulate the embalming fluid and break up blood clots and, if circulation is poor, will pump fluid in through other entry points. These chemicals work to kill the bacteria that cause decomposition, and keep cells from collapsing.Īs a body begins to fill with embalming fluid, the skin fills out and takes on a healthy-looking red flush - embalming fluid also contains dyes to make the body look more natural. The pump circulates embalming fluid, a solution of different chemicals, throughout the body.The most important ingredients in embalming fluid are preservatives, like formaldehyde and methanol. When a body is brought to a funeral home, an undertaker hooks up a pump to the corpse’s right carotid artery in the neck. There are different ways to embalm a body, but the most common method is arterial embalming. Although funeral homes sell sealed vaults and coffins, it’s hard to guarantee eternal preservation - corpses can contain bacteria spores, or DNA pods that survived the embalming process and will eventually break the body down. Water reverses the chemical reactions that make embalming work, so when an embalmed body is buried under moist soil it soon begins to decompose in earnest. An embalmed body is meant to look fresh and (relatively) lifelike long enough for an open casket funeral service, but not much longer. While early embalmers claimed that embalming was permanent, today’s funeral homes set more realistic expectations. Although Holmes died at the age of 70 after going thoroughly insane - an unsurprising fate for the so-called “father of modern embalming” - the practice of embalming lived on. The train made stops along the way for viewing, and those who saw Lincoln’s corpse were impressed by how well it was preserved. to Lincoln’s home state of Illinois, by rail. Embalming got a publicity boost at the end of the war when Abraham Lincoln’s embalmed body traveled halfway across the country, from Washington, D.C. Holmes started embalming infantrymen in 1861. The Union contracted Thomas Holmes, a doctor, to find a way to preserve fallen soldiers long enough to get them home. ![]() Modern embalming began during the Civil War, Mary Roach writes in Stiff, a book chronicling what happens to us after we die. ![]() Today, we still do our best to keep bodies clean and free of rot and decay for as long as possible. Native Americans - including the Aztecs, Toltecs, and Mayans - all also had their own strategies for preserving dead bodies. The Egyptians are famous for mummifying their dead and immortalizing the greatest of them in elaborate tombs and pyramids. ![]() Humans have been trying for millennia to slow or stop this process of decay. A body in a steamy jungle, for example, will decompose much faster than a body in the frozen tundra. Depending on the environment, this can take hours, days, or weeks. When someone dies, his (or her) body begins to decompose. There are some things we know for certain, however. What happens to us after we die? Well, that’s a thorny question - one that has a lot of different answers, depending on who you ask.
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