Mortuary Science Facts
04:03 Sep 12 2023
Times Read: 157
The Father of American Embalming;
Thomas Holmes (1817-1900) is generally considered the father of modern embalming. He experimented with preservative chemicals while working as a coroner's assistant in New York and later offered his services to the public.
**Important to note: Dr. Frederik Ruysch, a Dutch botanist and anatomist who lived from 1665 to 1717, developed groundbreaking methods of anatomical preservation and discovered the first successful system of arterial embalming.
Morticians don’t drive hearses to pick up decedents anymore. These days most morticians use minivans or white cargo vans to pick up bodies. Hearses are usually only used for transporting the prepared body to funerals and cemeteries. Hearses are not allowed to travel in HOV lanes because the body is considered cargo.
Morticians must repair donor and autopsied bodies.
Cruise ships have morgues that are large enough to accommodate several bodies.
There are approximately 40,000 unclaimed bodies that are in morgues across the United States.
People do oftentimes still wake up within the morgue. Not all coroners (who pronounce their deaths) have medical training.
A lot of fluid leaves the human body after they die. We call this the "Purge". It doesn't stop until an embalming occurs.
When we have to turn the body over, the air that was in the lungs lets out, which makes the body exhale and makes a wind
noise.
Pacemakers need to be removed before cremation, or they explode.
If a decedent won’t stop defecating, then we have to pack the rectum with an A-V Closure, and if all else fails, we may even
suture the anus shut.
The word ‘mortician’ was first published in 1895 in The Embalmers Monthly as a suggestion to replace the word ‘undertaker.’
The Five Fishermen Restaurant in Nova Scotia was once a mortuary that handled the burials of bodies recovered from the Titanic.
Sometimes caskets will explode. Look up "Exploding Casket Syndrome".
Families can ask for replacement medical parts back after a cremation, but most do not. Hip and knee implants are often melted down and recycled for road signs and car parts, among other things. Breast implants usually melt all over the cremation machine.
Decomposing bodies almost always have a lime-green abdomen.
If a mother and baby die, they can not go into the crematory retort together in Michigan, as it is the state law.
Rigor affects both smooth and skeletal muscles, including hair follicles (resulting in postmortem 'goose bumps') and seminal vesicles (resulting in postmortem semen release).
To crush the bones after they are removed from the retort, or cremation furnace, they are placed in the cremulator, or bone pulverizer. This is similar to a giant industrial blender, that can crush and grind. Some older models use giant heavy metal balls to crush down. The cremains are swept out of the different chambers, and put in a temporary container for the family, unless one has been provided to the crematorium for this purpose. Everything is going to go into the retort for cremation, and is not separated. If the casket had metal parts, those would be removed, however the heat is so high 1600-1800F, that everything else is blended in.
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