Embalming

Mary Roach was born on March 20, 1959 in Hanover, New Hampshire. When she was very young however, she moved not that far away to Etna, New Hampshire. She attended Hanover High School. She graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1981. Once she had graduated from college, she moved to the much warmer city of San Francisco, California to pursue her passion of writing. Near the beginning of her writing career, she was working

In the book Stiff, cadavers are used in different areas and kinds of research. As I read, I was surprised to see that there were so many unique ways that cadavers are used. The most surprising thing that I read was that cadavers were used as art. This book was not only interesting, but enlightening as well. It is unbelievable how useful cadavers have been in helping the living in so many different ways. After reading Stiff, it was surprising to discover that there are so many different ways

A soap mummy is a human corpse that is naturally mummified due to the process of adipocire. Adipocere, also known as corpse wax or the fat of graveyards, is a product of decomposition that turns body fat into a soap-like substance. Corpse wax forms through a process called saponification and tends to develop when body fat is exposed to anaerobic bacteria in a warm, damp, alkaline environment, either in soil or water. Grave wax has a soft, greasy gray appearance when it starts to form, and as

3. Exceptions were sometimes permitted. Locate one such case and explain the context for the exception. While each ordinance had a particular punishment if not followed accordingly, all the ordinances in place which focused on death, burials, and how to process dead bodies did not apply to “burials of knights, doctors of law, judges, and doctors of physics” (p.198). Their “bodies can be honoured by their heirs at their burials in any way they please.” (p. 198). They were exempted from following

There should be a call for stricter regulation of post-mortem human tissue. It would seem obvious that what is of paramount value in life would necessarily depreciate in death. This in not true of the human body. With the emergence of biotechnology and the consequent need for post-mortem human tissue, the human cadaver has become quite valuable. In pieces and parts or in its entirety, organizations will pay top dollar for the human body, even after it houses the human spirit. Throughout history

To finish my topic of history, I explained a little about types of burials. Like I mentioned with the pyramids, the types of burials evolved over time. In Prehistoric Egypt, bodies were buried in the desert because they would naturally be preserved by dehydration. The "graves" were small oval or rectangular pits dug in the sand. Along with the deceased body, small tokens were placed with the body which the Egyptians believed would be transported with the deceased into the afterlife. These tokens

Life after death can be helpful to scientists and doctors. One way in which this is possible is the use of cadavers. Cadavers are bodies of people who have recently died. These people donate their bodies to science so doctors can go over the body and study why that specific person has died or try to figure out how people die from different diseases. While cadavers have been used for thousands of years dating back to the ancient Egyptians in 300 B.C (Roach, 2003) there have been many since then who

procedures that are being done when embalming a corpse. She explains that most people pay a lot of money each year, and yet “not one in ten thousand has any idea of what actually takes place”, and the books related to this subject or any information are extremely hard to obtain. She adds, there must be a good reason why they keep these procedures secret and if people knew they would not want these procedures performed. Mitford states that traditional embalming in America took place at the home of

To embalm means to treat a dead body so as to preserve it, as with chemicals, drugs, or balsams; also, to keep in memory and to cause to remain unchanged. A funeral is a ceremony which is often a time when loved ones can say their final goodbyes and talk about the good times they had with the person who has died. In Egypt, embalmment and funerals are combined to form an ancient custom that seems to blow the minds of many. Egyptians believe that the dead must be treated with great care. They also

"In this occupation certain persons employ themselves regularly and inherit this as a craft." (Herodotus) Just as Herodotus recorded, mummification dates back to early 3rd millennium B.C. It may date back many years, but was not perfected till many years later to what we officially call mummification. (Dunand 27) We call it mummification and the bodies mummies because of the Persian word for bitumen, which is "mummia". The reason for this name is because of the dark skin of mummies, which people