WEBVTT - Bedside Manners 13: The End? 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.640 The Capuchin Friars thought they knew something about the dead. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.760 After all, their holy order was entrusted with caring for 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.960 the sick and dying in their community of Palmero, Italy. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.720 They had been at it for decades and were considered 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.239 resident experts on postmortem care. But when it came to 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.440 their own dead, it turned out that nothing would go 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.160 according to plan. In fifteen thirty four, when they relocated 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.800 from far off Albacina, they immediately got to work constructing 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:35.320 a collective below ground cistern like crypt. This particular monastic 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.920 order practiced a tradition called the second burial. When a 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.120 person died, they would be allowed to decompose unburied for 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.640 some time. That was the first burial. When a Friar died, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.560 his body would be laid on a shelf to drip dry, 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.199 draining himself of all of his liquid. Then, once the 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.200 soft bits like flesh and other tissues were gone, the 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.240 dried bones would be taken and installed within the holy 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.960 walls of the order's church. That's the second burial. So 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.240 as the years went on, the Friars stashed more and 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.880 more of their own bodies in their crypt, waiting for 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.319 the day the space would hit max capacity. The brothers 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.039 planned to eventually go collect the bones for Fase two, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.280 where they'd be brought up into the church. In October 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.480 of fifteen ninety nine, some Friars descended down into the 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.200 belly of their crypt. Here they found something that had 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.520 been whispered about over the years. These bodies hadn't fully 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.760 decomposed at all. In fact, it seems that their decomposition 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.959 had simply been arrested. How could this be? Instead of 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.480 finding skeletons, they recognized their friends. It seemed that God 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.640 had intervened on their plan for the dead. They took 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:41.920 it all in to decide what it could mean. They 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.840 closely inspected all of the forty five bodies meticulously preserved 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.240 before them, and the Capuchin Friars believed they were witnessing 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.120 a miracle. They interpreted this moment as an act of 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.760 divine intervention. So the Friars decided to put the bodies 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.280 on display as holy relics. They hoisted them from below 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.559 and installed them around the church with wire and placards, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.680 up behind the high altar and in nooks all around 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.000 the walls. And in all of this they continued on 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.480 with their day to day lives, they kept caring for 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.480 the sick and caring for the dead. They continued to 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.160 fill their underground crypt with the bodies of their newly 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.120 past members, and they noticed that these bodies, too were 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.160 not decomposing. It was determined that they would get the 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.960 same treatment as the others. The Friars got into the 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.360 practice of installing the dead in their final resting or 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.280 maybe standing place. Over the years, the order built additional 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.520 rooms for these bodies. They added multiple corridors for their 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:40.080 ever expanding collection of mummies. What we know now is 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.160 that Palermo has an excellent environment for mommification. The air 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.360 is dry and the humidity is low. The Capuchin's underground crypts, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.160 which often utilized the natural made caves, were made of limestone, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.400 which harbors incredible drying properties. Over the years, the Friars 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.519 began taking a more active role in the miracle making, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.320 that is, preservation. They began to work with the addition 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.920 of vinegar, lime, chalk, and arsenic which they found to 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.399 aid in the process. Now, at first these catacombs were 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.720 an exclusive club for the resident Friars, But who doesn't 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.520 want to rub elbows with the divine right. Taking money 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.079 in exchange for holy services is historically fraught, but these 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.040 catacombs needed to be maintained, and the way that could 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.000 be done was through donation. So in time the catacombs 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.760 opened up to everyone, mostly to those who could pay 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.960 for the privilege of being in proximity to something seemingly miraculous. Today, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:36.200 the Capuchin Catacombs are the final resting place of eight 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.000 thousand well dressed corpses, and for about five bucks you 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.480 can go see them. While it might seem like a 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.000 macab spectacle to some, to others, it's a comforts and 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.240 an honor to be in the physical midst of so 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.160 many who have passed through this life before. So often 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.800 the dead are hidden from us. In the not so 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.800 recent past, folks in the Western world tended to their 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.960 dead at home and buried them close by. Life was 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.520 experienced by all from the cradle to the grave until 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.040 a radical shift happened. For thousands of years across time 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.480 and place, we have been tending to and preserving are 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.840 dead because when our attempts at healing the body fail, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.760 humans have to turn to the next task figuring out 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.799 exactly what to do with that body. I'm Aaron Mankee 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:36.400 and welcome to bedside manners. When the opportunity to heal 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.040 a body has passed us by, there is still healing 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.039 to be sought for the living. That is, for those 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.159 who love the deceased. It can be a great comfort 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.240 to know that they've handled their loved ones with as 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.600 much care as they can muster, and that they are 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.400 giving them a proper sendoff. Throughout the centuries, humans have 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.640 derived rituals for death and the remains of their dead, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.480 and among the many practices, there's one that shows up 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:02.880 time and time again, embalming. We can trace our earliest 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.880 examples of embalming back to about five thousand years ago 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.760 in ancient Egypt. It's possible that the first mummies had 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.839 no human intervention but were accidentally cured by the hot, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:18.840 dry climate in shallow sandy graves. Around twenty six hundred BC, though, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.760 it seems that mummification became more intentional. While we can't 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.839 know exactly how the first methods of mummification came to be, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.919 we can't infer that early embalmers borrowed techniques from the 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.919 preservation of animal meat. Over the years, different technologies and 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.760 methods came into use, But what remained true over the 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.320 course of centuries was that these embalmers played a revered 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.520 role in the fabric of their communities. This act of 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.680 preservation was to ensure the dead would make it into 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.239 the afterlife intact and with everything they needed to carry 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.920 on on the next plane. Around five hundred BC, how 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.400 you chose to be embalmed in ancient Egypt boiled down 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:01.000 to a three tier service model. Your selections of a basic, deluxe, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.640 or premium package all depended on your sensibilities and your savings. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.120 To illustrate which package you were purchasing in bombers would 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.800 show shoppers three wooden models of corpses, all distinct from 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:17.240 one another. Each was illustrated with various incisions included or 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.559 not included in the purchase, as well as a list 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.560 of other lux add ons. At the bottom tier, the 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.000 body got a washing, assaulting, and perhaps an injection of 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.200 cedar oil. At the top, the body would be anointed 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.200 with an array of delicious smelling powders and oils, with 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.520 organs fully removed save for the heart. Of course, Embalming 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.240 became a means of one final capture of life in 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.039 a corpse it helped to sand down the rough edges 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.359 between life and death for survivors. The ritual has become 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.200 part of our customary response to death ever since. Eventually, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.599 the expansion of Christianity would create waves in regards to 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.720 burial customs of the world. As our concept of afterlife changed, 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.160 so too did the means required to get this. Embalming 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.160 fell out of fashion just for a while. By the 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.520 Middle Ages, embalming again gained favor, being seen as a 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.120 practical solution to some earthly problems. The pendulum began to 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.480 swing back. At this time, it was often reserved for 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.640 high ranking military men killed in action who needed to 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.320 be sent home with some semblance of recognizability. But with 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.040 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rising interest in anatomy and 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.560 all of the lessons it had to teach us, more 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.680 bodies were needed for dissection practice. Anatomists toyed with different 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.680 recipes and embalming techniques in the same way that the 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.960 alchemists are. Proto chemists that we met earlier in this season, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.400 worked in their labs, cooking up solutions both physical and 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:45.080 metaphorical in nature. Practitioners used all kinds of things and Honestly, 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.240 they're things that you'd probably think would make some nice 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.239 smelling potpourriaut of rose and cammameal and cedar in various 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.400 combinations and forms, and sometimes turpidine and lime and ash 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.800 and wax and alcohol. Through the years, they developed different 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:04.000 techniques for preservation and washing and drying, submerging, extracting organs 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.560 and draining blood, pumping a deflated body up with linen 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.560 or straw, and adding pigments for a living likeness. These 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.160 recipes were sometimes proprietary trade secrets, and there was a 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.080 competition among embalmers as to who could make the most 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.440 beautiful corpses. Speaking of there was one such corpse whose 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.360 after life outlasted her mortal life that I'd like to 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.480 tell you about today, and that was a woman named 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:31.360 Mary von Butchell, who died on January fourteenth of seventeen 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.360 seventy five. She had been married to a man named Martin, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.560 a bizarre yet wildly successful dentist in London. He traveled 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.520 on a painted horse, wore flamboyant outfits, and somehow managed 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.160 to offend the general populace. Even still, his patients loved 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.360 him and kept his practice afloat for over twenty years. 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.720 He had been a pupil of John Hunter, remember him, who, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:54.960 along with his brother William, became two of the most 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.120 revered anatomists of their age. With this particular training, Martin 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.480 had an idea. He would have her embalmed and then 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.560 place her in his dental office window for all to see. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.400 This was for advertising, of course, but Madman's don draper 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.600 he was not, so he called up his old friend 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.800 William Hunter to execute his idea. Now, scholars still debate 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.559 why he did this. One doesn't often use the body 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.360 of their deceased spouse to inspire public affection. One idea 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.640 was that this was a final jab to get back 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.000 at her for some transgression in life. On the contrary, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.520 some believed that this was a gesture of great care 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.480 and affection, having called upon one of the most esteemed 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.400 anatomists in the world to help him. So, alongside William, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.320 Martin embalmed Mary. It was a deeply intimate act, one 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.200 that required much time and attention to care for and 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.840 preserve her remains. They opened her up for autopsy and 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.160 inspected her organs for telltale signs of what had gone wrong. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.280 From there, they began the first of a three stage 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.319 embalming process. First, they injected her arteries with a mixture 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.560 of turpentine and vermilion and let it set. This would 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.200 eventually help them drain her blood, which came in the 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.320 second step, along with the removal of her organs. The 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.479 third step found them washing her body with water and alcohol, 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.800 before filling her cavities with a mixture of camphor, niter 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.920 and resin. She was then stitched up with care, washed, dried, 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.240 and anointed with oils. She was then laid in a box, 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.320 her body set in quick drying plaster, ready for the 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.760 curious eyes of the general public. Words circulated quickly, as 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.680 you might imagine, and people wanted to see Mary's mummy exactly, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.160 it seems what he set out to do. He took 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.720 a blurb in the local paper imploring people to come 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.959 only at certain times, which, of course the cynic might 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.360 say was just another way to stir up interest. It 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.520 also seems that Mary's body long found a post mortem 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.400 home in the house they shared, even after he remarried. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.120 When Martin died in eighteen fourteen, the Board of Curators 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.040 of the Royal College of Surgeons received a letter from 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.120 his son Martin was interred in the ground, but there 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.559 was no final rest for Mary. Her embalmed remains had 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.360 been in Martin's care while he was alive. Now his 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.600 son wanted to know did the Royal College have any 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.760 interest in putting Mary's body on display? They sure did, 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.400 so there she was. Mary, once an attraction in her 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.400 own home, was now accessible to the greater public in 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.400 the curio room at the College, where she stayed for 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:31.480 over one hundred and thirty years. His body arrived at 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.040 the train platform in the middle of the night, passing 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:36.800 from one set of strangers hands to the next. At 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.440 about eleven pm on Saturday night, December seventeenth of eighteen 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.920 fifty nine, the now dead John E. Cook arrived in 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.640 Jersey City via the Express train North. He was received 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.680 by his brother in law and a local undertaker, just 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.240 another stop on the journey home. It was late or early, 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:56.360 if that's how we're counting. By the time the group 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.000 arrived in New York City, the night sky had broken 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.559 open and let loose to hohrents of rain, soaking our 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.480 faithful chaperones to the bone. They were able to catch 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.680 an express wagon, though, and John was loaded in his 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.839 final destination was a secret one, and traveling in the 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.600 dark helped them keep it this way. Their schedule was 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.440 something of a formality, but it also was a pure 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.280 function of the situation. John had recently been executed in 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.400 Virginia for treason, and his body had to move swifter 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.400 than the decay that threatened to overtake him. Curious folks 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.760 who managed to find out where John had ended up 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.560 were turned away when they called, but his young wife 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.760 pleaded to be the first to see his remains. When 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.800 they arrived, the undertaker promised her that this would happen, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.720 but changed his mind once he saw just how badly 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.960 decomposed John appeared. Doctor Thomas Holmes, one of New York's 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.200 coroners and most skilled embalmers, got to work on the 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.600 body that lay before him. He got the arterial injection 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.880 site prepared and started, taking about forty five minutes to 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.320 get the four courts of liquid passed through the body, 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.720 but the newspapers noted that in about half the time, 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.880 Cook's face began to regain its natural color. The next morning, 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.240 it said that he didn't even smell. John E. Cook, 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.000 the flamboyant co conspirator of John Brown and his rebellion 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.960 at Harper's Ferry was held the following Tuesday at the 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.240 personal residence of the city Clerk. The political nature of 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.640 John's death and the criminal stigma around his hanging kept 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.439 local churches from opening their doors to him and his 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.439 loved ones. Only a handful of people were allowed to 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.000 see the body in the Crowd control at the actual 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.400 funeral limited attendees to a guided, single file line. After 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.960 the last visitor was led out through the basement of 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.359 the home, John's remains were taken to Cypress Hills Cemetery. 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.560 A reverend gave a short address before John was put 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.520 into the grave. After all of this was put to rest, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.320 the good doctor Holmes dusted his hands and cleaned up 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.719 his embalming lab. He knew that the tides of how 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.920 Americans writ large were caring for the dead were changing, 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.640 but little did he know that the treatment of John E. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.239 Cook's body would be the telltale canaar in the coal mine. 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.320 Holmes was an anatomist and surgeon by trade, and was 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.480 deeply unsettled by the preservation of specimens, and by specimens, 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.000 I mean corpses that he saw come through his lab. 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.079 He was also well aware of the significant toxicity of 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.040 the chemicals his fellow practitioners had gotten into the habit 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.560 of using. Over the past few years. In the hopes 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.480 of stopping the spread of diseases harbored in the corpses, 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.880 they had treated them with arsenic and mercury based compounds. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.040 Holmes had experienced studying Egyptian mummies, though, and he believed 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.280 that there were other and less deadly ways forward. For 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.680 the most parts, up until this point, the work of 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.080 death wasn't handled by professionals. The work was largely a 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.440 labor of the domestic space, and the most intimate tasks 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.840 of caring for the dead were carried out by women. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.000 But by the mid eighteen hundreds, America was on its 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:51.800 way to creating a systemaized market for newly minted death specialists. 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.640 These tasks of caring for the dead were beginning to 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:59.040 be outsourced to paid strangers, consolidated into industries, and given 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.960 the shiny new ven year of professionalism, and doctor Holmes 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.160 was part of this movement. Having gained notoriety for developing 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.960 a safe embalming fluid, it was sold not just to 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.320 his fellow ananimius, but to the burgeoning class of undertakers 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.080 who were popping up all over the country. Even still, 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.680 the larger public often found it horrifying. That was until 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.640 the outbreak of the Civil War. Doctor Holmes had the 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:26.040 great distinction of embalming Elmer E. Ellsworth in eighteen sixty one. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.040 A Union Army colonel in life, he had been close 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.960 with President Lincoln. When the doctor heard this, he visited 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:36.000 the President and offered to embalm his friend. Newspaper accounts 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.360 praised the doctor's methods, extolling this idea that men who 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.440 were killed far from home could be embalmed locally and 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.280 preserved enough to make it home for a proper burial. 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.480 Thousands came to see Elmer lying in his coffin, and 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:50.720 all who looked upon his face were said to be 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.520 taken by how utterly lifelike he remained. A short time later, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.080 the Army Medical Corps decided that they would employ the 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.640 doctor's services to embalm all of the Union's dead. It 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.600 was a symptom of wishful thinking, though, because they thought 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.760 that the war would soon be over and the number 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.360 of casualties low, They had no idea the carnage they 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:12.400 were about to see and the undertaking that they were 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:21.480 about to embark upon. As America's Civil War exploded through 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.760 small towns, into the forests, and onto the open fields, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.760 doctor Holmes and his colleagues embalmed thousands of bodies. The 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.440 practice established itself in the midst of this horrific mass casualty, 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.480 which amounted to a bloodier conflict than any they'd ever 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.320 experienced before. For the first time in American history, scores 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.800 of people were dying far from where they were born. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.920 According to one statistic, just in the South, one in 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.480 five Southern men died during this conflict. Everyone seemed to 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.280 know someone or some ones, and try as we might, 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.960 the psychic toll incurred is unlike anything we've seen in 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.360 our own lifetimes. The practice of embalming then became both 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.560 practical and sentimental. It gave grieving families one last chance 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.640 to look upon their loved ones, even if sometimes they 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.520 were hardly recognizable. And while it's true that some embalmers 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.840 were motivated by care and compassion for their fallen countrymen, 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.800 the others were motivated by the hustle and the profit 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.240 to be made off the dead. Even in the midst 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.439 of tragedy, or, as so often happens, because of it, 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.600 the opportunists had arrived. It said that those who had 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.040 taken up the embalming trade following the outbreak of the 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.720 war stalked the Union and Confederate armies around the country, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.040 staking out battlefields and recruiting prospective clients while they were 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.200 still living with the generous offer of pre paid embalming 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.720 coverage and transportation plans. These men were hawking their wares 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.800 in showman's style and with only a hint of sensitivity. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.119 You can only imagine what that did to the morale 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:50.960 of the troops on the front line. Some embalmers, too, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.000 were charged with more or less holding bodies of the 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.240 dead hostage until their families could pay what amounted to 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.960 a ransom. The craft was wildly on regular but in 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.600 years to come it would be codified and organized with 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.240 laws and degrees as a mechanism of control. In all, 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.760 around forty thousand were embalmed and sent home. It was 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.280 a practice that seemed ghastly to so many in the 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.880 years leading up to the war, but like many things, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.280 that war might change our collective attitude towards death and 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.200 how to manage the care of it. Became one of them. 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.120 President Abraham Lincoln, who had been at the country's helm 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.359 for this entire conflict, died on April fifteenth of eighteen 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.800 sixty five after being shot at Ford's Theater in Washington, 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.439 d C. By a Confederate sympathizer. His body was quickly 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.600 moved to the local embalming firm of Brown and Alexander, 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.040 who just three years before had embalmed the president's young son. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.399 It was collectively decided by the powers in Washington that 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.080 the president was going to be sent on one last tour. 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.680 He had belonged to the people in life, and he 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.800 would belong to them still in death. Lincoln had commissioned 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.800 a stately presidential railcar, and it would now serve as 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.720 his nine car funeral train, spending twenty days and seventeen 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.360 hundred miles crossing the country from Washington, d C. To Springfield, Illinois, 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.200 and it stops along the way. His black bedecked train 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.720 was met by thousands of mourners who wished to see 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.760 the president one last time. He was accompanied by loved 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.320 ones and over one hundred and fifty attendants, including a 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.600 resident embalmer. The latter worked alongside local undertakers to ensure 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.720 that the president was looking as fresh as possible, even 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.800 as Lincoln's face began to sink and discolor in the heat. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.119 The conductor of the train was quoted as saying that 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.280 he looked as if he were asleep in pleasant dreams. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.480 And like I said before, this concept of embalming the 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.960 dead like this was something that people had to get 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:43.719 used to. But any disgussed discomfort or unease experienced firsthand 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.320 by these curious onlookers was far surpassed by Lincoln's body 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.840 as a symbol. They witnessed that his embalming gave him 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.520 a chance to still be among them, if only for 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.200 a little while longer, and in doing so, he helped 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.879 to cement the powers of human preservation in the public's imagine. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.480 Within a few short years, the practice changed how the 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.840 country would go on to live with death. Lincoln himself 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.800 gave the practice his stamp of approval when he said 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.000 that it helped to bind the nation's wounds, to care 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.679 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.160 his widow and his orphan. They saw that this new 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.600 technology readily available to everyone, from foot soldiers to presidents. 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.600 As a balm to ease the ache of broken hearts. 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.720 It was a panacea, a form of care in the 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.560 shape of pickling chemicals, one last act of caring on 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.680 the part of an enbalmer and by extension, a family 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:44.840 before someone was laid down for good. In the wake 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.800 of the Civil War, the nation began to rebuild itself. 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.920 Life in the fractured country would never return to how 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.680 it had once been, but a new normal would establish itself. 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.720 Day by day. As the living returned home, the need 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.280 for embalmers and their services began to side. People could 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.280 now die from where they came and be summarily returned 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:06.720 to the ground. Not to be dissuaded by a good 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.360 thing they had going on, though, a group of professionals 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.440 mobilized as a collective, staking their claim as the new 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.760 mediators between the living and the dead. America's thriving, booming 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.239 free market had created a place for them, and they 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.920 were going to claim it. The cottage industries around deaf 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.840 care had cropped up during the war, saw a permanent 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:29.080 and necessary place for themselves and started creating barriers for entry, 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:33.160 such as certifications and training programs that turned dying from 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:38.119 something utterly domestic into a cog in capitalism's machine. Embalming, 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.680 it seems, was here to stay. But the same can't 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.639 be said for our faithful Doctor Holmes. You see, in 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.600 the later years of the nineteenth century, Doctor Holmes would 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.280 be arrested for keeping a body on his property for 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.159 more than two months. He was studying the effects of 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.240 his preservation, not just on this corpse, but on others 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:00.200 in his sprawling anatomical collection. He was summarily relief based 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.879 on the grounds of no wrongdoings, but it's easy to 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.840 think that some may have been unsettled by his experiments. 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.480 For years, he kept an embalmed dog in the front 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.159 window of his shop. At another point, he announced that 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.040 in the future, marble would no longer be necessary to 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.760 create sculptures from, but that he had found the exact 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.440 chemical cocktail that would help turn formerly living human beings 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:25.399 into marble for display. Today, arterial embalming is commonplace in 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.679