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52
PRESERVATION OF BODIES.
In January, 1909, I presented a report to the Sanitary Committee, drawing
attention to the need of some provision for preserving bodies at the City
Mortuary. The City Coroner had also from time to time, at the request of
juries, forwarded riders to the Court of Common Council suggesting the
desirability of some special means of preserving unidentified bodies with a
view of their ultimate identification.
Such provision would also be of value in cases where a body is decomposing
on reception, especially in cases of drowning; further, as the duty of
viewing bodies is always an unpleasant one, and at times even dangerous,
every possible precaution should be taken to protect the jury.
.
It had been originally proposed that a method of refrigeration should be
adopted, and it was referred to your Engineer and myself to report upon the
practicability and cost of the various systems available.
In the course of these enquiries our attention was directed to an apparatus
invented by Dr. G. De Rechter, which had been in use for some time in
Brussels, and in which the action of formalin is utilised.
With regard to refrigeration, although quite practicable, it was found that
a complete installation would be costly, and that the working cost would be
considerable.
The disadvantages of refrigeration are:—
(1) The space taken up by the apparatus;
(2) The cost of working and skilled supervision inseparable from the
use of machinery of this kind; and
(2) The fact that the preservation lasts only during the actual
freezing, so that decomposition commences directly a body is removed
from the apparatus.
As preservation by formalin by Dr. De Rechter's process was stated to
have given excellent results, the Sanitary Committee referred to their
Chairman and Medical Officer the duty of inspecting this apparatus at
Brussels, which was carried out from the 9th to 13th of January, a body
being provided for the purpose, and every facility afforded by the municipal
authorities of the town.
The great advantage of the De Rechter apparatus is its simplicity. Briefly,
it consists of an air-tight case communicating with a smaller chamber in