NEW METHOD OF EMBALMING.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1083, 24 June 1873, Page 3

NEW METHOD OF EMBALMING.

The San Francisco Chronicle says ■ Peter Craig, the undertaker in Market street, has discovered a new process of embalming which is cheaper and much more simple than the process at present in use. In course of some experiments it occurred to Mr Craig that if the oxvgen, which is known to be the agent of decomposition, could be excluded from the body, the decomposition prevented and the body preserved from decay. This end ho attains by placing the corpse in an airtight coffin with a lighted candle, the flame of which burns up all the oxygen and only goes out when no more of that gas remains to feed it. He obtained the body of a dead man from the Coroner, and placed it in the coffin with the lighted candles, screwing down the lid to make the coffin perfectly air-tight. The candle burned for five hours and a-half, and then became extinguished. Mr Craig had the body removed to a back room, whore it remained for three weeks in perfect state of preservation. The experiment is also being tried with the body of Eobert G-owerlock, who died about ten days ago. It was subjected to the process soon after and was on exhibition in Corinthian Hall on December 15, when it was foand to be in a state of perfect preservation. The body was on last week placed in a tomb in the Masonic Cemetery, where it will remain for a 'short time before being taken to Scotland by the relatives of the deceased. Should it reach there in as sound a, state as it now is, the success of the new process will have been fully demonstrated.