Losing a loved one is a very painful event. Following a death, the family of the deceased can request a conservation treatment, called embalming. This slows down the body’s natural putrefaction and helps to preserve it. The conservation of the deceased already existed 5000 years ago: thus, the Egyptians – and before them the Tibetans, the Chinese – embalmed their dead. Today, these acts carried out on the body of a person who has just died consist in replacing the blood with formalin, without there being any evisceration. This conservation care, which is carried out by a qualified embalmer, is not compulsory. Embalming treatment is generally requested within XNUMX hours of death.

It was in 1963 that the dethana term “topraxia” was coined. This word originates from the Greek: “Thanatos” is the genius of death, and “praxein” means to manipulate with the idea of ​​movement, to process. Embalming is therefore the set of technical means implemented for the conservation of bodies after death. This term replaced that of “embalm”, meaning “to put in a balm”. Indeed, this name no longer corresponded to the new techniques of conservation of the bodies of the deceased. 

Since 1976, embalming has been recognized by the public authorities, which have approved conservation fluids: it is therefore only since this date that the name “conservation care” has entered into funeral regulations. Embalming consists of an injection of a preservative and hygienic solution into the vascular system of the deceased, before drainage of fluids from the thoracic and abdominal cavities, without performing evisceration.

The conservation of the deceased already existed 5000 years ago. The Egyptians – and before them the Tibetans, the Chinese – embalmed the dead. Indeed, the techniques of burial of the corpses wrapped in a shroud and deposited in the sand tombs no longer allowed a correct conservation. The Egyptian embalming technique is most likely derived from a process of preserving meats in brine. 

This embalming process was closely linked to the metaphysical belief in metempsychosis, a doctrine according to which the same soul can successively animate several bodies. The Greek historian Herodotus also specified that the belief in immortality concerned both the soul and the body, as long as the latter does not decompose. Herodotus described three embalming methods practiced by the Egyptian taricheutes, according to the financial means of the families.

According to some sources, modern embalming comes from an arterial injection process invented by a French surgeon in the American army, Jean-Nicolas Gannal, who around 1835 found this technique for preserving corpses, then patented it: he injected an arsenic-based preparation through the arterial route. Other sources indicate that it would be rather embalming doctors not belonging to the army, but paid by the families of the soldiers, who practiced this care of conservation before the repatriation of the “dead in combat” until the funeral. It is in any case certain that this technique gained momentum during the American Civil War. The method spread widely in France from the 1960s.

The goal of embalming, a technique of hygienic care and presentation of the deceased, is to slow down the process of putrefaction of the corpse. It is thus, according to the sociologist Hélène Gérard-Rosay, “To present the deceased in optimal aesthetic and hygienic conditions”. The initial state of the deceased is important for the realization of the care of the embalmer. In addition, the sooner this embalming treatment takes place after death, the more aesthetic the result will be. In fact, embalming includes all the treatments applied with the aim of slowing down the natural process of decomposition, in order to preserve and conserve the body of the deceased.

Currently, thanatopraxy, or all the care provided to the deceased, includes techniques aimed at delaying the inevitable biochemical consequences, and most often traumatic, of putrefaction (also called thanatomorphosis) for the social body. The academic Louis-Vincent Thomas suggests that these physical and physiological, even aesthetic, interventions suspend the cadaverization process for a limited period in order to “To ensure the handling and presentation of the deceased under ideal conditions of physical and mental hygiene.”

The care practiced by the embalmer aims to replace almost all of the deceased’s blood with a formalin solution, aseptic. For this, the embalmer uses a trocar, that is to say a sharp and cutting surgical instrument which is used to make cardiac and abdominal punctures. The external aspect of the body remains safeguarded. The care provided by the embalmer is not compulsory, and must be requested by relatives. These embalming treatments are chargeable. On the other hand, if this practice is indeed not obligatory in France, it is it under certain conditions, in the case of repatriation abroad in certain countries.

Banned in 1846, the arsenic which was then used was then replaced by borated glycine as a penetrating agent to transport the preservative liquid into the tissues of the deceased. It will then be the phenol that will be used, still used today in modern embalming.

In detail, an embalming treatment takes place as follows:

• The body is first cleansed in order to avoid the proliferation of bacteria;
• Then there is extraction by puncture of the gases as well as part of the bodily fluids by means of a trocar;
• An injection is made at the same time by the intra-arterial route of the biocidal solution, formalin;
• The wicking and the ligature are carried out to avoid the flow, the eyes are closed. Embalmingmen place an eye cover there to compensate for the sagging eyes;
• The body, then, is dressed, made up and presented;
• In recent years, the act has ended with the affixing, to the ankle of the deceased, of a sample bottle in which the embalmer puts the product he used for conservation care.

A prior authorization from the mayor of the municipality of the place of death or of the place where the treatment is carried out must be signed, which mentions the place and time of the intervention, the name and address of the embalmer as well as the fluids used.

Two categories of care can be performed, with the result of preserving the body for a certain period of time:

• Presentation care, which consists of a funeral toilet, is so-called classic care for hygienic purposes. The embalmer washes, makes up and dresses the body and obstructs the airways. The conservation, which is done by cold, is called mechanical conservation. It is limited to 48 hours;
• Conservation care has both a hygienic and aesthetic aim. The embalmer also performs the toilet, make-up, dressing, obstruction of the airways, and, in addition, he injects a preservation liquid. The result is a light staining of the fabrics. This liquid is fungicidal and bactericidal. By freezing the tissues, it allows the body of the deceased to be stored at room temperature for up to six days.

The origins of conservation care, which we have mentioned, generally to the Egyptians, did not have the same objectives as those we achieve today. Today, the practice of conservation care in France aims to keep the body of the deceased in good condition. The results of the treatment carried out by the embalmer make it possible to give an air of peace to the deceased, in particular when the act of embalming is carried out after the pangs of a long illness. Thus, this care gives the entourage a better facility to meditate. And the relatives of the deceased begin the mourning process in good conditions.