No Embalming in Collinsport?

[Taeylor Collins]

I know an undertaker very well and he says that embalming isn't "necessary" unless someone is gonna be up for several days.  My mother is friends with a woman who doesn't want to be enbalmed because she thinks it's nothing but a money making scheme.  The subect doesn't really creep me out...

[Pansity]

Okay, this morbid topic got me wondering...other than to preserve the body for a Wake, just why is this done in the first place? Creepy as it sounds, it isn't like anyone (outside of Collinsport that is) is going to ever dig someone up to see how well the procedure worked.  It kind of seems like a waste of effort in a way. 

Well, it was useful when people died far away, and their relatives wanted them brought back home, such as during the Civil War, when it was first widely used.  Not to mention the delayed funerals that happened when people had to come in from far away. I'm also inclined to say that with the complete cult that Victorians made of mourning, embalming let them keep the bodies around a lot longer for lengthy rituals.

As to seeing how well the procedure worked, I know of one inadvertent test of that.  Anyone else see History Channel's show on the plot to steal Lincoln's body?  Here's a link on the story that also gives some background on embalming's history: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/29.1/turner.html

For those not interested in plowing through the article, the postscript re: Lincoln  was  that due to the bodysnatching attempt, his body wasn't permanently reburied till 1901.  Due to worries about his body lasting for the intial train tour and multiple viewings of the body in 1865, it had been embalmed , then "touched up" multiple times.  When they opened the coffin to check in 1901 (feel free to do the math), he was still recognizable.

Jeannie

[Gerard]

The way everyone drank in Collinsport there was no need for embalming.  They were already pickled.

Gerard

[Taeylor Collins]

I watched that on the history channel about two months ago.....It was very interesting.  This undertaker I  know actually let me see pics of a man who had been exhumed  25 years after death.  This is veering a bit off topic however, I think it's interesting to know.   The man looked perfect, they just touched up his make up a bit.  The reason for his being exhumed was he moved to the states to make money to bring his family to the USA.  This was when I was fourteen so my remembering is a bit sketchy, however his family didn't make it to the states till 25 years after he died.  They never got to see him after he left Spain, so they ask if it was possible to exhume the body and they did it!  I know y'all are thinking, wow, what a weird child TAEYLOR must have been.  However, truth be told death hasn't ever bothered me.  I made my parents pull over (in the rain) when I was 9 to go explore a Mausoleum in Virginia.  It dated back to the 17Th century and fascinated me.  I was destined to like Dark Shadows!!  I hope y'all don't think I am a freak! LOL  My philosphy on death is everyone has to do it sometime~~It can't be that bad!