The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-02-28
A Physicians Condemnation Of the
Custom Of Prematurely Plac-
Ing COrpses on Ice.

Custom Of Prematurely Plac-
Ing COrpses ON Ice.
THE telegram in the Herald on Fri
day from Ottawa, Ont, saying that
smallpox patient in one of the hospi-
tails of that city had to all appearances
died and was about being buried at the
cemetery when he groaned and came
to life again, created much comment
among the physicians of this city. DIR.
E. Vanderpoel, who lives at No. 43
West Twenty sixth street, said he was
particularly struck with the case be-
cause it reminded him of experiences
in his own professional life which had
made so deep an impression on him
that he had publicly and privately pro-
tested against the modern custom in
troduced by the undertakers of putting
bodies on ice before there was official
proof of death. He considered it
scandal to the undertaking profession,
an outrage to society and an insult to
the patients family that for the sake
of collecting an exhorbitant fee of $40,
the undertaken did not await the arri-
val of DOCTORS certificate of death be-
fore he froze the remains. " Suppose"
said Mr.. Vanderpoel, " that the Canada
man who was supposed to have died of
smallpox had lived and been taken i'll
in this city, his life would never have
returned at the cemetery, for it
would have been frozen out of
him long before he reached the
grave. In reading about this case
| thought of a certain Brooklyn
patient of mine who died in 1872. She
was forty-five years old and the widow
of a well-known reverend Doctor of
Divinity. She had an attack of dysen-
tary and had been lying i'll for four or
five days with low fever, but her con-
dition was not dangerous, although
it was assuming a typhoid form.
] called in to see her one day at one
o'clock and returned again at five
O'Clock on the same day, when to my
profound surprise and indignation, she
was lying in an ice-box downstairs par
TALLY frozen. The undertaken had COM
miUted this atrocity without any med
ical certificate of her death, and he had
no official knowledge that she had died
at all. found that after l had left she
arose from her bed and tainted while
walking across the floor from sheer
weakness, and because she lay there
motionless the children thought she
was dead; so, instead of sending for me
to come and make an examination,
they ran for the undertaken. He re-
sponded with like promptitude, bring
ing in his mortuary box full of pounded
ice, and in short time she was frozen
stiff. Every part of her body, except
her face, was covered with the ice. l
believed then, and always shall believe,
that she might have revived had proper
means been employed for her. resusci-
tation.
81 attended," said the same gentle
man, another patient in Thirty-fourth
street in 1874. She was wealthy lady,
about fifty years old, and her house was
but five doors from my own. She was
perfectly well at six o'clock in the
evening. She went to bed as usual.
In the night she was taken ill and was
called over to the house by another
doctor, for consultation, at six O. clock
in the morning. After doing what we
could left at seven to finish my toilet
and to get some breakfast. The other
doctor also retired soon afterward, as
he found he could not be of any imme-
date service. returned at half-past
nine O'Clock and found her, not in bed,
but in the back parlor, enclosed in an I'M
dertaker's ice chest. From what knew
OF the character of her case it was one in
which returning consciousness would
be almost certain to follow a period of
apparent sinking away of life. If there
ever was a case of restoration after
suspended animation that should have
been one. The undertaker's excuse
was that modification might set in.
when he ought to have known that it
takes twelve hours for animal life to
leave the body after death and before
decomposition can set in. On Novem-
Der 10 of this year was called to at
tend Mrs. DeForest, who lived in
Twenty fourth street, near Seventh
avenue. She was forty-fve years old
and had been sinking for two DAYS from
cancerous affection which had
troubled her for a long time. left her
at half-past one o'clock in the after
noon to go home for lunch. When I |
returned at half-past four o'clock she
was down stairs in an ice-box, and as
usual the undertaken had put his VIC
tim away to freeze before there was
any proof that she was dead. I told
him that he ought to be sent to State
prison. These cases were of so grave |
an aspect that L wrote the Board of
Health on the subject and sent them a
detailed statement of the cases. Thew |
called Especial meeting, and DR.. Smith,
OF Forty-second street, said that some-
thing ought to be done. But that was
the last ever heard Of it, and to this
day these ontrages are permitted to
continue. The undertaker's plea that
bodies cannot be preserved unless thew
are Immediately put away in ice is a
nniafnkn IL Ia Io.-..z - - ~ -