AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND MEANS FOR PRESERVING DEAD HUMAN BODIES AND ANIMAL CARCASSES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "International
Patent Office," Southampton Buildings, London, Consulting En-
gineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND MEANS FOR
PRESERVING DEAD HUMAN BODIES AND ANIMAL CARCASSES."-A communi-
cation from abroad by George Washington Scollay, of St. Louis,
Missouri. United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 13th December 1869, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," Southampton
Buildings, London, Consulting Engineer, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF AND MEANS FOR PRESERVING DEAD HUMAN BODIES AND ANIMAL
CARCASSES," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for

page_text: the same, and have made solemn Declaration that it has been com-
municated to me from abroad by George Washington Scollay, of
St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement:-
The object of this Invention is not merely to preserve the body or
carcass from putrefaction, as that has already been most thoroughly
accomplished by the introduction of antiseptic gas or gases into the
venous or arterial system, substantially in the manner described in the
Specification of an Invention for which Letters Patent have been granted
to me, bearing date the Sixth of April, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, No. 1044.
But the object of this Invention is to preserve the life-like appearance
of the human body, and the fresh juicy appearance of the flesh of the
animal body or carcase without making the latter deleterious as food.
In the Specification above referred to I have described how to preserve
the body with antiseptic gas or gases thrown into the arterial or vascular
system.
Since the said former Patent was applied for experience has fully
demonstrated the success of that Invention or discovery so far as the
preservation of the body from putrefaction is concerned, as the intro-
duction of some of the antiseptic gases (sulphurous acid gas for example)
into the arterial and nervous system thoroughly annihilates the tendency
to putrefy, bodies embalmed in this way will keep until the tissues dry up
or mummify. The use of these antiseptic gases, however, although they
thoroughly preserve the body against putresence, are nevertheless im-
perfect in their effect upon the body when used alone or in combination
with each other, for although they render the muscles and tissues of the
body flexible as in life and to a certain extent restore the life-like colour,
they do not make and maintain the colour of the human body uniform,
nor do they maintain the fresh juicy appearance of the flesh of the
animal carcass.
Now my experience has shewn that there are a variety of gases and
vanors which when thrown into the arterial and vascular system of the

page_text: 0
body or carcass after death will restore the life-like color of the venous
blood and consequently the tissues and substance of the body or carcass,
and that this is especially true of that class of gases which are com-
bustible or will support combustion. By uniting these gases or vapors,
which may or may not be antiseptic, with gases that are highly anti-
septic, in or on the body in combination with a neutral salt or saline or
alkaline influence applied to the body or carcass, I can not only preserve
the body, but I can also restore and preserve uniformly the life-like
color of the entire human body and the fresh juicy appearance of the
flesh of the animal carcass..
In practising this Invention to accomplish the objects aforesaid I
proceed as follows, that is to say:-I make first either an alakine,
saline, or neutral solution, consisting of water and sulphite of soda or
potash in the proportion of about ten ounces of water to from five to
eight of sulphite of soda or potash, adding enough soda to give the.
solution an alkaline preponderance; I then make a combination in a.
suitable retort of sugar and sulphuric acid in the proportion of about
three fluid ounces of the acid to one half ounce of sugar; I then take
about twenty ounces of the alkaline or neutral solution, and put it into a
suitable vessel or retort supplied with a small flexible tube fitted with a
beak of hard rubber, non-corrosive metal or ivory, this retort containing
the alkaline or neutral solution; I then connect to. the retort containing
the mixture of sulphuric acid and sugar; I then make a small incision
in the tibial, radial, or any convenient artery of the body or carcass, and
insert the beak of the tube; I then put a lamp under the retort con-
taining the sugar and acid, and generate the gases in combination in
sufficient quantities to drive the solution through the tube (the end of
which must be immersed to the bottom of the solution) into the arterial
and venous system, and afterwards allow the gas or gases to follow the
fluid into the body until the sugar and acid have been depleted of their
gases or until enough of the gases have entered the vascular and
nervous system to neutralize the alkaline excess of the solution and to.
insure the preservation of the body..
The result of this process will be, first, a complete preservation of the
body against putrefaction; and second, the obtaining or restoring and
maintaining the uniform life-like colour and juicy appearance of the
body and flesh and its soft flexible consistency for comparatively a long
period of time or until the fluids of the body have evaporated and the

page_text: tissues become hard and mummified. The neutral or alkaline solution
may of course be thrown into the body with a syringe, and the gas or
gases introduced afterwards, either directly from the retort as fast as
generated, or in any other convenient way which may best answer the
convenience of the practitioner.
There are various other substances which may be used as substitutes for
those above described; thus, for example, the gases may be made of yellow
prussate of potash, sulphuric, phenic, or carbolic acid and sugar, in the
proportion of about one part of prussiate of potash to eight or ten of the
sulphuric acid, and from one to two drams of phenic or carbolic acid by
weight, adding two or three drams of sugar, the mixtures being put into a
retort and heat applied the same as before to gencrate the gas or gases,
which are then used in combination with the same neutral, salinc, or
alkaline solution introduced in the same way as above described, or with
any solution made of any of the neutral salts, or a solution may be made
of sugar water.
Thenic acid, and soda or potash in the proportion of
sugar one ounce, soda or potash one ounce, phenic acid one to two
drams in about ten ounces of water. This solution may be used in the
place of the above described alkaline or neutral solution in combination
with the gas or gases made after either of the afore mentioned formulas
and introduced as before. The proportion of the formulas, however,
should be increased for large bodies, those being for children or small
carcases. Now it will be seen that the gases generated and thrown into
the veiws and arteries as above described are acidulous, and that the
fluids or solutions with which the arterial and vascular systems are
injected are neutral with a slight alkaline excess, so that when the two
are united in the body the ono neutralizes the other and forms a neutral
salt, that is to say, the excess of the acids is neutralized by the solutions
without destroying their antiseptic influence upon the tissues of the body
or carcass. Here the different gases are generated together and pass into
the body together, but they may be generated separately and separately
introduced into the body, and they may be made of an almost infinite
variety of substances, and so too with the solution it may be made of
many different substances which may be antiseptic in themselves, or
they may or may not be antiseptic in their influence upon the tissues of
the body when used alone, or the solution may be made in parts and in
parts introduced and united in the body with themselves and with the
gases. It is difficult to explain the chemical actions and reactions which

page_text: take place in these combinations. The chemistry of the body is very
delicate and obscure; the effect, however, is certain the body or carcass is
preserved in its life-like and juicy appearance when treated as above
described, and its preservation is due to the introduction of an antiseptic
gas with another gas which restores the life-like color of the venous
blood, whether the latter gas be antiseptic or not, the two gases being
applied to or introduced in the body or carcass when under the influence
of a neutral solution slightly alkaline, whether that influence is the
result of a solution thrown into the arterial and vascular system, or
whether it be otherwise incorporated with the tissues of the body or
carcass, or whether it is antiseptic or not, provided the solution has the
influence above described and is so applied as to bring it within reach of
the gas or gases. The body may be subjected to the influence of the
solution after the gases have been introduced with the same effect so far
as the preservation of the body is concerned as though the solution was
applied first. The point is to bring the two influences together in the
body as completely as possible in whichever way. they may be applied,
but the uniformity of color in the corpse is best preserved by applying
the solution first.
Having thus fully described the said Invention in the art of preserving
dead bodies or carcasses, as' communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, and shewn how the same may be conveniently and advan-
tageously carried into practice, I claim,-
First. Preserving the body or carcass by combining in the arterial
and vascular system thereof the antiseptic or preserving qualities or
influences of a fluid or fluids with a vapor, gas, or gases so made, mixed,
or compounded as to exert an antiseptic influence upon the body when
united therein, whether the gas or vapour and fluid or fluids are
antiseptic in themselves or not, or whether they would exert an antiseptic
influence or not upon the body when separately applied thereto.
Second. Restoring and preserving the life-like color of the venous
blood, and the consequent life-like appearance of the corpse or flesh of
the carcass by means of a combination of gases which are antiseptic and
colour restoring in their influence when united in the vascular and
arterial system of the body, substantially as described.
Third. Subjecting the body or carcass to an antiseptic influence in the
form of a fluid introduced into the arterial and vascular systems and
to an antiseptic influence in the form of a gas introduced into the blood

page_text: or tissue either through the lungs, the pores of the skin, or through the
arterial and venous systems, so as to cause the said influences to combine
in the body for the purpose of preserving the same, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.)
Witness,
H. J. GEDGE,
Clerk to Messrs. Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.