"A CERTAIN COMPOSITION FOR THE PRESERVATION
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marino Louis Joseph Christophe Vincent
Falconi, of Paris, France, and.of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "A CERTAIN COMPOSITION FOR THE
Sealed the 28th April-1854, and dated the 7th November 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marino. Louis
Joseph Christophe Vincent Falconi at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th November
1853.
.
I, MARINO LOUIS JOSEPH CHRISTOPHE VINCENT FALCONI, of Paris,
France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "A CERTAIN COMPOSITION
FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in preparing a vegeto-mineral mixture
having an anti-putrid and absorbing property, with which I fill up
coffins containing corpses to prevent their early decomposition, and
also to prevent any oozing of liquid and feeted emanations or gases
therefrom: "
I compose the mixture with white wood sawdust; previously. sifted

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Marino Louis Joseph Christophe Vincent Falconi
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
MARINO LOUIS JOSEPH CHRISTOPHE VINCENT FALCONI, of Paris, France,
and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Marino Louis Joseph
Christophe Vincent Falconi, Her special license that I, the said
Marino Louis Joseph Christophe Vincent Falconi, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Marino
Louis Joseph Christophe Vincent Falconi, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of "A CERTAIN COMPOSITION
FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Marino. Louis Joseph Christophe Vincent
Falconi, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months-next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Marino Louis Joseph Christophe
Vincent Falconi, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:
My Invention consists in combining certain vegetable and mineral
substances for the production of a powder to be employed in coffins
containing the dead for arresting decomposition and preventing the
emanation of noxions liquids and gases.
I compose the powder, firstly, of sawdust, by preference of common
deal, previously well dried and sifted fine, or of other pulverizable
vegetable matters the least susceptible to decomposition; secondly, of a
metallic salt, such as sulphate of zinc or iron; and, thirdly, of pulverized
camphor mixed with another perfume, at option.
The quantity of sawdust is determined according to the size of the
corpse to be covered. The proportion of sawdust should be in general
about twenty to thirty pounds to about eight or ten pounds of pulve-
rized metallic salt, and one ounce to one ounce and a half of pulverized
camphor. Extract of benzoin, of lavender, balsum of tolu, or other
perfume, may be added to the above ingredients, and after being well
combined the whole forms a composition having absorbant and anti-
putrid properties.
For bodies dead from epidemic or contagious diseases it is optional
to add pulverized quick lime to the above ingredients to accelerate
their destruction.
This powder should be applied over all parts of the corpse, except
the face and hands, when laid in the coffin, and permits of its being
kept before inhumation without inconvenience a longer period than
hitherto.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise ingredients or proportionals thereof
herein laid down, provided the principle be retained. But what I claim
as my Invention is,-

page_text: j
The combination of vegetable and mineral substances, as herein-
before described, for the production of an absorbant and anti-putrid
composition for the preservation of the dead.
. In witness whereof, I, the said Marino Louis Joseph Christophe
Vincent Falconi, have hereto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
M. L. J. C. V. FALCONÍ. (L.S.)