Improvements in the Treatment of the Dead for Burial.
Year: 1897

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of the Dead for Burial.
I, EBENEZER DIVER 30 Devonshire Street Portland Place London W. Medical
Practitioner do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
My invention relates to a means for favouring the absorption or for rendering
more or less completely innocuous, the moisture and the gases formed or being
upon, or within the body in the processes occurring previous to or after death,
and consists in applying about the body in its entirety or about some or all of its
several parts, a solid in the form of powder or more coarsely divided-used dry or
having a liquid applied to or mixed therewith, & contained within some suitable
fabric, so that the whole shall have more or less the character of a garment or
garments, and so covering the body either in its entirety, or being put over or
under or about some one or more of the body's several parts.
1524 AD.
I, EBENEZER DIVER of 30 Devonshire Street Portland Place London W. M.D.,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement:—
My invention relates to a means for favouring the absorption or for rendering
more or less completely innocuous the moisture and the gases formed within or
upon the body in the processes occuring after death, and consists in applying about
the body in its entirety or about some or all of its several parts a
material" in
"
the form of powder or more coarsely divided, being of one kind or more than one
kind, used dry or having a liquid applied to or mixed therewith, and contained
within some suitable fabric or substance so that the whole shall have more or less
the character of a covering or garment or garments. The " material I prefer to
use is lime and charcoal in suitable proportions: say 9 of lime and one of charcoal.
The garments or coverings I prefer take the form of a cape and a rug. The
body having been previously dressed or not, the cape is used for the upper part,
and when adjusted is fastened or not in any convenient part by a button or buttons
or hooks and eyes or any other suitable means; the rug is used for the parts below.
The rug as I prefer to use it takes the form of a one-legged trowser open at one
side for convenience of adjustment, and then closed by tapes hooks and eyes, or
077

page_text: laced, as may be chosen. The trowser-like rug is of sufficient capacity to receive
both lower extremities and the lower part of the trunk.
The fabric or substance I prefer to use in the manufacture is light and porous
cotton-ware which by its porosity and its general structure shall favour the
physical and the chemical changes contemplated.
The coverings or garments are so made that they have flutings or cylinders
made of the fabric mentioned and attached to or lying upon a connecting material
necessary to secure the general form of the particular covering or garment con-
templated. The cylinders or flutings in the cape, I prefer shall radiate from the
neck in the direction of the bottom border, becoming larger as they proceed, and
may be in one row or more than one row.
The flutings or cylinders in the rug are of greatest diameter at that part which
goes round the middle or thereabouts of the body, and taper towards the ankle
and may be in one row or more. I prefer the cylinders or flutings closed at one
end for convenience in filling with the "material," and after filling, then the
other end to be closed if necessary to prevent escape of the material," and if
closed the closure to be effected by a hook and eye, or by means of a running cord,
or any other suitable way.
..
I put the rug on first, and then arrange the cape so that its bottom border shall
come against, if it do not overlap, the upper part of the rug.
A slightly different mode of procedure may be adopted. Thus, The body in the
coffin might lie on a mattress or its substitute, containing or holding the
"material, then a covering or garment quilted and containing the material" in
its quilts or meshes might be placed over the trunk and another over the lower
extremities; or one larger covering might be used to serve the purpose of two with
or without a similarly made cap for covering the head and face, and a slipper or
slippers for the feet. The covering would naturally not need the
66 material"
where in juxtaposition with the mattrass; in other respects the coverings would be
as formerly described. This general mode of procedure might in one or more
other particulars be combined with the mode of procedure first narrated where
such combination might appear desirable.
As regards the "material" for filling the flutings or cylinders it is to be dis-
tinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the use of lime and charcoal, or
any particular form of matter; but I use any form of matter which will favour
the absorption or render more or less completely innocuous the moisture and the
gases resulting from after-death changes in the body. In like manner I do not
confine myself to the use of a cape and a rug with or without caps or slippers as
described; nor to the particular fabric mentioned herein, nor to the use of flutings
or cylinders, nor to any particular form of fluting or cylinder, nor to any par-
ticular mode or kind of fastening in any of the coverings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
A covering or coverings of any shape form or make or material whatsoever for
adjusting upon or placing about the dead body, and containing within the fabric
or substance used in the making, some suitable "material" capable of acting as
an absorbent or corrector in part or altogether of the gases and the moisture or
either formed upon or within the body to be buried, substantially as described.
Dahl th
of Navamha 1907