(6) In fever. Whenever a body dies in a high state of fever, it indicates a hasty coagulation of the blood, and a tendency to a discoloration of the face. Whenever the operator knows that the subject has died of a fever, or when there has been considerable fever on the body before death, then blood should be removed.
(7) To make room for fluid. The average embalmer only injects a gallon to a gallon and a half of fluid into a body. There are times when the operator desires to use more fluid. It may be that the body will have to be shipped a long distance, perhaps to another country or a distant state. After a certain amount of fluid has been injected the vessels become filled up and there is a great resistance established. If the operator disregards this pressure, and forces still more fluid into the arterial system, the fine capillary network will be broken, especially in the lung where the result will be a leakage of fluid through the mouth and nose from the ruptured air cells in the lung, or in the tissues of the skin, where the result will be a leakage into a certain area of tissue later causing a condition known as leathery skin. To have prevented this the operator should not have forced the fluid beyond a certain maximum resistance. He could, though, have reduced this resistance by removing the blood from the venous system, and then succeeded in the further injection of fluid.
There are times when blood ought to be removed from a subject after death, but for some reason it seems impossible to remove any. The reasons may be stated briefly as follows:
(1) The blood may already be in a coagulated condition, owing to the fact that the body has died in a state of high fever.
(2) The blood may be in a coagulated condition owing to the fact, that the bacteria of decomposition and putrefaction, have so altered the blood as to make its removal impossible.
(3) Certain drugs may have been previously given, or taken during life which would cause a hasty coagulation of the blood.
(4) The body may still be in a condition of rigor, and although the operator may have released the rigor in the joints, still all the tissues are in that condition, a condition which might prevent the blood from draining from the veins no matter what method was used.
Arterial blood is removed from the aorta indirectly, and from the arteries, only when the arterial system contains blood after death.
Venous blood is removed from the right side of the heart directly or indirectly, and the veins, only when it is deemed necessary by the operator.
There are two methods of removing this arterial or venous blood from the body. These two methods are aspiration and drainage. Besides these two methods some modified methods or combinations of the two, are given.