The material actually present when the body is actually decomposed has been determined as being water, nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, etc.
Treatment by the Embalmer.—Putrefaction always means that there is present a great amount of putrefactive bacteria and if you are to arrest this condition you must resort to the most thorough embalming. By placing some preservative fluid in the arteries and having a thorough circulation all the tissues of the body can be reached and hence the complete destruction of those bacteria causing the putrefaction.
If all the tissues are properly bathed with embalming fluid there need be no further danger of putrefaction; but what seems sometimes at first a thorough circulation, proves afterward to be only a partial one. If after several days the body still shows signs of decomposition it is best to reinject or if the decomposition only occurs in spots a simple hypodermic injection will prove adequate.
Skin Slip.
—To properly understand the causes of skin slip a thorough knowledge of the structure of the skin is necessary. It would be best then to turn to the chapter on the tissues of the body and study the minute structure of the skin.
Skin slip is caused by a putrefactive softening of the epidermis. There is a watery infiltration from the minute capillaries and the surrounding tissues between the dermis and the epidermis, causing the latter to loosen and if touched to slip and tear away from the dermis or true skin.
Many embalmers have been led to believe that the slipping of the skin is due to the use of certain fluids used in injecting the arterial system. This error should be corrected, as it is most generally the absence of the fluid from the part which results in the slipping of the skin.
Diseases of the heart, liver, kidney and dropsical conditions predispose to the early skin slip. The immense amount of water occurring in the minute capillaries of the skin prohibits the embalming fluid from reaching the tissues.
Skin slip then is due to putrefactive changes occurring in the skin, and if it should occur after embalming, it is positive proof that the part or parts have not received a sufficient quantity of a preservative fluid.
Treatment by the Embalmer.—In the average case you will never see skin slip, because you will be called comparatively soon after death has occurred and the body will be embalmed and buried before this later form of putrefaction will manifest itself. But in some few cases you will have to keep the body for a greater length of time, say to await the arrival of some friend living abroad, or it may be a coroner's case. In cases like this the body being kept for a period of weeks, will if it is not perfectly embalmed show signs of skin slip. As has been stated above, cases that die from diseases causing dropsical infiltration in the subcutaneous tissues should also be handled carefully. If you are aware before hand that you are to keep the body for a great length of time or that you have a dropsical subject, a little formaldehyde should be added to the fluid that is injected, about two or three ounces to each quart of fluid. Zinc compounds might be added, but formaldehyde is better because of its great affinity for water.