To preserve bodies during the summer season for a few days and without ice; also to prevent the swelling up of the abdomen and the purging at the mouth and nostrils, open the stomach, as explained in a previous chapter, empty out the contents, and inject into it some of the above solution; the bowels must be treated in the same manner, and also inject the lungs through the nostrils, by producing artificial respiration. If the liquid cannot be injected in this manner, cut into the trachea an incision large enough to admit of the nozzle of the injector being inserted, and pour in the necessary quantity.
If any fetor is exhaled from the corpse after being placed in the coffin, a sponge well saturated with the solution and being placed at the feet of the corpse will remove all foul effluvia; or better still, a china or porcelain bowl filled with the solution may be placed inside the case until a few minutes before the funeral and the screwing down of the lid.
The air of the room may also be purified by saturating some cloths with the solution and hanging them in different parts of the apartment. The vessels containing excretions should not be neglected, and some of the solution poured into them.
In fact, undertakers will find the above solution to be adapted to all purposes of disinfecting, deodorizing and preserving corpses.
INSTRUMENTS.
Undertakers will find it to their advantage to possess instruments of the best materials and make; they are always cheaper in the end, as they will resist the wear and tear to a greater extent, and will not be liable to get out of order when most needed.
Especially in injecting apparatus should a great amount of care be exercised about the selection. The greatest danger to be guarded against is corrosion, as all injecting fluids which are now in use contain more or less of either acids or metallic salts, all of which will attack and corrode, to a lesser or greater extent, the metals and other substances with which they come in direct contact.
Any injector, therefore, so constructed as to be free from danger to its mechanism from the corroding effects of the liquids above mentioned, will be the one to be chosen. According to the statements above given, any part of an apparatus which is required to operate with a certain degree of nicety must be kept from the corrosive effects of the fluids, and this result is to be gained only by the peculiar construction of the apparatus.
In the greater part of the injecting pumps now manufactured and in use in this country, the body of the pump, which contains the working part of the apparatus, is also filled with the liquid while in use; and, therefore, this part, which ought to be protected from injury, is constantly immersed in the strong corrosive solution during all the time that the injector is being worked.