However, the cloths that you have before been instructed to wet with the Preservative and lay over the face, neck and hands, will effectually remove all discoloration or prevent its appearance.
These cloths should be well pressed down around the eyes, nose, neck and ears, so as to be sure that the cloths touch every spot. The cloths can be kept moist by applying a little of the Preservative from time to time, without removing the cloths to wet them. These cloths should be kept on from ten to twelve hours, after which they can be removed through the day and replaced through the night.
If this process is kept up there will be a natural and life-like appearance preserved, without the least discoloration, and the face will look better at the end of the third or fourth day, or even a week, than it did at death. In the FREE USE of this Preservative, the longer you keep a body the better it will look.
The use of the Preservative in this way will not only preserve the body, but will effectually purify and deodorize the room, driving away all offensive smell, however bad it might have been at first, and perfectly disinfecting the house of all possibility of contagion, thus insuring safety to yourself and preventing further spread of the disease in the family.
This entire process will take less than thirty minutes of your time. The body should be kept in the inclined position from 20 to 30 hours, with the head at least twelve inches higher than the feet, (the easiest way to obtain this position is to drop the foot end of the board on the floor), at the end of which time it can be dressed and placed in the casket, but the dress should be left loose, so that the cloths over the chest and abdomen can be wet from time to time with the Preservative, as before directed, or you can insert the Gas-trocar through the clothing and inject the Preservative in on to the body and thus keep the cloths wet, and if kept in the casket over night, lower the foot end of it, as before directed.
It is also well to leave directions with the friends to bathe the face and neck once in two or three hours with the Preservative, using the brush for that purpose, and the cloths should be replaced on the face and hands during the night, as before stated.
A body treated in the foregoing manner can be kept for a week or ten days in any kind of weather (the very warmest) with perfect safety, and with comparatively little trouble to yourself you will have conferred a very great favor on the friends of the deceased, by thus giving them an opportunity of looking upon the remains from day to day, as often and as long as they wish, and also giving them all the time they may want to arrange and re-arrange the dress, hair and flowers preparatory to the funeral. It will readily be seen that this would be very much more satisfactory to any one, and much more in keeping with the refined taste of the present day, than the practice of hiding the body away to be frozen in the UNSIGHTLY ICE BOX, which is always a HORROR to the friends of the deceased.
CHAPTER IV.
Directions to Observe in a still More Obstinate and Difficult Case.
Where the body is badly bloated, when you are first called, it is best, immediately after attending to the stomach (as before instructed) to let off the gas from the cavities of the body. This is best done with the Gas-trocar, if you have one, as with this instrument, and having a small rubber pipe attached to it, you can puncture the abdomen or cavity of the body with the point of the Gas-trocar, and by extending the rubber pipe out of the window, the gas (which has a very offensive odor), will pass out of the window through the pipe, thus saving any disagreeable smell, for the time being, in the room. Many however, puncture the abdomen in several places and let the gas off in the room, as the Preservative will soon deodorize and purify the room.
It is sometimes necessary to puncture the body in two or three places, in order to get rid of all the gasses, but seldom more than once, as in nine cases out of ten the gas will all escape in less than two minutes from one opening.