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medical world, i.e. that of embalmers?How did this relatively marginal practicespread and manage to become a practiceusing a unified and standardized modelfor treating the deceased in manywestern societies (North America, UK andFrance)? This article proposes to tracethe uncommon path followed by thisinnovation born of ancient medicinethemodern embalming process. It exploreshow the technical process of embalminggradually adopted a new set of practicesgoverned by an established professional

group and the influence this has had onadjacent professional groups. It examineshow this innovation has contributed torevolutionizing the organizational chainaround death, hence reconnecting twophysically adjacent but socially andorganizationally divided worlds (themedical world and the funeral world).

A number of pragmatic approaches,and mainly symbolic interactionism andthe actor-network theory, will help usto explore the various settings behind

modern embalming innovation: how theprofessional boundary between expertgroups was defined (Abbott, 1988; Bucherand Strauss, 1961), how trading networksand socio-technical arrangementsformed to support the emerging market(Callon, 1998; MacKenzie and Hardie,2006), and how structuring work andinter-professional coordination wasredesigned in the funeral activity(Strauss, 1985; 1988). The focus onmaterial elements and socio-technicalarrangements in the chains of interactioninside and between the different socialworlds explored acts as a theoretical pointof convergence. Thus, we shall investigatethe historical trajectory of embalmingtechniques through professional andmarket competition, including strategiesto reveal or conceal expert processes,instruments and fluids. We shall describe

how professional embalming figures(physicians, surgeons, chemists andundertakers) competed before joiningforces to introduce new processes forhandling corpses. We shall also see hownew configurations have emerged handin hand with the essential requalificationof the social model of the way to die (theaesthetics of death, display of the corpse,etc.). In particular, we shall look at theboundary markers and the process ofalignments at the interfaces between thesocial worlds that are brought together

around embalming innovation.

History of modern embalming

Medical embalmers and technicalinnovation in Europe from the MiddleAges to modern timesHistorical literature (Aries, 1985 [1977];Habenstein and Lamers, 2001 [1955];Mayer, 2000 [1996]) attests to theinterest in body preservation and thedevelopment of embalming techniques

in various settings in Europe as earlyas the late Middle Ages. In France asin England, funeral embalming was apractice that was developed for royalty,nobles and Catholic dignitaries (Erlande-Brandenburg, 1975; Giesey, 1987).Embalming techniques were first devisedto transport mortal remains across longdistances. Crude methods of embalmingbased on evisceration before stuffing thecorpse with herbsor dismemberingitsought to reduce the impact of

putrefaction and preserve the mortalremains of corpses as they were carriedfrom the place of death to the sacredland for burial. In the 14th century, a newritual scenario appeared (Thomas, 1985).This consisted in exhibiting the corpseand hence called for more complexembalming techniques. Embalmingbecame essential for exhibiting the


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bodies of royalty to their subjects. Withfunerals taking place at longer intervalsfrom the time of death, embalmers beganto use evisceration and stuffed the royalremains with precious aromatic herbsoffering antiseptic and highly symbolicvirtues. Thus, the ancient techniques ofembalming were based on an empiricalprocess that resembled a form of culinaryart using balms, ointments, herbs orpowders, to cover or stuff the corpseafter evisceration. Through the centuries,the practice of embalming for kings,

nobles and higher clergy was exclusivelyperformed by doctors or surgeons. InFrance and England, it was also practisedby barber-surgeons. These formed acorporation of professionals linked tothe development of monastic medicineand claiming to have the monopoly ofembalming over their lay protagonists(butchers, tailors, wax-chandlers)(Habenstein and Lamers, 2001 [1955]).

From the sixteenth century onwards,embalming techniques underwent

significant improvements across Europe,alongside progress in medical science.Aiming to transform this empirical andfanciful art into know-how of a morerational and positive kind1, surgeonsintroduced balms, ointments and powdersable to dehydrate and dry out the corpse,thus changing the traditional operatingmethods. Based on evisceration,laceration and balsamic applications, themethod proposed very quickly becamethe embalming protocol reserved for thecorpses of important individuals, rightthrough to the French Revolution. The16th to 18th century period was also, andabove all, marked by an increasinglysubstantial embalming application field,i.e. anatomical embalming. This wasperformed in order to preserve bodyparts for anatomists and naturalists for

the purposes of research, education andacademic science2. The effervescenceof technical innovations in the field ofanatomical embalming was palpable andcontrasted sharply with the opposition tochange in funeral embalming methods.Anatomists and naturalists exploitedthe major medical breakthroughs of theperiod and emulated scientific researchto develop new preservation techniques,especially based on arterial and cavityembalming. The principle of anatomicinjection, first explored in the 15th century

(Vinci (1452-1519)3, Harvey (1578-1657)),was gradually improved and masteredby anatomists over the course of thefollowing centuries (Ruysch (1638-1731),Hunter (1718-1783)). It was thus in thefields of anatomy and natural sciencesthat embalming underwent a genuinerevolution: the empirical craft of funeralembalming gave way to a more rationaland positive process. It is this processthat forms the basis of todays modernembalming practices.

Whether we are talking aboutthe traditional funeral embalmingtechniques or the first innovations ofanatomical embalming, embalmingwas nevertheless the prerogative ofa dominant professional group, i.e.physicians. Physicians, surgeons andbarber-surgeons mainly carried outembalming as a medical specialty. Legalcontrol or institutional authority over theembalming process was rare, with theexception of the corporation of barber-surgeons in England in the 17th century. Infact, knowledge in embalming techniquesseemed to be reserved for and confinedwithin this sphere of medical expertise.Moreover, the physicians practising thisscience tended to keep their precisemethods secret, hence limiting the spreadof knowledge in the embalming field.

Pascale Trompette and Mlanie Lemonnier


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Professional conflict and scientificaccreditationThe beginning of the 19th century wasmarked by the development of chemicalembalming, backed up by progress in thefields of chemistry and pharmacy. Rightfrom the start, embalming techniques didnot just involve processes but substancesand fluids too. With the progressmade in arterial injection embalming,research into preserving fluids openedup another possible way to extend thisscientific field of expertise through

chemistry. In different places acrossEurope4, physicians experimented withnew processes and chemical solutionsdesigned to preserve mortal remains forscientific research. In France, the chemistJ. N. Gannal (1791-1852) earned his placeamong the famous figures connected withembalming innovation in the 19th century,alongside two of his contemporariesItalian physician G. Tranchina and Frenchphysician J. P. Sucquet. Considered as thefathers of modern embalming methods,

their processes exploited the potentialalliance between the chemist and thephysician, combining chemical solutionsand arterial injection. Their research wasnot restricted to scientific and medicalactivities but also covered funeralembalming, using simplified methodsthat did not involve lacerating the corpse.

However, this potential alliancewas quickly upset by the competitionbetween the protagonists in terms of theirrespective methods (Lemonnier, 2006).Putting the technical debates aside, ourhypothesis is that the conflict arose froman indissociable mixture of the stakesrelating to professional territory, expertiseand commercial monopoly. Let us devotea few moments to exploring this struggleto take the prerogative.

From the middle of the 19th century,when corpses began to be exhibited in

the home in the context of the romanticdeath (Aries, 1985 [1977]), embalming,which had been reserved for royalty upuntil then, was extended to nobles andthe bourgeoisie5. It was practiced byseveral prosperous and highly respectedphysicians, who applied their processesthemselves or passed them on to otherphysicians or pharmacists. The spread ofprocesses gave way to both professionaland commercial agreements. These weregranted to assignees by the inventor andensured that the invention would carry

his name (e.g. the Sucquet process).This partnership might also involvecommercial agreements for the purchaseof instruments and, above all, fluids. Thisis reflected in the work of the pharmacistF. Roques (1857):

Supplier of Dr Sucquets preservationliquids for the School of Medicineand hospitals. Embalming using theDr Sucquet method, acknowledged asbeing superior to other processes in

the Report of the Imperial Academy ofMedicine.Dear Doctor Sucquet, please findenclosed a new List of Embalmingoperations practiced by myPharmacy. This is followed by sevenpages of necrology tables pertainingto the ROQUES pharmacy (generals,duchesses, marquises, marquis,counts, countesses, nobles, politicians,doctors, abbeys, architects, hardwareshopkeepers, bankers and unknownindividuals).

The arrival of J. N. Gannal, with hispatented process (1837), represented aconsiderable threat to this protected fieldof activity. The principle of ownershipassociated with an industrial patentwas relatively foreign to the physiciansreserved and secret knowledge model.


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It nevertheless acted as a powerfulappropriation device with respect to thearterial injection embalming method.Gannals clientele was composed mainlyof dignitaries, ecclesiastics, aristocrats,politicians and bourgeois while thepeople who worked for him held amonopoly over injection embalming.The success of Gannals patentedmethod overshadowed other physicians,notably those who continued toembalm using the mutilating lacerationmethod. The threat posed by Gannal

reflected the ambitions he displayed:his aim was to spread the practice ofembalming to corpses destined to beburied. He even wanted to democratizeit by training and professionalizingembalming practitioners. His ideawas to offer three price categories(five hundred, one thousand and twothousand francs) corresponding to threetypes of embalming so that ordinarypeople could afford it. He introducedaesthetically minded procedures such as

cosmetization. He also wanted to createa new occupation (embalmers), distinctfrom the health profession:

The faithful and complete descriptionof the many tests I have attemptedwill provide me with the opportunityin this chapter to review the mostefficient means of preserving parts forthe purposes of pathological anatomyand natural history (.) As for myembalming process, I believed it

should remain my property, and that

a man who is exclusively devoted

to chemical studies is in a better

position than a doctor to introduce

any changes required for specific

cases. (Gannal, 1841: 365 [1838, 366].

(emphasis added)

A conflict very quickly broke out betweenthis inventor and the physicians.

The physicians discussed his patent,questioned the primacy of the method,and his right to practice embalming.Gannal was reproached for practisingwithout the slightest medical diploma.This was considered as an insult to themedical corps, which was traditionallyentrusted with this task:

In their (the physicians) eyes, it is acrime to practice embalming with-out knowing anything about the artof healing, in other words, to have no

physicians diploma: a professor hasreproached me for this. But, knowl-edgeable professor, please tell me whatis the subtle link between the art ofhealing a person who is ill and that ofembalming a dead man. As far as Imconcerned, I cant see any worth men-tioning. You ask me what right I haveto embalm corpses. What right? Cantyou guess? Why, I have the right of anembalmer; the answer is simple. Youare not pleased, you are becoming in-

sistent and want to know where I ob-tained my diploma? I obtained it in aplace where you would have been re-fused it, for the sake of preservation(Gannal 1845, 5).

This conflict gradually turned into acompetition about the performance ofpreservation processes and fluids. After adecade of rivalry, the physicians and thechemist brought the controversy beforea scholarly body, the French Academyof Medicine, to be examined. Followingtwo years of work by a commission setup by the French Academy of Science(1845-1847), the Gannal process, whichhad suffered from the ban on arsenic(used in the formula), was stripped ofits success before the Sucquet process,deemed to be technically superior. Thisepisode in the history of embalminggranted funeral embalming processes



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with a genuine scientific qualification.However, with Gannals decline, theposterity of professional embalmerswas placed on hold. This authoritativeact prevented modern embalming fromspreading across France for the whole ofthe following century.

From Gannal to HolmesAlthough history has elected Gannalas one of the fathers of modernembalming, this is probably due less tothe precedence6 or the superiority of his

process (which, as we have seen, was notas good as that of Sucquet), than to hiswork as an institutional innovator whodefended funeral embalming so thatcorpses could be viewed by family andfriends. In our opinion, this is the line weneed to follow in order to interpret thehistorical reach of the Gannal methodlegend in the history of embalming.

However, before turning to theAmerican fate of Gannal, we first need tobriefly describe the genesis of embalming

techniques in the New World. Accordingto Habenstein, as of the 18th century,colonization was accompanied by thescattering of families, meaning thatcorpses had to be transported back fromthe colonies to the family tomb. Thiscontext created growth in the demandfor embalming, which the emergingprofessional body of undertakersstrove to satisfy. While in Europe,the history of embalming developedwell before and independently of theundertaking profession, in the UnitedStates, undertakers were among thefirst to be involved in the developmentof techniques to preserve corpses sothat they could be transported. In the19th century, the technical innovationsdeveloped by undertakers focused onrefrigeration processes and resulted in aseries of patents for cold storage lockersor other instruments or containers to

help preserve corpses (preservationcompounds, air-tight receptacles, etc.).At the same time, and closely in line withthe European model, the medical fieldopened up to a wealth of experimentingon embalming processes and fluids byphysicians, anatomists and chemists.Research and innovation in embalmingwas linked to health-related concerns andthe need for anatomical preservation.

Let us now return to J. N. Gannal.Showing genuine institutionalentrepreneurship, Gannal had already

marketed his process in many countries(London, the Russian Empire, Mauritius,New Orleans, Cuba, Constantinople andNice) (Gannal, 1841 [1838]). In 1840, hisbook, A History of Embalming, wastranslated by American anatomist DrHarlan for the purpose of sanitary sciencein the context of epidemic control. For aconsiderable period thereafter this bookwas the standard reference on matterspertaining to the preservation of thehuman body (Habenstein and Lamers,

2001: 205 [1955]). The principle ofarterial injection for funeral embalmingprogressively made its way in bothmedical and undertakers circles.

In the context of the Civil War (1861-1865), the American doctor Holmes tookover Gannals institutional work to developmodern embalming for funerals. Beforethe war, Holmes had been a coronersphysician and had long been interestedin experimenting with embalmingtechniques and new fluids. He earned alegitimate place for himself in the army,initially working with officials and officers(he embalmed Colonel Ellsworth) andthen gaining broader popularity for hisarterial injection embalming processused for the repatriation of deceasedofficers and soldiers7. For the deadsoldier, embalming and restorative artpreserved the bodies for the long journeyhome and enabled the family to take a last


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look at their lost loved ones. Historiansagree that the American civil war (1861-1865) quickly gave way to the inventionof a new funeral model, which includedthe transportation and exhibition of theembalmed corpse. This model was tobecome widespread in the next century.

As well as making embalming popularwith families in mourning, Holmes actedas a genuine entrepreneur in the spreadof modern embalming. He trained thefirst generation of embalming surgeonsto use his process as they accompanied

American troops onto the battle field.He also played a determining role inthe setting up of partnerships betweenembalming surgeons and undertakers.The latter put forward packaged serviceoffers including embalming, transportof the deceased and the funeral. Thisprofessional network accompaniedthe commercial development ofthe embalming process but also theindissociable sale of fluids and injectioninstruments and the right to use these,

which is really where the essential valueof this emerging business lay. Holmescombined the transfer of his embalmingprocess with contracts for the exclusivesale of his fluids (based on a secretformula) and ancillary instruments suchas the injection pump (Habenstein andLamers, 2001 [1955]). Over the course ofthe same period, physicians, chemistsand even undertakers experimentedwith preservation fluids (11 patents filedbetween 1856 and 1869) hence pavingthe way for the emergence of a genuineembalming market.

The industrial driving force behind thedevelopment of embalming in the UnitedStatesFuneral historians agree that theAmerican Civil War marked a turningpoint in The American Way of Death,

notably in terms of the legitimizationand democratization of embalming forbody display. Underlying this CulturalRevolution, the activity of the embalmingphysicians fostered the commercialdevelopment of embalming (techniques,fluids, instruments, etc.), which was soonto be taken over by the undertakers withwhom they had set up alliances. Overthe following decades, the professionalembalming map was redrawn asphysicians were more or less removedand an increasing number of undertakers

and embalming chemical companiesappeared. This transfer took placewithout competition or rivalry. Instead,physicians acted as tutors and, initially,remained involved in the business,either through technical innovations, themarketing of fluids and instruments or byproviding training.

The embalming market began todevelop on a much broader scale withthe arrival of chemical companies.Instructors from these companies

travelled the land, offering courses inthe trade and granting diplomas thatcertified professional expertise forundertakers. In time, many of thesecompanies established fully-fledgedmortuary schools. Many undertakersand/or their assistants were eager tolearn to embalm but were unable to beaway from their business or employmentto take advantage of such training. Some,however, managed to attend the 3-to-5day courses sponsored by the embalmingchemical companies in their city andwhere they were taught the basic skillsby the itinerant instructors. Othersaugmented their meagre knowledge byenrolling on home study courses, offeredby many of the established schools ofembalming (Mayer, 2000: 474 [1996]).They even designed a new technicalinnovation, the trocar (drainage pipe)



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(S. Rogers in 1878), which made it easierfor them to practice arterial embalmingwithout having extensive knowledge ofthe anatomy. At the end of the 1800s,states began to recognize this modernprofessional occupation with trainingprovided by specialized schools andlicensing boards made up of establishedfuneral directors.

Modern embalming: the come-back inFranceWe briefly interrupted our historical

account of modern embalming inFrance with the failure of Gannal beforethe monopoly of physicians. Followinga movement that was diametricallyopposed to that taking place in the UnitedStates, the practice of funeral embalmingremained very marginal in France fromthe end of the 19th century through tothe middle of the 20th. Deterred by severeregulations, embalming was seen asthe application of a fastidious, somatictreatment. It was reserved for the political

elite, ecclesiasts and personalities fromshow business in order to meet the ritualneed to pay a last tribute by putting thebody on temporary display or in orderto avoid the difficulty of transportingcorpses over long distances (internationaltravel). According to Marette (1999), therewere roughly one hundred embalmingrequests a year in France at the end of the1950s.

It was not until the 1960s thatembalming suddenly grew exponentially.From a few hundred cases in 1964, thenumber of embalmed bodies increased to37% of the deceased in 20048, pointing toa radical shift in the tradition comparedwith the hitherto prevailing situation.This change was accompanied by theemergence of a new professional set ofcrafts men, i.e. roughly 900 embalmers(2006). One century after being invented

as an operating process for handlingcorpses, modern embalming (calledthanatopraxy in France), suddenlyfound its place in the social history ofburial. How did embalming developin France? How did these moderntechniques, previously controlled byphysicians, grant embalmers with controlover the corpse? In order to understandthis movement, we need to take a quicklook back at the history of undertakers inFrance.

In France, undertakers are known

as Pompes Funbres, meaning thecompany that provides the pomp for thefuneral ceremony. Historically, the growthof the urban funeral trade supported thebroader commercialization of funeralsaccompanied by a vast range of associatedproducts (hearse, bearers, casket, drapes,flowers, cushions, ornaments and allkinds of accessories) (Kselman, 1993).Based on a municipality concessionsystem, the pompes funbres businessgrew throughout the nineteenth century

and gradually led to the developmentof an industry with a national network(Trompette, 2009). Until the last fewdecades, undertakers were not in chargeof the corpse. Indeed, corpse washing,dressing and handling for public displaywas traditionally entrusted to certaincategories of women (a nun, a nurse, amidwife or an experienced laywomancalled the ensevelisseuse, which literallymeans the burier, in the country, whilein towns and cities this task was carriedout by the concierge).

During the after-war decade, thismodel went into crisis mode, owing toan accelerated social move to simplifythe ceremonial aspects. Indeed,mechanization brought about thedisappearance of horse-drawn hearsesand the new doctrine of the Church(Vatican Council 2) put an end to funeral


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drapes (used to decorate the home).This change notably affected the biggestnationwide firm of undertakers, PFG(Pompes Funbres Gnrales)9. Owingto the after-war context, PFG had to beinnovative in the way it provided funeralservices. It was time to meet the Americanpromoters of embalming, as theyprogressed from North America (Canada)to Europe. In association with J. Marette,director of a small funeral sanitationcompany10, PFG brought the methods ofarterial embalming back from America. J.

Marette created an embalming school anda French association for the developmentof embalming (Institut Franais deThanatopraxie). This very quickly ledto a first generation of embalmers whoworked as specialized technicians in PFGbranches. PFG promoted embalming bybuilding on death care infrastructures:the French funeral parlor, fitted withspecialized equipment, was separatefrom the funeral shop (where coffinsand other accessories were sold), and

offered various funeral services suchas preservation (refrigerated cases andtables), embalming (laboratory) anddisplay (private room). It was the rightmoment to develop such establishmentsgiven that hospitals were confronted witha growing number of deaths11 within theirwalls and did not have the appropriateequipment for post mortem care.

A century after the confrontationswith Gannal, physicians were no longerputting up any opposition12. On thecontrary, they were facing a crisis in theway hospital deaths were managed. Thistime, the medical corps seemed to readilyaccept this new frontier between caringfor the living and caring for the dead. In1980, while thinking began about howto manage the profession of embalmer,State Counselor J. Aubert suggestedthe possibility of hospitals including

embalming in their health care offer.What he actually observed was as follows:The current exercise of preservation careby hospital staff is not authorized by thedeontology of paramedical professions,neither do some of these workerseven wish to be involved in it. Indeed,hospitals maintain a distinction betweencare for the living and care for the dead inan often very dogmatic manner (Aubert,1981, p. 34). This opened up the way forpompes funbres and embalmers toconquer the post-mortem care market.

The driving force of embalmingcompaniesIn just two decades, the funeral serviceunderwent a marked change with the riseof embalming and funeral parlors. Like inthe United States some fifty years earlier,funerals moved from the family home tothe funeral directors establishment. Asboth a social and technical innovation,embalming accompanied this changein traditional undertaking activity, with

corpse care becoming a professionalservice (preservation, beautification andembalming). Body viewing became amajor part of funeral parlor economics(Clark and Sziming, 2003; Habensteinand Lamers, 1955).

It is interesting to note that, as with theAmerican history of embalming, Frenchhistory points to a close link between theprofessionalization of embalmers andthe partnerships set up by embalmingcompanies with the funeral industry,notably through the provision ofequipment, instruments, fluids anddisinfection products. As previouslydocumented, the original structure of thefuneral market in France at this periodresulted from the supremacy of one bigcompany (PFG) built upon a nationalnetwork of branches covering the wholecountry. The partnership between



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Hygecobel and PFG, which gave rise to theconstruction of two hundred new funeralparlors over a period of twenty years(1962-1982), unquestionably spurredthe growth of embalming practices. Atthe same time, J. Marette founded theIFT (French institute of thanatopraxy),which initially organized training forthanatopractitioners who then workedfor PFG. In the 1970s, a rival networkwas set up to face this consortium. Itbrought together the company Raffault,the Fdration Franaise des Pompes

Funbres (FFPF, representing smallundertaking businesses) and the EcoleFranaise des Soins et des SciencesMortuaires (EFSSM), a training schoolfounded by this same federation in 1978.Given the influence of industrialists in thedevelopment of embalming in France,the first regulatory provisions relating topreservation care and included in thedecree of 1976 mainly concerned theapproval of fluids. The organization of theFrench embalming market thus stemmed

from the control wielded by three majorcompanies (Raffault, E.I.H.F. Isofroid. andHygeco)14, who, on one hand were closelylinked to the main schools and, on theother, were allied with the major playersin the funeral business (PFG, federationof small undertaking businesses, etc.).

Professionalization of the embalmersgroupFrom the first preservation caredevelopments in France to the emergenceand structuring of a trained and organizedprofessional group of embalmers(referred to as thanatopractitioners inFrance), there were two main drivingforces at work. On the one hand, as partof the industrial partnership betweenproduct and equipment suppliers(Hygco and Raffault) and major funeralmarket players, the leaders of the

profession (Marette, Raffault, Clerc andComtet) worked on organizing access to itmainly by controlling training. The threatposed by the appearance of unqualifiedprofessionals on the market meantthat thanatopractitioners had to get onwith each other and set up a collectiveorganization in order to define the basesfor their professional empowerment.On the other hand, it was by remainingannexed to the funeral service businessthat embalmers managed to obtainreal jurisdiction enabling them to

organize their professional monopoly.Following several legislative procedures(1986, 1993), the liberalization of theundertakers profession led to therestructuring of their field and theconditions for accessing the profession(funeral director). Embalmers benefittedfrom this in two ways: first with themonopoly excluding other potentialcandidates from practicing preservationcare (notably the paramedical professionsand hospital staff) and then through a

proper certificate, i.e. a State diploma.One century after being defeated bythe monopoly of physicians, embalmerswere able to build their occupation asan independent body of experts, mainlythanks to the strength of the networkof professionals (undertakers) andindustrialists (equipment suppliers).However, physicians were not entirelyexcluded from this movement, eventhough they contributed to it through arelationship that was strongly marked bytheir ambivalence towards this relatedprofessional segment. On the one hand,they were called on by embalmers to helpwith training and hence acted as tutorsteaching them the rudiments of anatomyto improve their expertise. This role wasconsecrated by the sanctioning authorityinstitutionally entrusted to them via thenational jury. On the other hand, fearing


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that this authority would only back upthe labelling of this marginal segment asa paramedical profession, they tendedto distance themselves from embalmersand play down their importance.

Experts, business men and industrialistsin the history of embalming innovationOver the course of this historical accountof modern embalming, we have identifieddifferent forces behind this innovation,which can be defined as both technical(invention of injection embalming,

chemical solutions, etc.) and social(preservation, display and aesthetics ofthe deceased). The first comes from theembalming de-compartmentalizationprocess: before belonging to a specializedoccupational group (embalmers),embalming had to extract itself fromthe medical field (anatomic research,health control, etc.) in order to evolveinto a profession focused on care of thedeceased with an essentially aestheticgoal (display of the corpse). The fact that

history only remembers J. N. Gannal asthe father of modern embalming reflectsthis symbolic shift: he is decidedly thedriving force behind the requalificationof embalming, as a democratized practicefocused on caring for the deceased and,with this redefinition, the establishmentof a new category of practitioners(Abbott, 1988; Abbott and Meerabeau,1998). The episode of the Civil War in theUnited States, like that of the interruptionfollowed by the advent of embalming inFrance, shows that physicians indeedconstitute an obligatory point of passage:legitimization of the new embalmingqualification (aesthetic embalming),transfer of technical and professionalknowledge to a related professionalsegment and, in short, control over thetrajectory followed by the innovation(Freidson, 1988 [1970]).

The second movement reveals thecentral role of material culture in thisinnovation (in the sociological senseof the term, i.e. including its spread):throughout the pre-history of modernembalming (from the end of the MiddleAges to the 19th century), innovativeembalming processes sprung up here andthere without these innovations beinglinked in any way or benefiting fromcapitalized knowledge. On the contrary,the processes were often kept secretand their spread limited to the group of

peers (physicians, barbers, surgeons).Following an almost diametricallyopposed movement, the fluids (suchas Sucquets or Gannals preservationfluids) or instruments (such as Holmespump) acted as powerful acceleratorsof innovation and vectors of businessactivity. For Gannal and Holmes alike,keeping the processes and formulaesecret was more a question of controllingtrade in fluids and instruments thanserving a professional monopoly15.

The major turning point in the historyof modern embalming concerned thefirst businesses launched in France bySucquet and Gannal and in the UnitedStates by Holmes and his embalmingphysician colleagues. Closely related tothe process, the instruments and fluidsconstituted the essential links in thesetting up of the first networks bringingtogether the different protagonists of theinnovative enterprise: Gannal or Sucquetand their concessionaires, Holmes andthe embalming physicians during theCivil War, the first embalming companiesand undertakers in the United States,followed by the same companies andfuneral businesses in France fifty yearslater. Moving from the experimentalfield to industrial production, they alsorepresented a powerful vector of marketexpansion, as reflected in the essential



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role of embalming industrialists inthe training of embalmers and in theprofessionalization of the activity.

The trajectory followed by thisinnovation underlines the importanceof these material elements as vectorsof business dynamics with positiveexternalities such as the perpetuationof technical knowledge, capitalizationon inventions, and the spread andstabilization of associated processes, etc.In the same way, the material culture ofembalming has played an essential role in

the setting up and stabilization of activitystandards. It has largely supportedthe normalization of practices in thecommercial and industrial operationsaccompanying the innovation and itsincreasing popularity. Today, as in thepast, an oligopoly of mortuary productand equipment firms has transformeda trend into a uniform practice. As inAmerica fifteen years ago, the Frenchembalming market is today controlledby two major companies (E.I.H.F.-

Isofroid and Hygeco). The control of thenational license by these same marketplayers is determining in the spread ofa unique method16, backed up by theclose connection between process andfluids17. The firms not only provide allthe embalmers with equipment andfluids, but also the entire chain of funeralprofessionals (from those working inthe hospital cold room to those workingin the funeral parlour, including thenecessary equipment for the hearse). Thehegemony enjoyed by these embalmingmarket leaders fosters standardizationdynamics, which in turn support theprofessionalization of the embalmersgroup. Thus, the standardized industrialproduction of equipment and productsgoes hand in hand with the accelerateddevelopment of intermediaryprofessional and prescriptive networks

(of embalmers) and, with this, thebuilding of a new model for the right wayto die.

Structuring work along thechain of professionals involvedin treating the corpse

This historical account of modernembalming as an innovation hasemphasized the role played by the variousentrepreneurs in terms of the invention,appropriation, commercialization

and spread of the innovation. We nowpropose to develop an additionalreading of contemporary history,focusing on the way the innovation hastriggered the extended reconstructionof the socio-material agencements inwhich it is embedded. This ecologicalperspective looks more closely at how theinnovation has spread along the chain ofprofessional and business interactions,highlighting the rising of standardizationand rationalization in the process of

disposing the dead.Embalming practices seem tohave developed inseparably from thegrowth of corpse handling as a newservice area, including the building ofequipment and infrastructures dedicatedto body viewing. As we have seen, thespecialized organization of funerals leadto industrial determination, and hence tothe production of infrastructures (funeralparlours), equipment (laboratories),material means (refrigerated boxes,ambulances), and technical tools.Improvements in corpse care hadfurther effects on the centralized andspecialized management of funerals.The ritual of deathwhich used to takeplace in the family homemoved to theprivate mortuary (funeral home), withpractitioners performing specialist tasks(arterial embalming). Following our


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examination of the emergence of thistype of organization, we now propose toinvestigate the implications of this newfuneral organization service economy,looking at the way the corpse is handledfrom the hospital through to its finalplace of disposal. What knock-on effectsdoes the disposal of the dead have oninter-professional coordination? Whattransformations have taken place at theinterface between health professionalsand undertakers? How do healthprofessions feel about the way the corpse

has been appropriated by this marginalprofession? Our analysis here shall focuson the contemporary French funeralservice organization.

Development of a new care sectorThis subsection focuses on the materialagencements governing socioeconomicinteractions in the funeral area (Callon,1998; MacKenzie and Hardie, 2006). Weshall examine how embalming takesplace in the cooperative arrangements

between the protagonists and, moregenerally, how it contributes to theclose link between distinct professionalspaces (hospital roomfuneral parlorprivate-sector business). We shall seehow the management of this professionalinterface increases the force ofstandardization mechanisms in deathcare tenfold.

The previous sections touchedupon the relationship between themedicalization of death and thedevelopment of embalming. However, amore in-depth investigation highlightsthe reasons behind this correlation. Until1980, when death was medicalized inFrance, hospitals were overwhelmed bythe sudden increase in mortality withintheir walls. On the one hand, they werenot suitably equipped to accommodatethe deceased. On the other hand, they

did not provide any services for thedeceased as part of their scope ofactivity. Funeral parlors gave privateoperators the lucky opportunity to wincustomers upstream. The funeralbusinesss interest in moving in closerto where mortality was concentrateddid much to further the substitution ofprivate morgues for the public hospitalvariety. The offer was immediate, efficientand less costly, while at the same timeit temporarily dispensed hospitals frominvesting in ad hoc equipment.

Competition in the funeral sectoraimed to stabilize the socio-technicalnetworks involved in the death-to-disposal process (Trompette, 2007). Byshifting the focus from the hospital tothe funeral parlor, the funeral directorhas shortened the gap between him andhis customers. The efficiency of thesefacilities in capturing the customer isundeniable; the imbalance they causein market distribution is a source ofnumerous conflicts and lawsuits between

funeral businesses. Consequently,private funeral parlor operators setup official or tacit agreements withhospitals. As a crucial facility in theservice relationship, the funeral parlourexerts a strong pull on the channellingof death, with the construction of anoperational and symbolic continuumbetween health spaces and death places.Funerariums (French term for Funeralparlor or private mortuary) have thusbecome a kind of health care institutionannex; funerarium workers can nowimmediately start work handling andtreating the cadaver. Keeping it in arefrigerated compartment is both apractical and symbolic supplementarystage in the chain linking treatmentwith post-treatment. Since there is nohospital unit exclusively devoted to thisend, hospital caregivers readily contact



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funeral operators to have bodies removed.Funeral business staff moves freelythrough hospitals to remove bodies, andtakes over the task of mortuary bathing,thus relieving hospital staff altogether ofthe handling of the deceased.

Let us look at how a corpse is transferredfrom the health care institution to thefuneral parlor. Physicians, orderlies, andeven relatives themselves often see itas a godsend to have an agent who willimmediately take charge of the body.From hospital room to private funeral

parlor, no one (least of all the corpse)asks questions about how the body isdiscretely moved from one place tothe other. Doffing their dark suit for anorderlys white coat, funeral businessemployees stage a symbolic continuumbetween the hospital ward and thefuneral service:

My mother saw two people dressedin white arrive with a stretcher. Shethought they were hospital staff. They

put the body on the stretcher and tookit away. She didnt understand thatit was the funeral operator, and thatmy grandmother was being taken tothe funeral home. The orderly laterexplained to her that they couldntkeep the body in the clinic,18 recountsa young woman questioned abouther choice of operator (Sandrine,interview, February 2003).

Occurring at the core of the capture-the-customer economy of the funeralbusiness, the work involved in formattingand channelling the circulation of thedeceased includes the entire chain ofpeople treating the dead. This chain isbased on cooperation and affiliationbetween health professionals and deathprofessionals. Socio-technical networksconnect spaces and create a continuumof action between the health care

establishment (hospital, old peopleshome, etc.) and the funeral parlor (Thrift,2004). The death care field establishesan immediate continuity with that ofdisease care. Owing to the competitivestrategies at play, the management of theinterface between life and death relies onpowerful material and practical links thatorganize the standardized circulation ofthe deceased.

The search for professional assimilationwith the medical world

Through the history of embalming,we witnessed the emergence of anambivalent relationship betweenphysician embalmers and undertakers.We also saw that the control over thebody exerted by embalming triggereda constant reassertion of the boundarybetween experts and laymen.

In spite of the professionalizationof practitioners in France today, therelationship between physicians andembalmers continues to attest to the

formers constant concern to reinforcethe distance between them and thisillegitimate segment. Conversely, whenmorticians first adopted embalming asan occupational specialty, the pendulumswung the other way. They attempted tobenefit from the legacy of embalming inorder to move in closer to the medicalprofessions. In the professional funeralfield, the group of corpse care expertsrooted itself in a practical and symbolicaffiliation with the medical world whileat the same time remaining independentof that world. In the French context, theindependence of embalmers is reflectedin the fact that they form an internal butdistinct segment. This reinforces theirposition as belonging to a separate, moreexpert and honorable occupation thanthat of simple undertaker. Their technicalexpertise has helped them to fulfil theirquest for professional status through


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the pseudo-scientific nature of thework (Parsons, 1999). Contemporaryfuneral directors do attempt to ridethe rhetorical coattails of the medicalprofessions, borrowing their terminologyand favourably comparing their owndirty work to the medical professionsallegedly dirtier work, comments E. C.Cahill (Cahill, 1995, p. 129).

French embalmers aspire to thesame assimilation. Their affiliation tothe medical world is stamped in thematerial culture used in the funeral

parlours back office. The modusoperandi of the technology appliedtermed preservation treatment bythe authorities in 1976 - underlines theextent to which the process of treating thedeceased follows a natural continuumfrom the world of health care. From theequipment in the back office where theembalmers work to the instruments theyuse to operate on the body and stop itfrom decomposing, everything remindsus of the health care universe (Cahill,

1995). Referred to as a care-giving roomor a laboratory, the preparation roomin funeral parlours has much in commonwith the hospital world; it is even locatedmidway between the operating theatreand the post-mortem examination room.The whiteness of the flooring, the stainlesssteel equipment (preparation table,work schedule, etc.) and the very stricthygiene regulations (sink functioningautomatically, recovery containers forcorpse care waste presenting a risk ofcontagion, etc.) provide ideal workingconditions (suitable lighting, ventilationand disinfection systems, etc.). Dressedas a surgeon (mobcap, mask, gloves,apron, footwear, etc.), the practitionerworks with instruments that are ascomplex and specific as those used insurgery (bistouries, pliers, syringes, etc).

As well as the similarities created by thesanitized configuration and professional

equipment, the development ofmortuary science as a source ofknowledge generation brings the twoworlds even closer together. Mortuaryscience has improved ability andexpertise, especially with respect to therestoration part of embalming (Cahill,1995). This expert field originated in theUnited States in 1910 with Joel E. Crandall,who invented the term demisurgery

and initiated restorative science: The artof building or creating parts of the bodythat have been destroyed by accident,

disease, decomposition or discoloration,and making the body perfectly naturaland lifelike (Mayer, 2000: 575 [1996]).Over the course of the 20th century, muchprogress was made in this field in theUnited States. In France, on the otherhand, this subfield has only recentlyemerged and is reserved for moreexperienced practitioners. Restorativeart is different from the routine, standardtechniques inherited from physicians.Restoring a body and, in particular faces

that have been damaged by accidentsor disease, is a pretext for practitionersto further cultivate their techniques andknow-how. Using medical terminology,they perform reconstructive surgery atthe outskirts of the medical field, theiraim being not only to preserve the bodyof the deceased but also to repair andbeautify it (Lemonnier, 2006).

Embalming to support the structuringprocess in funeralsEmbalming as a specialized occupationalactivity has developed materials and asocial culture in relation to the medicalworld. Nonetheless, embalmers act asintermediaries between bodily careand funeral services in the handlingof the deceased. This two-sided role isinteresting insofar as embalming is alsostrongly embedded in the cooperativeand coordinating relationships with



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undertakers.Embalming tasks can be interpretedas a form of structuring activity inthe organizational process of handlingdeath (Straus et al., 1985). Funeralorganization involves complexarrangements, including inter-professional coordination, for themanagement of the corpse from the placeof death to its final destination. Today,governance of the entire process of careof the deceased is undergoing substantialrationalization. The challenge is to create

a continuum of care for the deceased andtheir family by coordinating all agents(nursing staff, palliative services, publicauthorities, funeral staff, representativesof the church, psychologists, etc.).This is especially important in largeorganizations aiming to rationalize theirmeans and equipment (centralizedlogistics for the provision of hearses andstaff). At the same time, a dead bodycan never be considered as somethingthat is routine but rather as a source of

uncertainty and tension. Decomposition,family drama, urgency, heterogeneousstakeholders, etc., are just some of thepotential disruptions in the continuum.

Embalming plays a major role in thealignment of tasks, deeds and workas part of a complex process whereheterogeneous resources are aggregatedwith spatial and temporal conditions(Fujimura, 1987; Strauss, 1988). Aiming toboth preserve and beautify19, embalmingprocesses improve the transport andhandling of the deceased, as well assanitization20, worker comfort21 andmanagement of family tensions (abeautified corpse appeases pain). Forthis reason, funeral parlour managers willinvariably recommend embalming whenthe family wishes to display the body. As inother countries, with the euphemisticallytermed temporary preservation orpreservative treatment, the absence of a

familys objection is taken as permissionto embalm. Thus, by improving logistics,embalming enhances the standardizationof the complex process of handling death.

The central role of embalmers in theorganization of funerals draws attentionto alternative embalming practices. Infact, the medical pattern previouslyexamined cohabits with a more pragmaticmodus operandi. This primarily concernsother death places like the home andis commonplace in the countryside.According to a recent study on

embalming activity, around 20% of casesare still performed in peoples homes orother places considered as such, withthe absence of specialized equipment.In the situation where the family asks tokeep their dead, embalmers can operatein the home. They convert a bedroom ora living room into a makeshift workspaceand operate using basic instruments(jerry can, manual pump). However,this travelling thanatopraxy is oftencriticized by part of the profession who

demand normalized practices. Theexistence of these two types of practicereflects the embalmers propensity todeal with two different itineraries whenhandling the corpse. As intermediaries,they are required to interface eitherwith the health establishment or theundertaker.

Standardization of the process andintimization of death22This final section will examine how astandardized professional rhetoric hasemerged as thanatopractioners haveworked on their relationship with adjacentprofessions concerned with care of thedeceased. The operational continuumbetween the health care establishmentand places of death is also reflected inthe standardization of meanings. Theprocess of death care professionalizationhas not only brought substantial change


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to funeral practices but also a new way toqualify death and the dead.In the medical field, sociologists have

identified the rise of the hospice modeladvocating death awareness in thecontext of palliative care in which theindividual is placed in the middle of theend-of-life process. This model conveysrepresentations of death marked by aclear-cut will to produce practices wherepersonal meaning prevails over theconcerns of etiquette: individuals want togive meaning to an experience which they

have undergone, and lived through as apersonal one. With the death awarenessmodel, it is the dead person whopresides over their own burial, the burialhaving the purpose of celebrating theirinnermost self . J.H Dchaux qualifiesthese developments as the intimizationof death(Dchaux, 2000:161).

In funeral directors and embalmersclaim to be involved in the (re)socialization of death, there is an echoof the construction of scripts and

meanings by health professions in thecontext of palliative care over the lastfew decades (Memmi, 2003; Seale, 1998).Within the palliative care area, Seale(1998) staged a confrontation betweenvarious cultural scripts relating to thecategorization and treatment of the dead.In this confrontation, he sets medical andparamedical speeches against speecheswith psychologically dominant revivalfeatures (referred to by the author as therevival of death awareness). Just as thedying person finds himself at the centreof a controversy about how to read thescript about the right way to die, the deadbody becomes an essential element in therationalized management of the processof mourning. Funeral practitioners areengaged in the production of modelsof death supported by a range of eitheralternative or additional theoreticalresources (medical speech, psychology,

sociology, etc.). Only the modelssupported by these different worlds(health profession/funeral director)differ slightly. Undertakers defend anaesthetic conception and constructionof death, far removed from the deathawareness advocated by healthprofessionals, notably in the context ofpalliative care (Seale, 1998).

This conception reflects morticiansview of themselves as the producers ofsymbolic goods (Bourdieu and Nice,1980) and ministers of the modern social

caretaking of the dead, even if this isnot something they claim openly. As theagents who traditionally handled thiswork (priests, brotherhoods, etc.) movedout, funeral directors and embalmersbecame the new protagonists of the burialritual and provided their own specificmeanings (Chamboredon, 1976). In thesociological theory of the denial of death,they have found a theoretical foundationfor this rhetoric.

Today, funeral operators programs

include an increasing amount of ritualservices. Large firms have workedhard to create ritual products, calledcivil ceremony, personal homage(graveyard), personalized ceremony,etc. This activity links up with a widerdemand to be an agent of the (re-)socialization of death. It draws deeplyon theories about the social denialof death (decline of traditional rites,thanatophobia of modern societies, etc.),which are moreover supported by certainsociological and psychological speeches,with the argument that there is a need tore-tame our bodies.

Thanatopraxy primarily contributesto the aesthetics of this intimate theatreof display, with its increasing focus onluxury and harmony (beauty of lounges,exhibition of the body in a dressed coffin,etc.). From a more fundamental pointof view, thanatopraxy is considered as a



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fundamental part of the death approvaland mourning process. Embalmingencompasses almost all the care that isnot directed at cure but at the physicaland social aspects of the (dead) body,including the bereaved ones need forcare. Embalming is intended to bringpsychological comfort to families who cansee the familiar and peaceful face of theirloved one for the last time in the funeralparlor viewing rooms. This argumentfeeds off one of the contemporaryleitmotivs, stemming from psychological

ideas that have thoroughly permeatedconceptions of mourning (Bacqu, 2000;Hanus, 2000): these notably suggestthe necessity to see the deceased tomake the mourning process easier. Theembalmer has thus become one of themain mediators of this obligatory pointof passage, i.e. the confrontation with thedeceased,by being the artisan of a calmermeeting in which the living are relievedof the anxiety of being confronted withdecomposition. The serene expression on

the face, the pinkish color of the skin, therestored integrity of the body, death herebecomes confused with endless sleep,very much like that which came overSnow White in her glass coffin.

The privacy of the exhibition rooms,the falling back on family and friends,and the exhibition of the body reflectthe same death intimization processdescribed by J. Dchaux. They conveythe privatized expression of feelingsand mourning process, which wastraditionally shared out between thefamily, social agents (the people keepingvigil over the dead body, priors, hiredmourners, etc.) (Segalen, 1975). Theexpression of emotions is today restrictedto the family circle. Thanatopraxyplays an essential role in this socialconstruction by providing the family witha body reconciled with its own image.Contemporary embalmers rhetorically

champion the therapeutic benefits oftheir profession for the grief-stricken. Weare sellers of the last image, facilitators ofthe mourning process, says one of themost important figures of thanatopraxyin France.

Like palliative care, embalming andthe display of the corpse are a majorpart of the dead body re-qualificationprocess. This process is characterized bythe central place granted to subjectivity:that of the deceased, through thewill to give some meaning to their

life by drawing on the most intimatedetails of their personality; that of thefamilies, as they are confronted with aprocess of detachment and biographicreconstruction. Embalmers, like funeraldirectors, play a very important role inthe implementation and directing ofemotions.

Conclusion

This paper has traced the evolution

of a technique in the field of medicalanatomy and its re-appropriation by asecular sphere (funeral) and marginalprofessional groups (embalmersand undertakers). It has examinedthe long process of embalming de-compartmentalization as embalming hasshifted from a medical speciality to thefuneral area, with the resulting emergenceof a marginal group of practitioners/experts indirectly related to the medicalcorps. Our study of this process hasshown the extent to which this shiftcould not have taken place without thede-compartmentalization of knowledge,understanding and innovations, longcontained by professional secrecy. Ithas explored the role of physicians, asprofessionals monopolizing access tothe human body, in processes aiming toreveal or conceal knowledge. It has alsounderlined the central role of material


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culture in the spread of embalminginnovation: as a vector of emergingtrading networks, as back-up to theindustrialization of the sector and as asetting for the normalization of processesand equipment (tools, devices, spaces,etc.) through public action.

The professional dynamics behindthis process have relied on constantconnections and re-connections betweenadjacent worlds. As a specialized segment,embalming has thus become part of thecooperative chain surrounding death,

forming a bridge between the medicalworld and the funeral world. It supportsthe re-qualification of the corpse alongthe cooperative chain, from healthinstitution to funeral parlor. Embalminginnovations appear here as embeddedin the renewal of all inter-professionalcoordination around death and inthe re-definition of new professionalidentities. Using an ecological approachto innovation and profession, theanalysis has drawn on different points

of view with respect to the various formsof alignment between these relatedprofessional spheres (care of the dying,care of the dead and organization of thefuneral): a) channelling of the deceasedfrom the health care establishmentto the death care site; b) adoption ofmedical terminology, material cultureand expertise; c) enhancing of the funeralservice organization rationalizationprocess; d) creation of a coherent sense ofmission for the professionals of death,related to the social construction ofdeath. These four aspects involve manydifferent factors that guide the itinerariesfollowed and modes of disposal of thedead. Finally, the material and symboliccontinuum between care of the dyingand care of the dead has tended tostandardize the organization of funeralsin the way the corpse journeys from thehospital to the final place of disposal.

This standardization movement provesto be inseparable from the constructionof a social conception of the right way todie in the field of death work.

Notes

1 E.g. A. Par (1509-1590) cf. (Malgaigne1840-1841): Guybert (1629).

2 Naturalist physicians worked oncollections for the history of anatomicscience museums.

3 Historians report the original but

marginal embalming experimentsconducted by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 1519), where anatomical studieswere associated with artistic goals(anatomical plates).

4 Doctors G. Tranchina (Italian), T.Marshall (England), Morgan (Ireland)and J. P Sucquet (France) are just someof the names associated with this newphase in the history of embalming(Mayer, 2000 [1996]).

5 We are drawing here on the testimony

provided by the embalming physicianDoctor Gervais who was moreover anexclusive user of the Gannal process(Gervais, 1845).

6 At the same time, several physiciansand anatomists experimented withembalming processes involvingthe arterial injection of a chemicalcompound.

7 According to historical stories, Holmeshimself treated around four thousandcorpses, charging $100 each for officersand $25 for enli sted men (Quigley,1996).

8 Source: Dcs Massifs report - 12March 2004. Prof. D. Lecomte &INSERM.

9 Based on a large network of branches,it enjoyed a quasi-monopoly, havinginherited this from the former systemof state franchises granted by parishes



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and communes. PFGs market shareover this period is estimated at around55% of the national market.

10 Originally, Hygeco was a launderettefounded by Louis Marette in 1887 inFrance. Later on, the business alsodisinfected bed linen for hospitalsfollowing a death. In 1946, the companystarted using dry ice to preserve thedeceased for longer.

11 It is worth recalling the extent of thismovement to hospitalize death. In1964, 63.2% of deaths occurred in the

home, compared with 33.5% in medicalestablishments (hospitals, hospices,retirement homes). Twenty years later,the ratio was reversed. In 1983, on anationwide basis, 66% of deaths tookplace in medical establishments whileonly 30.5% took place in the home(Barrau, 1987)

12 According to the testimonies ofthanatopractitioners at the time, asmall number of country physicianspractising embalming apparently

claimed to have a monopoly over thisbusiness, although there is no proofthat they ever achieved any kind ofinstitutional reach (French physiciansassociation).

13 After having worked for the companyMarette (Hygco), C. Raffault foundedhis own company in 1974 and initiallyspecialized in toiletry and preservationusing carbon dioxide snow. Afterfollowing several courses in Englandand Belgium, he obtained his diplomaas an embalmer and developed hisown training system. The companythen specialized in subcontractingout care and selling equipment andsterilization products.

14 In 2008, the company Raffault wasbought by EIHF-Isofroid, reducing themarket to two major companies.

15 Although he systematically publishedhis anatomical preservation

methods, Gannal never published theembalming process he used to controlits exclusive application. Holmes filedthree patents pertaining to embalmingbut kept the process and the solutionused secret (Inominata) in order tocontrol its commercialization.

16 It is by working closely with a certainnumber of instructors affiliated withthe training schools that the traineepractitioner learns how to embalm.The techniques are invariablytransferred from the training officer to

the trainee embalmer according to thesame teaching and the same practicalknow-how, thus tending to standardizeboth embalming know-how and formsof body viewing in France.

17 The physical feedback of thebody depends on the specificfluid composition and its mode ofadministering.

18 This particular clinic has a smallmortuary, but no staff assigned to runit. It is therefore much easier for the

clinic to call in a private organization.19 A slightly coloured antiseptic solutionis injected into the arterial system ofthe deceased. This helps slackenedbody tissues (e.g. the eyeballs) torecover a certain amount of elasticityand does away with the deathly pallor.Once the expert has done his job, thebody offers a face with some colourin it and repositioned features for thefamily members to gaze down on onelast time; a beautiful corpse, lookinglike a living person in eternal sleep.

20 24 hours after the officially reportedtime of death, public regulationsrequire a corpse to be embalmed fortransportation before it is laid in thecoffin.

21 Less handling operations and lowerhealth risks.

22 We refer directly here to the concept ofintimisation de la mort proposed byJ. H. Dchaux.


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Pascale TrompettePACTE Grenoble [email protected]

Mlanie LemonnierMontpellier [email protected]

pascale+trompette+and+mélanie+lemonnier

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