Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1886 — Coppered Corpses. [ARTICLE]

Coppered Corpses.

A new method for disposing of the human body after death has been proposed by M. Kergpvatz, a chemist of Bspst. His system is an antiseptic one, stared to be much simpler and less expensive than the old process of embalming, and is nothing more than a new galvano-plastio application. The body is coated with a conducting substance, sUch as plumbago, or is bathed with a solution of nitrate of silver, which, after decomposition under the influence of sunlight, leaves a finely divided deposit of metallic silver. It is then placed in a bath of sulphate of copper, and connected for electrolysis with several cells of a gravity or other battery of constant current. The result is that the body is incased in a skin of copper, which prevents further change or chemical action. If desired, this may again be plated with gold or silver, according to the taste or wealth of the friends of the dead. * M. Kergovatz has employed the process eleven times on human Subjects and on many animals, and states that in all cases it was perfectly satisfactory.— Demorest’s Monthly.