During the Victorian era people throughout Europe and America took the fear of premature burial to heights never before seen. The thought of waking up in one’s own grave made the public fearful almost to the point of panic. This is largely due to the publication of a book entitled ‘The Uncertainty of the signs of Death’ by the French physician Jacques Benigne Winslow in 1742. In this work, Winslow made a case for the idea that live interment was much more common than had previously been believed. He stated that a body should only be declared dead if it exhibited signs of “unmistakable putrification.” To Winslow this was the only truly reliable indication of death and the only way to be sure to prevent untimely burial. Winslow’s views on the frequency of premature burial were not shared by the majority of the medical community but they did fire the imagination of the public at large.
Soon the demand began to grow for a means to prevent the burial of the living. The problem with Winslow’s suggestion was that waiting for a corpse to putrefy presents many problems. A rotting corpse is not only unpleasant to have around it also poses serious risks to public health. Another issue is how to see and recognize signs of life if the individual is in fact not dead. One answer to these questions was the establishment of facilities that were exclusively dedicated to the storage and close monitoring of the recently deceased. These facilities were known as ‘waiting mortuaries.’
The idea of creating public places for monitoring the recently dead originated in France; however it was first realized in Germany in 1791. The first was built in the city of Weimar, but similar facilities soon sprang up throughout the country, then later through Europe and America. Germany was always the center of the waiting mortuary phenomenon with the largest and most reputable being those in Munich. Waiting mortuaries were typically large and very ornate structures. Though expensive to build and maintain they gained widespread public support. As time went on the scale and architecture of these buildings became even grander. They were built with marble facades and classical Greek columns that made them look more like small cathedrals than mortuaries, which made them major tourist attractions.
Initially, taking the body of a loved one to such a facility was optional. However it soon became mandated by law in Germany following the cholera outbreak of 1869. Presumed corpses were then required to be moved to a waiting mortuary within half an hour of death. At the mortuary the body was washed and shrouded. It was then placed upon a sarcophagus in an inclined position over a zinc trench which was filled with antiseptic fluid. The bodies were then surrounded with ornate flowers. This served the dual purpose of making a solemn yet attractive place for family to view and photograph their loved ones and also stifling (at least to some degree) the pervasive stench of the rotting bodies. There were separate facilities for the rich and poor, the principle difference being the quality of the floral arrangements provided.
Bodies were typically kept at a facility for three days, unless signs of decay became apparent sooner. In order to detect possible life signs, every corpse was connected to an alarm bell by a series of strings which were, in turn, attached to the fingers and toes of each body. The slightest movement would cause the bell to ring immediately alerting staff. Unfortunately the vast majority of the time the bell would ring not because of a revived loved one, but was due to the jerking motions of the corpse caused by releasing gases from the putrefying bodies. None the less, the bodies were carefully watched and frequently inspected by staff members that were never allowed to leave unless relieved by another worker. Staff members worked long hours (as long as twelve hours) and were constantly exposed to the combined smell of rotting flesh, antiseptic fluid and flowers.
So how successful were the waiting mortuaries? They continued operation until the mid nineteenth century by which time improved medical tools and diagnostic techniques made determination of death easier and more reliable. Public interest in maintaining the expensive facilities also began to wane. This was partly due to a shift in preference toward other means of live burial prevention such as ‘security coffins.’ These were designed with various types of gadgetry intended to allow the occupant of the coffin to alert others if he found himself in his grave still alive. But another major factor in the end of the waiting mortuary era is that in all the time they were in operation there is only one reported case of anyone actually being revived and rescued while at such a facility. And even this one case is tainted with tragic irony. It involved a five year old child who had apparently died and was taken to the nearest waiting mortuary. The next morning a staff member found the child awake and playing with the floral arrangements. The staff brought the child home to the mourning mother. Unfortunately, according to the story, the mother’s emotional reaction to finding her child still alive was too much for her heart. Upon finding her child alive she collapsed and fell dead to the floor. I hope this helped to darken your day. Morbid Monday to ya!
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