Precautions to observe for the Safety of the Operator in Embalming.
Should you cut or prick your hand or fingers in any way while handling
the dead, be sure and apply the Preservative AT ONCE to the wound, as it
will insure safety from the inoculation of the poison virus by which
many undertakers have lost their lives. I would also say to the
undertaker, in every instance where he is called upon to lay out the
dead, to first bathe his hands with the Preservative; this insures
perfect safety and should never be omitted, for you can not tell at just
what point you will meet with this deadly virus; and as I have before
stated, the Preservative in this respect is positively indispensable to
the undertaker.
I have already spoken in the highest praise of the Excelsior
Preservative, but the half has not been told. The undertaker who places
any estimate on the value of his own life, can not afford to be without
this _all important antidote_ against the dangerous inoculation of the
poison or deadly virus which he is liable to encounter at any moment in
handling the dead.
It is a very dangerous thing in any contingency to handle the dead,
notwithstanding it has been done thousands of times without injury to
the undertaker, yet this is due to great precaution on his part, or from
the fact of his hands being in perfect condition, having no scratch,
cracks, hang-nails, or abrasion of the skin through which the poison
could be inoculated into his system, whereas, others with a simple
scratch or hang-nail that they were not aware of until too late, have
thus been poisoned and lost their lives.
Cases of purging or sloughing of the skin are of the worst type, these
juices being fearfully poisonous, and the longer the body lays without
treatment the worse it grows, hence the more dangerous to handle;
therefore I say, it matters not what the undertaker charges for his
services, he is never half paid for the risk he runs of losing his own
life while fulfilling the duties of his profession in handling and
taking care of the dead.
There is no public servant that takes upon himself one-half the personal
risk, or whose services should be better appreciated by the community
than those of the professional undertaker, and when the customer
complains of prices, or where the undertaker’s charges are brought in
question, these facts should be fully explained.
A fatal case happened under my own personal observation in California
where the undertaker laid out a Chinaman that was purging at the mouth.
Some of the poisonous fluid got into a hang-nail, and in three days he
died, although a council of physicians was called, but nothing devised
or prescribed could help him, simply for the want of a perfect antidote
like the Excelsior Preservative, which, if applied, as directed in this
manual, is a certain preventative against the deadly ravages of this
virus. And I will once more say to the undertaker, you must be on your
guard at _all times_, and as self-preservation is paramount to all other
considerations in matters of this kind, be sure to bathe your hands in
the Preservative before commencing to handle or lay out the dead, and
also bathing them with it thoroughly _immediately afterwards_.