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Death to Dust What Happens to Dead Bodies? Second Edition 1-883620-22-8
More than 800 pages give the latest information on organ and tissue donation and the secretive world of the funeral industry. Includes new sections, such as "Death Photography," and recounts up-to-the-minute stories that prove truth is always stranger than fiction!
A textbook, a resource, and entertaining reading! Extras: DOWNLOAD
PDF FILES: Great Review of Second Edition:
JAMA Journal
of the American Medical Association BOOKS, JOURNALS, NEW MEDIA Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? by
Kenneth V. Iserson, 2nd ed, 820 pp, WHEN
THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS BOOK became available, one of the forensic
pathologists in our office purchased a copy. Several others, myself
included, followed suit. Why? Because we are busy medical examiners
who investigate and certify approximately 20% of all deaths in
our community, a figure that holds true in most medical examiner
and coroner jurisdictions. We know a lot about investigating and
determining causes of death. We know much about what happens to
dead bodies left unattended in various environmental conditions.
We know some embalming techniques. We know what funeral directors
do. We encounter varying human reactions when sudden death strikes
a family member. Yet we know little about what happens outside
our immediate experience. That is why we find Death to Dust both
fascinating and informative. It summarizes the historical, sociological,
and cultural variations in human reactions to death. It has something
for everyone: making funeral arrangements for family members,
use of cadavers in research for engineers, litigation involving
the dead for attorneys, plots for writers of fiction, customs
for sociologists, historical events for historians, and so forth.
Physicians will find it a useful shelf reference when dealing
with distraught families. The curious reader will enjoy picking
and choosing among the various topics.
Joseph H. Davis, MD, Miami, Fla What critics said about the first edition: "Best
Reference Work of 1994" "Probably
one of the funniest, but most informative, books yet written on
mankind's many misguided methods of dealing with decaying human
hotels once the spirit has paid its bill and checked out. . .
. a highly readable, wonderfully entertaining (and frequently
hilarious) account of one of the only taboo subjects left in this
tell-Oprah-all society." "Dr. Iserson's massive, comprehensive volume is easily the best work on the subject that has appeared in recent years, and it is written with a fluency that makes it accessible to the lay reader as well as the professional." Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death Revisited. "A
brilliantly researched, eminently readable, and encyclopedically
enjoyable book . . ."
Fascinating facts from Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? After cremation, the "ashes" weigh an average of 7.4 pounds for men and 5.8 pounds for women. Embalming a body for public viewing is an American cultural phenomenon. In other parts of the world, it is considered so unusual (and distasteful) that a special permit is required. The Warramunga tribe of Australia buried their dead in the branches of trees, rubbing themselves with the fluids of the corpse as a sign of mourning. An unembalmed adult body buried six-feet deep in ordinary soil without a coffin normally takes ten to twelve years to decompose to a skeleton Eyes are the most commonly donated organ. Approximately 43,000 corneal transplants are done in a year. About 2,500 Americans die every year while awaiting transplantation. Blanch White was the first recorded undertaker in the American Colonies, establishing an undertaking and upholstery business in 1768. In Sweden, an unmarried woman is customarily buried with a mirror so she can arrange her hair on Resurrection Day. Approximately 150,000 maggots can be found on an exposed corpse. U.S. forces in Somalia in 1992 were the first to have "genetic dog tags," blood samples and mouth scrapings allowing identification even if only a scrap is left. The embalmed corpse of a 2,100-year-old "Chinese Princess" revealed she suffered from heart and gallbladder disease, three kinds of internal parasites, tuberculosis, and arthritis of the spine. A winding sheet is a cloth wrapped around a corpse until burial Before New York passed the "anatomy act" in 1854, grave robbers emptied 600 to 700 graves annually around New York City to supply medical schools. Many Civil War-era photographers moved the corpses of dead soldiers to make more interesting pictures. The gibbet was a cage used to hold the corpses of criminals upright while they decomposed in public. The famous Parisian gibbet accommodated 45 corpses and was surrounded by taverns and gardens. During World War II, U.S. soldiers collected and preserved Japanese skulls as table ornaments for their sweethearts. If
it be certain as Galen says- Extras: DOWNLOAD
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Death
to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? provides the answers to
the questions about corpses you were afraid to ask: How does a
body really turn to dust? What happens during autopsies, dissection,
embalming, cremation, and cryogenic preservation? And what about
cannibalism, body snatching, and the secret rites of various cultures?
My
first question upon encountering this book concerned who wrote
it and why. Kenneth V. Iserson, MD, is professor of surgery and
practices emergency medicine at the University of Arizona Health
Sciences Center, directs the center's bioethics program, and is
medical director for a major search and rescue operation. Dr.
Iserson wanted to know more about what happens after death. Complex
ethical issues arise when one must explain to distraught families
why the patient died or when discussing organ and tissue donations,
but information was scattered and not readily available. Iserson's
desire to learn what he did not know has resulted in a single
useful resource with more than 2600 citations. The book is detailed
yet easy to read. The author intersperses medical information
with history and literature and apt quotations from many sources,
including the bible and Shakespeare. One may study a single subject,
such as modern embalming or how Lenin's body is kept presentable
for public viewing, or selectively read humorous tidbits of historical
and literary fact and folklore. 
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Copyright 2001-2013 Galen Press, Ltd.
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