1 86 Sterilization and Disinfection 



If this be impossible, the body should be embalmed, sealed in the 

 coffin, and the face viewed through a plate of glass; the body is 

 best disposed of by cremation, though it is not rarely necessary as 

 a dead body cannot remain a source of infection for an indefinite 

 period. Esmarch,* who made a series of laboratory experiments 

 to determine the fate of pathogenic bacteria in the dead body, 

 found that in septicemia, cholera, anthrax, malignant edema, tuber- 

 culosis, tetanus, and typhoid fever the pathogenic bacteria all die 

 sooner or later, more rapidly during active decomposition than during 

 preservation of the tissues. 



* "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," 1893. 



