Digital Commonwealth — Boston Public Library
Embalming surgeon at work
[ca. 1861–1865]
From "War Memories" catalog: This view shows Dr. Burr, the embalming surgeon, engaged in the process of embalming a dead soldier. The veins are pumped full of some liquid, which possesses the power to arrest and prevent decay. Thus it was made possible to send to friends in the North the bodies of many hundreds of soldiers, which, but for the science of embalming, could not have been permitted a grave in their native soil.
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