In 1705, Thomas Greenhill, surgeon, published Nekpokedeia: or, the Art of Embalming in London. Greenhill’s subtitle is even more informative: Wherein is Shown the Right [sic] of Burial, and Funeral Ceremonies, Especially That of Preserving Bodies After the Egyptian Method. And it goes on from there — there are a full 44 pages of front matter, including a poem, dedication to Greenhill’s patron, the Earl of Pembroke, and a list of subscribers and contributors to the volume, before Greenhill starts his discussion.
Fold-out frontispiece from Nekpokedeia.
Greenhill’s discussion of funerary customs and rites wanders in a fascinating manner from Biblical history to ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt, through modern times. He brings up issues that are probably of less concern to our present-day morticians and funeral home directors including the need to double or even triple-check that the body is dead before funeral rites are started.
In his opening chapters, Greenhill emphasizes that there are many reasons for burial or embalming: chief among them being respect for the corpse and the need to protect others from contamination due to the processes of putrefaction. Respect for the corpse, for Greenhill, does not necessitate the Western under-ground burial: he allows that traditions in other parts of the world, such as mummification or disposal through fire, have their roots in the community and may be acceptable methods of corpse disposal in their place.
His interest in “putrid air” marks Greenhill very much as a man of his time when it was thought that disease and ill-health could be spread through exposure to “bad air” which could be anything from the night air in the open country to the atmosphere around an open cesspit. It was not until the late 19th century that the idea of the infectious nature of “bad air” was conclusively challenged and, even then, the concept hung on well into the 20th century. The difficulty of making clear the difference between infectious matter being spread in the air and the air itself being somehow to blame for the infection was probably key in this confusion.
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